Kirjahaku

The Roman empress Faustina the Younger, wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and mother to at least eleven imperial children, including the future emperor Commodus, not only played a key role in Roman history of the 2nd century AD but also was the subject of almost unparalleled commemoration in visual media, especially sculpture and coinage, during her lifetime. This book examines the single largest surviving ancient source for the portraiture and public image of Faustina the Younger: the coinage struck in her name under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.The coinage of Faustina the Younger is rich in original iconography and long in duration but its chronology and the relationships between its various types are unclear at best, unknown at worst. This study seeks to remedy this situation by employing the methodology of die analysis to create a new and firm chronology for Faustina's coinage. The results make it possible to establish an authoritative typology for Faustina’s portraiture and to show the precise relationship between the diverse obverse and reverse types. The die analysis also clarifies Faustina’s complicated iconographic programme, making it possible to compare it directly with the iconography of the better-dated coinage of her male contemporaries. Taken together, these results permit a complete re-evaluation of the coinage, portraits and public image of Faustina the Younger.

The Roman empress Faustina the Younger, wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and mother to at least eleven imperial children, including the future emperor Commodus, not only played a key role in Roman history of the 2nd century AD but also was the subject of almost unparalleled commemoration in visual media, especially sculpture and coinage, during her lifetime. This book examines the single largest surviving ancient source for the portraiture and public image of Faustina the Younger: the coinage struck in her name under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. The coinage of Faustina the Younger is rich in original iconography and long in duration but its chronology and the relationships between its various types are unclear at best, unknown at worst. This study seeks to remedy this situation by employing the methodology of die analysis to create a new and firm chronology for Faustina's coinage. The results make it possible to establish an authoritative typology for Faustina's portraiture and to show the precise relationship between the diverse obverse and reverse types. The die analysis also clarifies Faustina's complicated iconographic program, making it possible to compare it directly with the iconography of the better-dated coinage of her male contemporaries. Taken together, these results permit a complete re-evaluation of the coinage, portraits and public image of Faustina the Younger.

One of the most important monuments of Imperial Rome and at the same time one of the most poorly understood, the Column of Marcus Aurelius has long stood in the shadow of the Column of Trajan. In The Column of Marcus Aurelius, Martin Beckmann makes a thorough study of the form, content, and meaning of this infrequently studied monument. Beckmann employs a new approach to the column, one that focuses on the process of its creation and construction, to uncover the cultural significance of the column to the Romans of the late second century A.D. Using clues from ancient sources and from the monument itself, this book traces the creative process step by step from the first decision to build the monument through the processes of planning and construction to the final carving of the column's relief decoration. The conclusions challenge many of the widely held assumptions about the value of the column's 700-foot-long frieze as a historical source. By reconstructing the creative process of the column's sculpture, Beckmann opens up numerous new paths of analysis not only to the Column of Marcus Aurelius but also to Roman imperial art and architecture in general.