Antony and Cleopatra: A Match Made on Coinage

 Money Talks
Antony and Cleopatra: A Match Made on Coinage

With Dr. Lucia Carbone

Saturday, April 4
1:00 pm

This Money Talks will be held live via video conference. As with any Money Talks, you will be able to ask Dr. Carbone questions and hear responses in real time. The session is open to ANS members only. RSVP to Emma Pratte at membership@numismatics.org to get the link. 

Mark Antony is one of the most fascinating and contradictory figures in the history of Late Republic Rome. Oblivious of his legitimate Roman wife Octavia and of his duty towards Rome, he allegedly submitted to the degraded East, represented by the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII Eupator. However, his passion for Cleopatra could be seen as a way to establish a privileged relationship between the Roman Empire and Egypt, the cradle of an ancient culture but also a key provider of wheat. On the other hand, Cleopatra, a woman who could speak seven languages and had lived for years in Rome, likely saw in Mark Antony a fascinating and capable partner in the creation of a Roman-Egyptian dynasty in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Coinage represented a central element in Antony and Cleopatra’s dynastic propaganda. Their monetary policy in the East represented a real ‘revolution’, a turning point for the coinage produced and circulating in the Eastern provinces of the Empire. In the iconography, the medium and the weight of their coins, Antony and Cleopatra introduced radical changes that became the norm in the Imperial Age.

Money Talks: Numismatic Conversations is supported by an ANS endowment fund generously given in honor of Mr. Vladimir Clain-Stefanelli and Mrs. Elvira Clain-Stefanelli.