Long Table 88. Republic Crises to Imperial Ideals? A View from the Roman Coinage of the 40s–30s BCE

In the numismatic field at the end of Republic, there is an emphasis of abstract personifications of values in relation to the Roman state (res publica), in which we can observe the increased association of ideals to individuals and debates concerning the ownership of particular ethical qualities, which would become a core imperial virtue. Dr. Hannah Cornwell, Roman historian and lecturer at the University of Birmingham, will outline the role of traditional ideals in debates on the nature of the Roman state during the final disintegration of the Republican political system, as communicated via the coinage. The communication and contests over ownership of such ideals laid the foundations for a framework of Imperial ideals.