Zeichen des Glaubens? Christliche Lesarten kaiserlicher Münzbilder in der Spätantike

Questioning Arnold H. M. Jones’ assertion that coin images and their political messages were scarcely recognised in antiquity, researchers have collected numerous evidence for the perception of coin images in ancient literature. Therefore, coins can indeed be regarded as a political medium of communication. Especially within literary discourses, however, ancient authors also used coin images as evidence of their own considerations and arguments which their readers could thus verify. This article examines how Christian authors of late antiquity appropriated coins and their images, and takes a look at the corresponding texts. In doing so, I would like to show how coin images acquired a special symbolic dimension through their Christian interpretation and thus gained argumentative relevance for Christian political discourses

Argumentative · Assertion · Politics · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome