The Portrait of Antoninus Pius

            Like most Roman coins, this coin depicts the profile head of the emperor on the obverse side.   Roman portraiture had a long and distinguished history; "veristic" or super-realistic portraits were popular in the Republic as a sign of status and wealth.   Powerful senators and orators would commission sculptures of themselves complete with every wrinkle and defect as prominent as possible, for these details gave them a distinguished air. (1)

The Portrait Head of a Roman Patrician c. 75-50 B.C.E.

            This style effectively ended with the Emperor Augustus, who insisted on portraying himself as perpetually youthful and ideal. As a means of propaganda, this idealized view of the Head of State was an effective one, especially in the far-flung reaches of the empire whose residents had never laid eyes on the emperor.   Imperial portraiture would tend towards the idealized after Augustus; yet some emperors did lean back towards the realistic.

Augustus c. 20 C.E.

A more realistic portrait of Emperor Vespasian c.70-79 A.D.

On our coin, Emperor Antoninus Pius does not appear very realistic; his hair and facial features are very stylized and almost cartoon-like.   Other coins depicting Pius are slightly more realistic: his beard and hair curl, his brow furrows, the shadows hit his nose and cheekbones.

Roll over these coins to compare them with ours!

Why is the face on our coin so much flatter? Thinking back to Augustus, we realize that much of the empire never got to experience the emperor's presence in person.   Antoninus Pius was especially fond of remaining in Italy and glorifying Rome.   Therefore, it makes sense that the makers of a coin in Neapolis, in remote Syria, would have no incentive to truly strive for realism in their depiction of the emperor.   Most probably they were copying the image from a second-hand source, such as another coin.

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