Text | Zhongshi Warner
Edit | Zhongshi Warner
Monetary studies focused first on economic issues, and then on the social side paying less attention to the connotations and symbolism present in iconography and less to its metaphorical meaning.
An attempt to study how representations of sexual relations that existed in Roman coins during the imperial period can be understood both as references to sexuality and as allusions, albeit indirect and subtle, to the relationship between rulers and the ruled.
This is the transfer of the explicit - sexual intercourse - to the implicit - the relationship between the people, the ruler and the ruled - requires a linguistic approach and semiotics.
The central thesis is that the exchange of money, which is the object of commercial exchange, refers to both private and public power relations.
♦♦ "Simple elements of currency exchange" ♦♦
Classical Antiquity offers a large number of artifacts from which we can obtain information about the social, political, religious condition of people, one of the artifacts is currency.
More than a simple element of monetary exchange, money has become one of the main means of communication and dissemination among the rulers of Antiguidad, perpetuating the entire worldview associated with them and the period.
These coins have been circulating on Earth for more than 2,500 years, revealing the backstage of politics, territorial conquests, and the desired image of the rulers who minted them. They are the marketing of an era that indelibly documents the rise and fall of empires, international agreements, and power relations between emperors and conquered territories.
Among the many images minted, our focus will be on erotic coins created by our society, the Roman principality from the first century BC to the second century AD.
These circulated in the west and east of the empire's territory, and some had mating scenes on both their front and back. They are associated with the heyday of the Roman Empire and show us a clear vision of the relationship between the empire and its allies and/or ruled.
The exchange established between borders by money meant acceptance/obedience to the territory of the empire, in addition to promoting Roman power and power in a relatively useful way.
Throughout history, a close relationship between the victory of warriors and the images of creation can be observed: from busts of warriors, satyrs, animals (bulls, lions, eagles), rulers and gods. For the most part, the images sought to strengthen the belligerent power, warriors, and domineering of the rulers.
The symbols that inhabit numismatics are always endowed with a clear hieroglyphic organization, since they come from the fact that these diffused images are always expressed in figurative language, in which power is expressed in a secular way.
According to de la Flor, eagles, lions, as well as representatives of towers, crosses, phoenixes, emperors or figures belonging to the political and economic elite, appeared, representing the orbit of the action of power, reaching the point where numismatics can be defined as "an official monument in the service of the state".
We also remind you that, as Cassirer said, it is better to define man as a symbol of an animal than to define him as a rational animal.
Money is a document that informs the most diverse aspects of society, politics and state, as well as laws, religions, myths, aesthetics.
Undoubtedly, it is precisely in the field of political thought and propaganda that numismatics serves history most productively ... [We must] reflect on the importance of money in the ancient world, a world that did not rival our own means of information, where illiteracy extended to many segments of the population.
A coin is a touchable object, an object that opens all doors and offers happiness. In it, one can contemplate the portrait of the monarch.
♦♦ "Virtue and prosperity of the times" ♦♦
And on the back shows his virtues and the prosperity of his time: Felisiteas Purpolum, Restituo Orbis, Victoria and Pax Augusta... They are slogans, propaganda.
In this sense, the coin established a close relationship between happiness (derived from purchasing power) and the emperor, inducing the Roman people to establish a symbolic correlation, more or less unconsciously guiding patterns of behavior and preparation in relation to the empire and its rulers.
Reading the images depicted on the coin inspires both the pride of belonging/sharing in the greatness of the empire and the respect/fear against this apparatus of government power.
In our approach, we have selected some of the most representative coins and will seek to explore the connection between the selection of images of Roman emperors and princes and the historical facts of the period.
What catches our attention in the coins of the highest period of the Roman Empire is the casual replacement of the use of busts of the emperor with erotic representations.
Although a quick analysis provides us with indications that this relationship between government/pornography/sex previously existed in a weakened form, the presence of goddesses and gods related to fertility, such as Venus, Bacchus or animals dedicated to them, this use intensified in the empire.
An example is Denalius, a Roman silver coin that was in great circulation at the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, minted by the Roman Julius Caesar - 44 BC.
Here, one sees on the front a veiled bust of the emperor, representing Ponty Fix Maximus, under the legend of the perpetual dictator.
On the reverse, Venus holds the terrible victory in his hand, Venus, the mythical ancestor and goddess of sex of the Julia family, and the wings of victory in his right hand, already contains the link between sex, victory/power and Caesar's reign, although he was assassinated by Brutus in the same year.
Denarius of Julius Caesar. Coins minted in the first mint in Rome in 44 BC, Venus played an important role in the Roman world, being revered by various nicknames, both as protector of power and protector of power.
The goddess possessed values related to sexuality: fertility, transformed into wealth in a refined cultural context, and this alternative had been established among the Greeks.
But this does not erase the sexual semas implicit in her worship, in fact, observing the convergence of these values: fertility/wealth/power, making them interchangeable in people's imaginations, reshaping the image of goddess and gender.
♦♦ "Source of wealth" ♦♦
Often mentioned in Latin literature, Cesar used the image of Venus on his coins, exploiting this amalgam, leading the subjects of Rome to interpret him as a powerful ruler (fertile and macho), powerful, victorious, capable of bringing wealth to the empire, in addition to associating it with pleasure and temptation.
The appeal of the image of Venus is not limited to the elite, as evidenced by the Pompeii graffiti: once it collected Amante's body, Venus gathered Amante.
Before Caesar, Alexander III of Macedon also minted coins, on the obverse one appeared Amun's horned headdress - the horn of a ram, while on the reverse one saw the sun or gods of Virgina, like Athena fully armed, sitting on a throne with wings of victory in her right hand, like Venus of Caesar.
Alexander's use of Amun's horn has the same meaning, if not greater, meaning as the presence of Venus on Caesar coins. Since the Paleolithic period, the horns or horns of large oxen have been interchangeable with weapons such as spears and arrows.
Paleolithic humans established equivalents between horns, arrows/weapons, and in the process of fusion of two opposite terms, resulting in a fracture, a complete metamorphosis.
Transfer the values of one object to another: nature and culture, representing the totality of a mythical order – aggression/power/supernatural forces capable of fertilizing the earth, producing life, but also death.
Further research on the subject, the use of horns meant sharing the fertilization and masculinity of animals with the warrior/King Alexander, who was also endowed with physical, warlike and fertile power, understood as a source of wealth.
Like Caesar's coins, the power of sex, fertilization existed under the cultural carapace known to those of that period. Victory with wings, in the hands of the goddess Athena, indicates the conquest of armies, the conquest of territories, victory over all opponents and associates Alexander III with wisdom and cunning, a gift associated with the god Athena.
Powerful animals, such as lions, eagles or bulls, with [this eagle was used by Ptolemy III in a semi-fibroid (34 mm, 35.24 g, 12 hours), a copper coin defeated in Alexandria, c. 245-22 BC The bird was the symbol of Zeus, and the eagle, like the lion and bull, was a symbol of strength, strength, courage and masculinity.
Lions and bulls often played the role of mates of the mother goddess and later fertility goddesses (e.g. Aphrodite, Venus, Isis). Des is in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, it is depicted next to a bull and even gave birth to a small bull.
During the Crito-Mycenaean period, the Great Mother was associated with the tree, and she associated her with bison as a representative of Madame Animal. Wild Uro, in Crete, was hunted in nets before being domesticated, raising a cow with bait.
In Greece, lions and portnia. Both have signs of ferocity, masculinity, strength and courage, which must be subdued when hunting. By hunters.
Bulls and lions are often associated with gods such as Zeus, Poseidon, Dionysus/Bacchus, who are both seductive and very sexually active.
♦♦ "Representation of Roman coins" ♦♦
Strength, masculinity, aggression-related beings, can be seen as related to sexuality and fertility, fertility, or a variant of God. Generally, these animals are incarnations of God (A) and are dedicated to them precisely because of their generative powers.
On coins under Augustus, the bull is in an offensive position on the opposite front of the bust of the emperor, establishing the equivalence between the emperor's ability to fertilize and attack with the animal.
The inscription DivinoAugusto around the bust reinforces Augustus' semadepujança, equating him with a god and therefore powerful both sexually and militarily, wielding power over the lives of others.
In the following centuries, many currency legends continued, like the bull totem, attributed to the Borgia family, primarily Pope Alexander VI, but also appeared on the coins of Julian the apostate.
Explicitando this set of meanings, some Roman coins, such as Sprintiae, carry on one of their faces: isolated, endowed with wings (or not) or in mating, they achieve imperador's fertilization, protection and aggressive power.
We know from several studies that representations were common to both the Greeks and Romans, who saw in them symbols of protection and redemption of fertility, wealth, and luck.
As such, he was a familiar symbol of Roman everyday life, placed on walls, on public roads and in places that required special protection from the gods. More than a depiction of male sexual organs, it is actually a religious object associated with the worship of various gods.
For example, Bacchus, Priapo, Pan and even Hermes, so it should always be represented by an erection, indicating its fertility and fertility, in addition to its ability to kill, protect.
These values come from its relevance to horns and weapons, warrior powers, and at the same time being a protector of community life and a death creator for enemies.
In addition to animals, erotic scenes appeared on coins long before the Roman Empire. Thus, in the earliest discovered Thracian moe, rape scenes are depicted.
Perhaps in today's eyes, this is not so obvious, but the kidnapping of young fairies by satyrs had a very definite meaning for ancient people, because in terms of mythological narratives, satyrs were seen as sexual beasts, insatiable and always chasing fairies and mortals to satisfy their desires.