Published: 2007-12-30

Ferarum diversarum manu sua occidit. The meaning of the motive of hunting in the images of imperial coins (2nd and 3rd century A.D.)

Agata A. Kluczek

Abstract

The image of an emperor hunting for animals was present in the imperial coin system in the „age of the Antonines”. These are the editions created on behalf of Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, as well as in the crisis (3rd century) for which the only example constitute Gallien’s coins. This motive belongs to the imperial ideology, according to which the ruler, from the beginning of the Roman Empire, must be a fighting and winning warrior able to lead the country. In Hadrian’s, Commodus’s and Gallien’s coin system, this iconographic scheme was much more connected with bravery and fortitude due to its connections to the subject of a monetarist legend of virtus Augusti. Virtus Augusti, which reveals itself through the power and invincibility, can be manifested in war, but can also be shown via battles which have a symbolic value or are a promise of the actual victory; for goddess of victory was present during hunting. In this way, passion for hunting places itself in the canon of duties and virtues of a ruler, just as the actions of an emperor at war are ascribed to it. In consequence, even though the starting point for the creation of medallions and coins depicting an emperor hunting in the case of all four rulers previously mentioned, constituted the actual events connected to the ruler’s preferences for hunting, have not only a timely but also episodic nature. The ruler’s actions during hunting, transpositioned into schematical „monetarist images” popularised in the whole Roman Empire, also have an ideological dimension, co-creating in an imperial propaganda the image of an emperor. An animal, in such a sense, becomes the symbol of power, often great and dangerous, to which a hunter-emperor opposes. In a battle with them, the ruler demonstrates his/her bravery and power, as well as manifests his/her rights to rule.

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Kluczek, A. A. (2007). Ferarum diversarum manu sua occidit. The meaning of the motive of hunting in the images of imperial coins (2nd and 3rd century A.D.). Wieki Stare I Nowe, 5, 58–81. https://doi.org/10.31261/WSN.2007.07.04

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Vol. 5 (2007)
Published: 2025-08-13


ISSN: 1899-1556
eISSN: 2353-9739

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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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