Julia Augusta ― Images of Rome's First Empress on Coins of the Roman Empire

Livia (58 BC - AD 29), wife of the first emperor Augustus and mother of his successor Tiberius, became the first Roman woman whose image held a substantial place on coins of the Roman Empire. While the appearance of Roman women on coins was not entirely revolutionary, having roughly coincided with the introduction of images of powerful Roman statesmen to coins in the late 40s BC, the degree to which Livia came to be commemorated on coins in the provinces and in Rome was unprecedented. This book examines the socio-political impact of the coin images of Livia within the broader context of representations of her in other visual media such as sculpture and cameos, and reveals the detailed visual language that was developed for the promotion of Livia as the predominant female in the Roman imperial family. These images, whose visual elements were rooted in Hellenistic Greek and Roman Republican precursors, were customized to portray Livia not only in traditional gender roles as wife and mother, but they also communicated the dynastic, socio-political and religious ideologies of the ruling regime.

Tracene Harvey currently serves as Director and Curator of the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She also serves as a lecturer in the Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies program at the University of Saskatchewan, where she incorporates numismatics into much of her teaching, including an interdisciplinary course on the use of synchrotron-based scientific analyses in the study of ancient artifacts. She took part in the American Numismatic Society’s Summer Graduate Student Seminar in 2004. Her research covers primarily ancient Greek and Roman coins, with emphasis on the study of Roman empresses on coins of the early Roman Empire. She also has pursued the study of the coins of ancient Thessaly as part of the research team of the archaeological project at the Kastro of Kallithea in Thessaly, Greece since 2006.