Value and Authority: the Figure of Homer on Coins As the Basis of the Worldview Tradition of the Roman Provinces

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to analyze the images on coins and to study the transformations of the image of Homer and the values of the Greek world in the Antonine and Severan eras.

The scientific novelty of the research paper lies in the analysis of the chronology and context of the placement of the figure of Homer on the coins of the Roman period. The analysis of symbols and symbolic phenomena on coins shows that one of the ‘pillars’ of identity for the population of the Roman province of Asia was Homer, who became a truly timeless symbol of unity, tradition, and heritage.

Conclusions. For a modern person, neither the origin, nor the appearance, nor the contribution of Homer is debatable. However, this statement was cemented in the worldview during the Hellenistic period and the Roman imperial era. The visualization of Homer and his works occurs primarily through the placement of his sculptural image on the coins of Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, and other cities of Asia Minor. The events of the Trojan War and episodes from the biography of the author of the ‘Iliad’ and the ‘Odyssey’ became a point of identity construction and geographical attractiveness, as they allowed cities to show involvement in a common great past.

Of all the known images of Homer, sculptures and coins are the most numerous. An analysis of the sources indicates that magistrates most often depicted not a bust of Homer, but his statue. The cities of the province of Asia, especially Smyrna, competed for the right to be called the birthplace of Homer, and this is reflected in a purposeful policy of promoting this claim. Outside the province, coins of the 2^nd century AD show a bust of Homer in the iconography of Zeus. It appears that such nostalgia and ‘appropriation’ of Homer’s image constituted a ‘claim’ to the pan-Hellenic heritage, serving the gradual reconfiguration of ‘Greekness’ and the ‘cultural rehabilitation’ of Bithynia and Paphlagonia within the Roman world.

Based on the absence of the poet’s name in the legend, it can be argued that Homer was recognizable and well known. We assume that coin types helped to fill the vacuum of ignorance about Homer in Roman times and to consolidate his figure in the system of essential signs of cultural identity. For the population of the cities of the Roman province of Asia, Homer became a means of self-presentation and propaganda at the same time. There was a certain sense in such purposefulness – people who most often used small change were the majority and the message conveyed by the means of payment emphasized local and national symbols.