reigns, at least until late antiquity (see below). It is unclear whether this should be
understood as a specifically religious reaction. There is no precedent for it with regard
to images of gods on coins. It seems to belong to a new, and short-lived, category
of offense particular to the emperor and his image.
The habit of mounting coins in rings or other items of jewelry, usually showing
the obverse imperial portrait, shows how, when taken out of the routine world of
daily exchange and highlighted in a special context, coins could act as objects of
personal veneration, and as portable icons of the imperial person (Bruhn 1993; Johns
1996: 58) (fig. 11.31). This is distinct from their frequent role as offerings at tem-
ples or sacred springs, a subject that cannot be considered in detail here, but which
ought to be borne in mind when thinking about the associations between Roman
coinage and religion (Sauer 2005: 110 –16).
The connection between the sacred person of the emperor and his coin had become
significantly closer by the late third centuryad. Under Diocletian, coin legends referred
to the sacra moneta Augustorum et Caesarum nostrorum, the “sacred mint [or money]
of our emperors and Caesars” (fig. 11.32). Imperial rescripts ofad 381 and 385
exclude the counterfeiter from receiving pardon at Easter, along with murderers,
adulterers, prisoners, magicians, and others guilty of the most horrendous crimes,
describing him as one who has “copied the sacred visage and assailed the divine coun-
tenance and, schooled in sacrilege, has minted the venerable images”: CTh9.38.6;
cf. 9.38.8). Hard though it is to make sense of any of this within a Christian
context except as theologically inexact and hyperbolic language, behind the florid
eloquence is a real sense of the new sacredness of the imperial image on coins, and
of its utter inviolability.
158 Jonathan Williams
Figure 11.31 Gold solidusof Constantine I, ad317, mounted for wearing as a personal
ornament or amulet. 20 mm.
Figure 11.32 Base-silver coin of Diocletian, c. ad301, depicting Sacra Moneta. 27 mm.