This site showcases a selection of the Julio-Claudian coins housed at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. The seven exhibits were created by 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students in the Department of Classics at the University of Otago as part of the assessment for CLAS344 From Augustus to Nero: Scandal and Intrigue in Imperial Rome offered in 2018. Students were asked to choose 5 of the 90 coins housed in the collection and create an informative exhibit related to a particular theme, image type, or narrative for their chosen collection of coins. The coins presented here do not represent the complete collection of either Julio-Claudian coins (90) or of the Roman coins as a whole (over 1100) housed at the Otago Museum; rather they reflect the interests of particular groups of students and the choices they made in how they wanted to present and discuss the ways in which the Julio-Claudian emperors chose to showcase and legitimise their power on their coins.

Since each of the seven individual exhibits have been compiled into this one unified site, much of their individual presentation and creative content has been lost. The individual sites are still live and can be accessed by the following:

The Utility of Family; Dynasty for the Julio-Claudian Emperors

The Promotion of Ancestry on Julio-Claudian Coins

Roman Gods in Circulation

Use of Deities on Julio-Claudian Coins

Imperial Redemption: Recovering from a Failed Emperor

Imperial Propaganda in Roman Coins

Coins of Augustus

Acknowledgments

Special thanks must first go to the Otago Museum for their permission to publish the digital images of the coins housed in their collection. Thanks to Anne Harlow (Collection Manager, Humanities), Moira White (Curator, Humanities), and Robert Morris (Director of Collections, Research and Education) for all their help in accessing the collection, for providing space to digitise the collection, and their helpful expertise and guidance.

Funding for the digitisation of the coins was provided through a University of Otago Research Grant. Special thanks goes to Dr. Charlotte Dunn who was responsible for digitising the coins. This project is part of a larger pedagogy research and curriculum development project funded by a University Teaching Development Grant managed by the Committee for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching. Thanks are due to both Dr. Charlotte Dunn and Dr. Bill Richardson for their assistance in supporting this research and the curriculum development component of this project.

Last but not least, thanks to Phoebe Powell-Moore for designing and creating the banner image and to Dr. Bill Richardson for compiling all the exhibits into this one site.

 

For any questions regarding the project or this site please contact: Dr. Gwynaeth McIntyre (gwynaeth.mcintyre@otago.ac.nz)

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