COINING AN INVESTIGATION

Based on a series of podcasts featuring Professor Kevin Butcher, Department of Classics and Ancient History

There’s more to a coin than its stated value. What started life as a simple unit of money can offer historians and archaeologists tantalising clues to solve ancient mysteries. Professor Kevin Butcher of the University of Warwick’s Department of Classics and Ancient History specialises in Roman numismatics. In two short films he reveals how he unravelled evidence to come to a conclusion on two controversial topics.

Cleopatra - the last pharaoh of Egypt

“For her actual beauty was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her or that no-one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence if you lived with her was irresistible and the attraction of her person, joining, with the charm of her conversation and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching.”

Popular culture tells us that Queen Cleopatra was a stunning beauty, epitomised by the actress Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film. But was she? No contemporary images of her survive bar her portrait on coins. Prof Butcher focuses on a four drachma piece minted in Syria between 36 and 34 BC. It’s a double headed coin with Cleopatra on one side and Mark Antony on the other.

What often surprises people who see these coins for the first time is that Cleopatra does not appear to be a conventional beauty.

“Heads on opposite sides of the coin announces their political alliance but doesn’t necessarily suggest anything more than that. If they wanted to signal a marital relationship they’d have been much more likely to put themselves together on the same side of the coin, which is in fact what we see with Mark Antony and his wife Octavia” explains Prof Butcher. “The inscription accompanying Mark Antony’s portrait makes no mention of his relationship with Cleopatra … of course the nuances of the coin don’t preclude a closer personal relationship which is in fact how events of the time were developing.”

What of the portrait of Cleopatra on the coin? “What often surprises people who see these coins for the first time is that Cleopatra does not appear to be a conventional beauty.” Prof Butcher describes her likeness as this: “she has a large nose, a prominent chin and thin lips, these features are common to all coin portraits of Cleopatra. So too is the royal diadem over her hair and the finely draped bust with the extraordinary and prominent necklace.”

Some suggest that the coin portraits demonstrate that the myth of Cleopatra’s beauty is just that – a myth. Others say that the coin portraits are too stylised or small to be accurate renditions of her original appearance. Prof Butcher disagrees. “The features that are distinctive about her, large nose, strong chin, thin lips, are consistently depicted on the coins and they must be important features of her individuality. As a combination they are not unattractive.”

What her image on the coins do convey is power. Hellenistic royal power rested with an individual. Cleopatra, history tells us, was in her mid-thirties at this time and she used her intelligence and social skills to broker power. Beauty wasn’t a necessary attribute for this. “Perhaps our reactions to her original portraits say more about the ways our expectations were shaped by modern values than about Cleopatra’s beauty – or lack of it” concludes Prof Butcher.

The tribute penny of the Bible

“Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.” (Matthew 22:17-22)

What was the tribute penny of the bible? ‘Penny’ is an anglicised form of the Roman term denarius, which is a small, silver coin. The Caesar ruling at the time of Jesus’ ministry was the Emperor Tiberius, so the tribute penny ought to be a denarius of Tiberius says Prof Butcher. “Since Tiberius only produced one kind of denarius throughout his reign there can be little doubt which denarius we are talking about.”

On one side of the coin is the Emperor’s head and superscription and on the other there is a seated female figure whose exact identity eludes scholars. Is this the very coin that Jesus used? Not according to Prof Butcher.

“It’s very, very unlikely. The problem with the tribute penny story as we have it is that there is no evidence for the circulation of these denarii of Tiberius in Judea at the time. Instead the kind of silver coin that was used for tribute looks quite different.” Prof Butcher goes on to consider the potential suspects. A silver shekel from the time can’t be a tribute penny because it’s not a denarius and it bears no reference to any reigning emperor. A drachma of Caesar was minted the same size as a denarius and has Tiberius’ portrait on it. Unfortunately there’s no evidence that these coins circulated in Judea either, nor is there with silver shekels made at Antioch in Syria.

“So it would seem that there were no silver coins with Tiberius’ portrait on them circulating in Judea at the time of Jesus.” Does this mean that the story of the tribute penny is simply a fabrication? To answer that question it’s necessary to take the story in its context.

“We have to bear in mind that the gospels were written some time after the events which they describe and they may have been addressed to audiences outside of Judea, people who were living in the kinds of places where dinarii were circulating.” According to Prof Butcher there’s an outside chance that the tribute penny of Tiberius’ predecessor, Augustus, did circulate in Judea. “They had the image and superscription of a Caesar, albeit the wrong one, but perhaps that’s all that’s necessary to believe in the authenticity of the tribute penny story.”

As Prof Butcher says, “in other words you render tax unto the institution that is Caesar, rather than the individual who happens to be Caesar at the time”.

Professor Kevin Butcher joined the University of Warwick in 2007. Before coming to the University he worked at the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge and was Associate Professor in the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut.

His first book Roman Provincial Coins was published in 1988. Prof Butcher teaches undergraduate modules in the Department of Classics and Ancient History and the taught MA in Ancient Visual and Material Culture (Numismatics).

By Penelope Jenkins