The image of political power in the reign of Nerva, AD 96-98

225 Pages·2017·15.46 MB·English

by  Elkins

The Image of Political Power in the Reign of Nerva, ad 96– 98

T he Image of Political
Power in the Reign of Nerva,
ad 96– 98
Nathan T. Elkins
1
1
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© Nathan T. Elkins 2017
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Divo Nervae

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Abbreviations xv
Introduction: The Power of Images in the Reign of Nerva 1
CHAPTER 1 Nerva as Supreme Military Commander 24
CHAPTER 2 Nerva, the Senate and People of Rome, and Italy 52
CHAPTER 3 Nerva and the Roman Empire 102
Conclusion: The Visualization of Political Rhetoric 137
Appendix 1. The Typological Makeup of Nerva’s Imperial
Coin Emissions 155
Appendix 2. Nerva’s Coin Types and Their Dates
of Production 161
Appendix 3. The Relative Frequencies of Denarius
Types by Emission 165
Appendix 4. Identifiable Base- Metal Coins and Their
Regional Distribution: Hoards and Excavations 175
Bibliography 181
Index 201

PREFACE
Nerva rose to power at the end of the Flavian dynasty as the thirteenth
Caesar. He ruled for less than a year and a half; his administration
experienced tensions with the armed forces, since the common soldiery
had great affection for their assassinated emperor, Domitian. As there
is little art that survives from his reign, study of Nerva’s principate has
been the province of historians who examine sources written after he died
that attest to the troubles his administration encountered and the circum-
stances through which Trajan was ultimately named his heir. The impe-
rial coinage is, however, the most complete record of art from Nerva’s
reign. Unfortunately, it has been mishandled and treated as a historical
text rather than a state-s anctioned product that necessarily presented the
living emperor in a positive light and, in so doing, reflected contemporary
political rhetoric (as illuminated by the “praise and blame” literature of the
day) that exalted Nerva in the aftermath of Domitian’s fall. In textbooks
on Roman art, Nerva affords only cursory treatment, as his reign left little
that is monumental. Even in surveys of Roman coinage, Nerva is easily
overlooked. For example, in The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman
Coinage (Oxford University Press, 2012), Nerva’s imperial coinage is
omitted entirely, although there are contributions dedicated exclusively to
the Flavians and to Trajan and Hadrian. It is time that Nerva is given his
due and that his image of political power as it was projected during his
lifetime is brought to light.
The idea for this book had its genesis in Frankfurt am Main, Germany,
between 2007 and 2009. The Goethe Universität is a center for devel-
oping methods in the study of coin finds and I learned much from my