Denarius Serratus (Coin) Depicting the Goddess Roma (118 BCE): Artwork and History

Denarius Serratus (Coin) Depicting the Goddess Roma (118 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman, minted in Narbo.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin depicts the head of the goddess Roma, facing right. On the back (reverse), a Gallic warrior is shown riding in a type of chariot called a biga. Portraits of important people appear on local currency all around the world. The same was true in ancient Rome, which began producing its first coinage in the late 4th century BCE. Early coins depicted the heads of gods and goddesses on the front side, often in profile, while the back depicted animals, natural resources, symbols, and references to historical events. The denarius, introduced in 211 BCE, was the principal silver coin of Rome for five hundred years. The profile head of the goddess Roma—the personification of Rome—was the most popular image depicted on silver denarii in the second and first centuries BCE.

Object facts

• Title: Denarius Serratus (Coin) Depicting the Goddess Roma
• Date: 118 BCE
• Artist attribution: Roman, minted in Narbo
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Silver
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2.1 cm (7/8 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1923.1258

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. William Nelson Pelouze

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.