Art Institute of Chicago
Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying Emperor Hadrian
Roman, minted in Alexandria, EgyptLinkedCulture matchlcp-3eb78971a2c6
- Date
- 131
- Medium
- Billon
- Culture
- Alexandria
- Department
- Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 139869
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
The Good Emperors dedicated themselves to the well-being of the people, but as the back of their coins indicate, each ruler had his own understanding of what made good government. Although in his Satires Juvenal chided those in power for duping the populace with “bread and circuses,” feeding the people concerned all the emperors. Since Italy could no longer feed itself, rulers depended on the grain-growing provinces of Egypt and Africa to supply its food. On this coin, a figure representing the city of Alexandria presents Egypt’s crops to Emperor Hadrian.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Robert L. Grover
- Provenance
- Robert L. Grover (1910-1998), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1980.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300037334
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