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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 26161876, member: 128351&quot;]&quot;<i>Panem et circenses</i>&quot;, this is the well-known formula summarizing what the Roman people expected from Caesar, the emperor. And indeed propaganda through imperial coinage emphasized the bread, much less the &quot;<i>circenses</i>&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>On Roman imperial coins, reverse types such as <i>Abundantia</i>, <i>Annona</i>, <i>Ceres</i>, baskets filled with corn-ears, merchant ships, etc. are relatively common in the 1st and 2nd c. It was already the case on denarii of the late Republic with allusions to <i>leges frumentariae</i> symbolized by corn-ears. </p><p><br /></p><p>But what about the <i>munera</i>, the gladiators? Texts tell us that these shows were extremely popular in imperial Rome; millions of sestertii were spent by the emperor&#039;s treasury for producing them. But coin-reverses alluding to these <i>munera</i> are exceptional. Not a single one, as far as I know, ever represented a gladiator, either on imperial or provincial coinage. The colosseum itself is shown on extremely rare sestertii of Titus (for its inauguration, probably) and aurei of Septimius Severus. That&#039;s all. There are sometimes coins showing wild animals :&nbsp; it could be an allusion to <i>venationes</i> (a rhino under Diocletian, for example, an elephant under Antoninus Pius with the legend <i>Munificentia Aug</i>., an hippo under Philip the Arab, for ex.) but these animals are never depicted fighting a <i>venator</i>... They are more probably allusions to the imperial menagerie in which they could be seen, or to parades in the streets of Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>munera</i>, gladiatorial fights in the Colosseum, were one of the most important acts of imperial generosity towards the people, but mentioning them on coinage seems to have been unconvenient.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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