Question on decent rulers on Ancient Coinage

Having a sense of humor is not the same thing as being a luntic. Both cause laughter but what we used to call 'funny, ha ha' is not the same as 'funny, sheesh'.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

We cannot forget 'the delight and darling of the human race'.


Titus
AR Denarius, 3.10g
Rome Mint, 24 June-1 July 79 AD
RIC 1 (R). BMC 1. RSC 334a.
Obv: IMP T CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG; Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: TR POT VIII COS VII; Trophy; below, captive kneeling r.
Acquired from Hail Cesare, August 2004.

 

Try the Byzantine empire get a Pope or two in there.

 

How are these remarks not imposing standards of morality from a modern cultural point of view onto ancient cultures? Your premise needs work, I think.

 

I suppose they are impositions of modern notions of decent behavior on past people so I'll modify my premises to what ancient and medieval rulers were considered decent by the standards of their contemporaries. Sometimes good enough, is, well good enough. I guess it does sound unreasonable to expect that they should have behaved as we might have liked them to. Perhaps if I leave a blank spot where Caligula would have gone I can collect eleven Caesars.

 

By those standards, I might accept Augustus, Claudius, Galba, Vespasian and Titus. Welcome to the Five Caesars. Can't tolerate Galba? Four?

Whatever period of history you study, there might be problems finding admirable men among politicians and power mongers.

 

Like some of the previous posts, history is subjective. Jefferson owned slaves but was in favor of abolition. Sounds like he was a hypocrite. But the rest of the story..... Virginia had a law that a plantation owner who was in mortgage debt was not allowed to sell or free slaves. So even though Jefferson was an abolitionist , because he was not the greatest businessman and was in debt alot, he was not allowed to free his slaves.

This is not to say Julius Caesar, who manged to kill more Romans than any barbarian army could ever manage, was mis understood. But the world was certainly a different place back then.

 

There is a Greek coin with Homer depicted on the reverse. Maybe that helps? Also plenty of Greek coins depict God's and goddesses or mythological scenes that might let you get away coins with emperors...but that might not fit your theme. Maybe best to take a leader on a case by case basis? Find one that moderately interests you either from the historical perspective or you think their counselor look nice and do your own research. Read a nice secondary source, consult the primary ones, and make your own conclusion. You may learn a lot or form new opinions about what is acceptable in your collection.

 

You might consider an anonymous Byzantine follis.


My coins, above, are not quite as good as the Basil II below from acsearch.info.

The person pictured was a pretty good guy, depending on who you ask. The person who issued the coins is another story.

 

perhaps the janapadas were ruled by an assembly who advised the king, hence republic?

also, buddha was never a king. nor was he depicted on coins until around the first century ad by the kushans

 

well, going by the standards of the time, I guess it depends who you ask..
I doubt the Gauls who had their families murdered and spent the rest of their lives as slaves were big fans of Julius Caesar.
Maybe Hilter was a good guy too, i mean you cant judge him by today standards.

 

I have intentionally avoided getting too deep into this thread as I think it has everything needed to become an open can of worms at any moment. Having said that, my method of collecting has more to do with who/where I find interesting than who I think might have been "good." Like everyone I do possess a worldview and cannot help imposing that worldview on my thoughts about the people represented on the coins I collect, but that is not a deciding factor in making a purchase decision.

At any rate I believe the reason for studying history is to glean lessons from the past in the hope that they might enlighten future decisions we make. I think there is something to be learned from everyone, the monsters and the good guys. And of course you could argue that we all combine varying degrees of good and bad.