Mike Markowitz
Mike Markowitz was born in New York City. He attended the University of Rochester, NY (BA, History) and the University of California, Irvine (MA, Social Ecology). He worked for many years in the aerospace industry in Southern California. He is a member of the Ancient Numismatic Society of Washington, DC and writes on ancient and medieval numismatics for CoinWeek.com
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Papers by Mike Markowitz
Despotate of Epirus, and the Empire of Thessalonica. The Empire of Trebizond, on the southern coast of the Black Sea, which broke away from the Byzantine state and would outlive it by a few years, is treated in a separate article. All of these states issued coins,which survive as evidence of a chaotic period of medieval history.
In November 284, Roman soldiers escorting the ailing emperor
Numerian’s coach across Anatolia smelled a foul odor. When they opened its curtains, they found the emperor hadbeen dead for some time. Suspicion fell on Lucius Flavius Aper, the Praetorian Prefect Diocles, commanding the imperial bodyguard, accused Aper of murdering the emperor andexecuted him on the spot. The legions immediately proclaimed Diocles as emperor, who renamed himself Diocletianus –usually written in English as “Diocletian”.
Born to a peasant family in what is now North Macedonia about the year 482 CE, Justinian earned his epithet “the Great” as a conqueror, a builder, an administrator, and, according to some contemporaries, a monster. The coinage of his long reign (527-565 CE) illustrates his extraordinary career.
What makes a face beautiful? This is a subject that has been intensively studied by social psychologists, as well as plastic surgeons. In general, Greco-Roman standards of beauty were much the same as those prevailing in our own time in the West, with the possible exception that ancients favored plumper cheeks–an indication of high status, in a world where only the elite were well fed.
Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the following is offered as a highly personal selection of beautiful women on ancient coins.
Coins give us a unique window into this chaotic era. Some were coins that barbarian invaders minted themselves. Others were coins they looted or extorted from the Romans.
Rome , and later the patroness of mint-workers, since Rome’s mint was located in her main temple. AsJuno Lucina (“Light-Bringer”), she was the protector of childbirth. Many other attributes and epithets became attached to this complex goddess, and these symbols found their way onto coins produced over the course of centuries.
Artemis, or the war goddess, Athena. Hera appears on dozens of different coin types. Her signature attributes are the polos, a decorated pillbox hat, or the stephanos, a sort of crown or tiara. She is sometimes depicted “veiled”,with a fold of her garment draped over her head. Hera’s companion animals were the cow,the cuckoo, and (especially) the peacock.
"There was something of Jekyll and Hyde in Pompey. One side, the bright side, shows him as a great man who was brilliant, patriotic and talented. The other, the dark side, shows him as a willful monster: cruel,arrogant and overbearing."
Despotate of Epirus, and the Empire of Thessalonica. The Empire of Trebizond, on the southern coast of the Black Sea, which broke away from the Byzantine state and would outlive it by a few years, is treated in a separate article. All of these states issued coins,which survive as evidence of a chaotic period of medieval history.
In November 284, Roman soldiers escorting the ailing emperor
Numerian’s coach across Anatolia smelled a foul odor. When they opened its curtains, they found the emperor hadbeen dead for some time. Suspicion fell on Lucius Flavius Aper, the Praetorian Prefect Diocles, commanding the imperial bodyguard, accused Aper of murdering the emperor andexecuted him on the spot. The legions immediately proclaimed Diocles as emperor, who renamed himself Diocletianus –usually written in English as “Diocletian”.
Born to a peasant family in what is now North Macedonia about the year 482 CE, Justinian earned his epithet “the Great” as a conqueror, a builder, an administrator, and, according to some contemporaries, a monster. The coinage of his long reign (527-565 CE) illustrates his extraordinary career.
What makes a face beautiful? This is a subject that has been intensively studied by social psychologists, as well as plastic surgeons. In general, Greco-Roman standards of beauty were much the same as those prevailing in our own time in the West, with the possible exception that ancients favored plumper cheeks–an indication of high status, in a world where only the elite were well fed.
Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the following is offered as a highly personal selection of beautiful women on ancient coins.
Coins give us a unique window into this chaotic era. Some were coins that barbarian invaders minted themselves. Others were coins they looted or extorted from the Romans.
Rome , and later the patroness of mint-workers, since Rome’s mint was located in her main temple. AsJuno Lucina (“Light-Bringer”), she was the protector of childbirth. Many other attributes and epithets became attached to this complex goddess, and these symbols found their way onto coins produced over the course of centuries.
Artemis, or the war goddess, Athena. Hera appears on dozens of different coin types. Her signature attributes are the polos, a decorated pillbox hat, or the stephanos, a sort of crown or tiara. She is sometimes depicted “veiled”,with a fold of her garment draped over her head. Hera’s companion animals were the cow,the cuckoo, and (especially) the peacock.
"There was something of Jekyll and Hyde in Pompey. One side, the bright side, shows him as a great man who was brilliant, patriotic and talented. The other, the dark side, shows him as a willful monster: cruel,arrogant and overbearing."
Onlne at:
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast-179-the-problem-with-grading-ancient-coins/
This is the script for my podcast, which is online at:
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-148-how-to-become-a-professional-classical-numismatist/
This is the script of my podcast for CoinWeek.com, which is online at:
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-141-precious-metals-in-antiquity-with-mike-markowitz/
This is the script for my podcast, which is online at:
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-140-what-made-alexander-great/
This is the script for my podcast on CoinWeek.com:
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-157-the-history-of-numismatics/
https://coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-165-mike-markowitz-on-byzantine-coins/