„Caesar dictator perpetuo”, „Brutus” i „Libertas” w propagandzie politycznej cesarza Trajana

Abstract

The restored coins of Trajan render his political propaganda. The uniqueness of the issue consists in its following the pattern of the republican coins and its references to the events and individuals from the times of the Roman Republic. Usually, the contents of the restoration issues are interpreted as an attempt to create the propagandistic image of Trajan. However, they had another propagandistic aim which was to recall the glorious moments of ancient Roman history and to pay tribute to the deeds of great Romans. There is no denying they could also convey Trajan’s views on the role of an individual in the state. The history of the Roman Republic, shown through the images of the restoration issues, appears as the period of prosperity and the rule of libertas. There are no allusions to interior fightings but to the effects of reforms. Also, great military victories over the aliens are recalled. C. Iulius Caesar is referred to most often of all the individuals on the restoration coins. He is shown as the first of the divi group, the sequence of which leads into the epoch of the Empire, ending with divus Nerva, the predecessor of Trajan. In that respect, Trajan’s rule, characterized by libertas, appears to result from the evolutional development of the Roman state. The restoration history of Rome after 509 B.C.,“read” from the coins, is not the history “from Brutus to Brutus” but “from Brutus to Trajan”.