Coin of Antipolis under Lepidus 

Curator: The dim light catches the eroded surface of this small bronze coin. It’s a Coin of Antipolis under Lepidus, now held in the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels ancient and weighty, a tangible link to a distant past. I see two sides, each bearing a distinct, though faded, symbol. Curator: Indeed. Lepidus, as a Roman governor, would have authorized its production, embedding his authority in its very form. What do you see in these symbols? Editor: On one side, the head of a Roman god, perhaps Jupiter, connoting power and divine mandate, and on the reverse, a thunderbolt suggesting strength and justice. These choices echo traditional Roman values. Curator: Precisely! It's not just about aesthetics; this coin served as propaganda, reinforcing Roman dominance through potent visual language. Editor: It's remarkable how such a small object can carry so much cultural weight, whispering stories of empires and ideologies across millennia. Curator: Absolutely. And observing it now, we recognize the strategies of power and image control that persist even today.