Coin of Aelius Caesar c. 136 - 138

Curator: The Harvard Art Museums hold this intriguing artifact—a coin of Aelius Caesar. Editor: The worn surface suggests the passage of time, but there's an inherent beauty in its simplicity. Curator: Aelius Caesar, adopted by Emperor Hadrian, existed in a complex power dynamic, meant to uphold the empire's stability through strategic succession. Editor: The coin's composition, with the profile portrait on one side and the symbolic figure on the other, seems to enforce the status of power. Curator: Absolutely. The coin functioned as propaganda, disseminating Aelius Caesar's image and reinforcing his legitimacy within the social framework of the Roman Empire. Editor: So much information encoded in such a small object, now oxidized and transformed. Curator: It is a lens through which we see the socio-political mechanisms of Roman imperial power. Editor: Indeed, even in this fragment, we grasp at the weight of history.