ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine the beginnings of the commemoration of Roman women on coins by looking at the numismatic portraits of Hellenistic queens and the representations of Roman goddesses and women on coins of the Roman Republic as prototypes. These prototypes will be discussed in terms of their iconographical characteristics such as facial features and hairstyles, along with ideological qualities of youthfulness, divinity and power within the context of the growing importance of self-promotion and self-representation not only by Hellenistic monarchs, but also by the power players of late Roman Republican society. The numismatic representations of late Republican women such as Fulvia and Octavia are considered here as particularly important to the establishment of the visual repertoire for Livia’s later depictions on coins.
