Everyday dynasticism: monuments, objects, and family in the Roman empire

Abstract

This article examines how dynastic ideas manifested in Roman monuments and in the objects which formed a part of everyday life. These objects include glass phalerae depicting Germanicus and his children worn by soldiers, provincial coins showing the twin sons of Drusus Caesar, bread moulds with the image of the Severan imperial family sacrificing, and terracotta souvenirs of the Tetrarchs. It will argue that it was through these small, everyday objects, and their interactions with the Roman people, just as much as in imperial speeches and portrait busts, that ‘the dynastic’ was constructed in the Roman world. These objects enabled non-familial relationships and configurations to be portrayed as familial, and for ties of blood and kinship to be conceived as the natural order for political replication, transcending the constant phenomenon of usurpation by providing reassuring images of stability.