Starting with C. Julius Caesar the Roman emperors not only minted coins but – at first only occasionally, since the second century AD more regularly – medallions as well. We do not know how the Romans called these special products of the imperial mint – but most of them...

This text reproduces a keynote lecture given on 29 April 2015 at a conference on the theme of ‘Displays of Power and Authority in Premodern and Early Modern Times’ at the Forum for Advanced Studies in Arts, Language and Theology (SALT) in Uppsala.