Clare Rowan’s Tokens and Social Life in Roman Imperial Italy arises out of the author’s ERC-funded Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean project — a trailblazing rehabilitation of the study of ancient tokens after decades of neglect. R.’s book, however, is more cornerstone than capstone; it is not a comprehensive catalogue or reference work, but rather a successful experiment in ‘bottom-up’ social history using objects produced largely by non-elites for time- and place-limited purposes — a festival, distribution or bath visit. The coin-like form of many ancient tokens is misleading, causing some previous scholars to relegate tokens into purely economic categories: special purpose exchange media, or emergency small change. R. thoroughly dismantles such ideas in preference of a richer interpretation that foregrounds tokens’ social and cultural roles. Her study — limited largely to first-century a.d. tokens from Rome and Ostia — shows the incredible and largely untapped potential of tokens to reveal daily life in ancient cities: how people consumed their time, how they perceived themselves and what events merited commemoration or access.
Throughout the book, R. emphasises what she calls ‘groupness’ — described in the book’s third chapter as transient bursts of solidarity that activated specific affiliations tied to place, work or ritual. Many tokens from Rome and Ostia highlight aspects of festivals, for example — and R. makes much use of these in her fourth chapter. Token images show gladiatorial bouts, chariot races and applauding spectators. One token portrays a woman holding a cloth aloft, possibly a circus faction dancer akin to late antique banner-wavers, hinting at post-race revelry. A charioteer token mentions SACRATVS — an individual horse. While some of these tokens may have acted as admission tickets to events, they were clearly doing more. R. suggests such depictions invited self-identification, weaving non-elites into a festive tapestry, amplifying the anticipation, participation and identity of Rome’s non-elite spectacle-attendees through vivid, participatory imagery.
R. broadens her lens on groupness to encompass the lives of labourers, especially in ch. 3. She spotlights tokens showing porters at Ostia’s docks along with words or images associated with communal banquets and distributions rather than the processes of loading and unloading ships. Similarly, cisiarii (drivers who shuttled passengers between Rome and Ostia) used tokens with images like those found at their Ostia bathhouse — Fortuna, scales, an anchor, amphorae — suggesting relaxation, abundance and anticipation of refreshments. Ostia’s maritime identity emerges through tokens like one with a lighthouse and P T (Portus Traianus), paired with Neptune, or another with OSTIAE and Ceres, tied to the Horrea Galbae, reinforcing a distinct ‘Ostianness’ that fused work and civic pride. A token with two boaters and TRA (again, Traianus, or perhaps traiectus — a nod to ferry services) similarly blends labour with locality.
Imperial benefactions are also memorialised on tokens. Such was also the case with coins, such as famous examples under Nero and Trajan which commemorated specific distributions. Coins, however, unlike most tokens, circulated in Roman cities and beyond for years. In ch. 2, R. casts these benefactions as ephemeral groupness moments, uniting non-elites in brief, shared largesse. Her analysis often pairs images and descriptions of tokens with other kinds of sources. She points out, for example, how Suetonius mentions several emperors distributing missilia — gifts thrown to crowds — in connection with festivals. She suggests some examples of tokens which may well have been redeemable for food items. Tokens with palm-tree motifs may have been used for such purposes under the Flavians. Several tokens issued under Claudius carry liberalitas messages, perhaps suggesting that these or similar tokens mediated largesse during celebrations. Tokens with CLAVDIA AVG and a young female figure, likely Nero’s deified infant — the first imperial child to undergo consecratio at Rome — may have been tied to gifts given at her birth or consecration. Interpreting the exact meaning of such tokens, as R. acknowledges throughout the book, is challenging, not only because of the ambiguity and at times poor condition of token iconography, but also because most people would have handed in such tokens for redemption and eventual recycling.
R.’s most striking argument is found in her fifth and final chapter, where she probes tokens’ economic roles, arguing they were not minted to substitute for small change. Small-change denominations like quadrantes and semisses were ample when token production peaked in the first century a.d. Some tokens explicitly mention monetary figures — like one inscribed with a figure of 1,000 sestertii — but R. speculates that this sum commemorates euergetic funding from two individuals named on the token (Olympianus and Eucarpus), not a monetary value for the token. This chapter also comments on tokens found in or near bathhouses or inscribed with images of strigils and oil jugs. Such tokens may have mediated access to baths or specific services like oiling or massages and, incidentally, may have eased pressure on small coin denominations if customers received them as change or client gifts. Their scarcity in the archaeological record, she argues, supports their use in occasional acts of largesse rather than routine transactions, aligning them with the ‘groupness’ of festive or communal moments elsewhere in the book.
R.’s work successfully revives tokens from scholarly obscurity and reframes them as windows into the lived experiences of Rome’s non-elites. While not exhaustive, her study lays a robust foundation for future exploration.
