Ancient Lovers’ Coin

This year, I had the privilege of involving northern Ontario’s Huntington University, where I’m an adjunct professor in the Department of Religion, in the Galilee Bethsaida dig. As a result, I’ve become a co-director of the project which has been headed for a couple of decades by my good friend Professor Rami Arav (University of Nebraska). Our first Huntington University students had an amazing time and this year’s dig turned up several important finds, including a very rare coin with the star-crossed lovers, Antony and Cleopatra on it.

Historically speaking, Cleopatra doesn’t get her due. She was of Greek ethnicity and queen of Egypt. When she met Marc Antony in 41 BCE Rome was in transition from republic to empire. It needed a religion that would be appropriate for world dominion. Cleopatra influenced first Julius Caesar and later Marc Antony to develop a new Roman religion on the Egyptian model i.e., deification of the ruler. This led to the Imperial Cult, formally inaugurated by Augustus in 27 BCE. Basically, Roman rulers were no longer human. Once you became an emperor, you left the realm of humanity and entered the realm of the gods – you became a man-god.

At the same time, as part of Rome’s search for a new way of worshipping, “mystery” religions such as the worship of Isis, Dionysius and Mithras were winning converts among the Roman elite, in particular the officer class. Mithras was especially popular with the latter. He was a resurrecting man-god who was born on December 25, and he was represented by the sun. In Judea, meanwhile, various messiah figures like John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth were proclaiming the message of the God of Israel. Some of these, like Jesus, were reaching out to pagans and incorporating some of their beliefs into the new movements. Scholars call this process “syncretism”. By the 4th century CE, the Roman Emperor Constantine combined the new religion coming out of Judea with the mystery cults of the Roman army and the Imperial Cult inspired by Cleopatra into the Christianity that we know today.

And to think that it all may have started with a Romeo and Juliet type love affair symbolized by our coin in Bethsaida.

Click here for the complete coin story.

Click here to see my recent article “What Barca Should Have Heard” on The Times of Israel.