Amid the hustle and bustle of the city of Rome, filled with its huge archaeological sites and churches to which tourists flock, stands the relatively unknown (while we were there, at least) Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. This museum, also known as the National Roman Museum, contains finds from the Roman Age and contains such sculptures such as Boxer at Rest and The Discus Thrower. Despite these works being some of the most significant works of art from the Ancient Romans, to me the most interesting section in this museum was the coin vault on the bottom floor.

The reason I believe that this vault was such a positive experience is two-fold: the layout of the museum and my interest in history. The layout of this section was interesting and comprehensive. The vault was lined with the coins around the sides in a ‘U’ formation. When entering the vault, the coins begin with Early Roman Coins that are all bronze (See Figure 1). Each section of coins continues forward from this period and so there are coins of the Middle Republic, Late Republic, Civil War Period, and so on. The coins are also organized by imperial periods, whether that be the Crisis of the Third Century or imperial dynasties such as the Flavian Dynasty (See Figure 2). As shown in these pictures the coins have progressively more gold, showing off the wealth of the Romans. However, the coins did not end with the collapse of the Roman Empire; they continued with the Ostrogothic Kingdom (Figure 3) and the Byzantines. Following these periods, coins then feature the later kingdoms of Italy until they reach the modern era. This display I feel like is effective since it displays the coins in a chronological format that is easy to follow and understand. By displaying them in this way it is easy to tell the high wealth periods of the Italian peninsula since coins are gold some of the time and bronze, silver, and other metals other times. Another interesting feature of this vault was that they would show both sides of the coin if they had multiple copies, allowing people to see both the obverse (face) and reverse of the coins allowing for better viewing—this was not available for every coin. However, there was one issue of this section of the museum and that was that the entrance to the vault was also the exit to the vault, for security. Despite this, I believe the area could be better organized, with a more linear flow from beginning to end without back tracking, if there was a way around the central decorative wall that was within the vault separating the Roman coins from the post-Roman coins. Despite this minor inconvenience, the layout was amazing since it allowed a chronological approach to the collection and a fantastic viewing of the artifacts.

The other reason I thought that this section of the museum was interesting was because of its historical aspects. As with most coins, Roman coins depicted the leaders when the coins were minted. From this the history of Rome and even Italy can be shown by showing the rapid change of emperors, signifying instability, the minting of multiple coins in the same period, showing civil wars, less gold showing less wealth, and other signifiers. However, this in-depth analysis would not be as interesting to people not as involved or interested with the Roman history. As a way to have the general public still interested in this section I felt that the museum tried an interesting trick in the layout by titling each section with a recognizable person or period such as the ‘Augustan Era’ or ‘Caesarian Era’ which will get people interested just because they know the names of the people featured in these coins.

Overall this museum section was quite a sight to behold, and I would recommend anyone to see this museum for themselves since it contains such a large collection of artifacts that many people would appreciate, such as the mosaics and sculptures. Yet, the most interesting display in this museum for me was the coin vault which is both informative and displayed well for both ancient historians and the public alike.

Works Cited

O’Brien, Caleb. Pictures Taken at National Rome Museum. Digital images. June 17, 2018.