Denarius for your thoughts?

Kenneth Harl of Tulane University will discuss the currency, politics and other aspects of the late Roman Empire in his lecture “Make Haste Slowly: Constantine, the Coinage, and the Conversion” on Tuesday. He plans to emphasize the importance of the empire’s coin iconography and its reflection of shifting Roman religious values during the time of Constantine the Great.

Stephen Collins-Elliot, assistant professor in the Department of Classics, said he hopes the lecture will illuminate the importance of currency and its reflection upon any given society.

“Money is something that’s issued by a political authority, and it speaks to both the image of the power on the part of the emperor as well as the values of the community,” Collins-Elliot said.

Collins-Elliot noted that the currency of Constantine the Great illustrates the blending of pagan and Christian traditions, rather than reflecting the image of a purely Christian leader as one might expect.

“We’re living in a very interesting time where religious iconography circulates somewhat fluidly between Christian and non Christian religions,” he said.

As the first “Christian-Roman Emperor,” Constantine is important not only to Roman history, but to the history of the world’s largest religion as well, said Collins-Elliot.

For Thomas Carpenter, junior in classics, the beginnings of the Byzantine Empire were a time of immense change and intrigue.

“You see kind of this shift in the Roman Empire from a sentiment of wariness towards Christians,” Carpenter said, noting that Romans originally believed Christians to be cannibals until the reign of Constantine.

With a background in Latin and ancient history, Carpenter has always held an great reverence towards ancient cultures, finding relevance in his studies to the modern day.

“A lot of people think they’re irrelevant,” Carpenter said of Ancient Romans. “The issues that they dealt with are so similar to the issues we deal with today. The Romans were so far ahead of their time.”

Ultimately, Collins-Elliot hopes all students will remember the importance of history and it’s bearing upon a healthy society.

“It’s important to look into the past and learn about the past because it provides us with innumerable lessons,” he said. “It can give us greater depth in how we understand the world around us.”

Harl’s lecture will take place in the McClung Museum Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. It is sponsored in part by The East Tennessee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.