Sharing research as an ancient historian or archaeologist is often complicated by image rights. The cost of including numerous images in a new publication can easily climb into the hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

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To overcome this challenge for the book ‘Leadership and Initiative in Late Republican and Early Imperial Rome’ by Dr. Christopher Burden-Strevens, who commissioned me to create a series of illustrations of Roman coins. The authors' study focuses on a poorly understood question: what young Roman men did before starting their political careers in their late twenties. They used the coins as evidence for political activities that are rarely mentioned in surviving literary sources.

 

Since working with the actual coin images is often difficult and expensive, my illustrations created with photographic accuracy were essential to making this critical research possible.