Ancient Social Media?

How would  you like to receive a selfie from Julius Caesar or Cleopatra or Alexander the Great? Imagine how much more interesting the Romans and ancient Greeks would be if you could interact with them on social media. Imagine what you could experience and learn from seeing the selfies of leaders of the ancient world.

Impossible you say? Romans did not have cell phones or the Internet. Heck, they did not even have soap. Social media is a modern phenomenon, right?

Think again.

The ancients invented the first social media and left their selfies for everyone to see. And these are not just ordinary selfies. They are engraved on the coins the ancients invented and used to distribute their images wherever their commerce took them.

You can see them in Ancient Selfies, the 2017 International Book Awards Finalist in History that takes you back to ancient Greece, Persia and Rome in a new way - through the images commissioned by their rulers for their coins.

For populations that were largely illiterate, these hand stamped coins made from hand engraved dies delivered images of their ancient rulers and the things that were happening in their lives. Their rulers understood the power coins had to communicate and used them to convey messages and shape impressions.

Thousands of years later, these very personal images enable us to travel back through the ages to get a unique glimpse into our past. The remarkably beautiful images on these coins, together with their stories, provide a unique and tangible way for us to connect directly with our past.

For more about Ancient Selfies - History Revealed Through the World's First Social Media: Ancient Coins check out the Ancient Selfies web site at www.ancientselfies.com. Or, start with the readjanus.com/ancient-selfies.html page.

Above image copyright Clinton Richardson is from the coin issued by Julius Caesar just days before his assassination. See the coin and read about Caesar in Chapter 4 of Ancient Selfies, available in color eBook and B&W print at Amazon.com. A version of this entry also appeared in the Ancient Selfies blog at ancientselfies.com/blog.

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