Holding Hands

Judith Evans Grubbs notes that the Antonine Roman emperors pursued a pro-family agenda, employing pro-family numismatic symbols for that purpose: In addition to the use of the goddess Pudicitia, “also celebrated on Antonine coins is the concordia (sense of harmony, agreement) shared by the emperor and his wife, symbolized by the dextrarum iunctio (joining of hands) of the imperial couple. Previously employed to represent political agreement between male members of the ruling family, from the second century on the dextrarum iunctio came to symbolize marital concord especially. Many sarcophagi of the late second and third centuries portray the deceased standing hand in hand with his or her spouse, sometimes in an iconographic context suggesting the marriage ceremony itself.”