Re-Reading the So-called ‘Asina’ Tokens: Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity

This contribution reassesses the late Roman “Asina tokens”, whose current scholarly interpretation has been strongly influenced by Andreas Alföldi’s thesis, which argued that these artefacts were tools of anti-Christian “pagan” propaganda. This paper provides an updated catalogue of the material as well as a typological, morphological and iconographic analysis of these tesserae. This approach clarifies various questions concerning the imagery, production, and role of the tokens while also providing valuable insight into the religious evolution of late Roman society by emphasizing the complex relationship between “pagans” and Christians.