SUMMARY
The present work aims at understanding the power structures – patronage, honour and prestige – observed in the coins struck in two provinces of Roman Palestine (Aelia Capitolina and Caesarea) in the 3rd century AD. Through this numismatic analysis we intend to obtain data related to the emission, circulation, iconography and monetary legends, in order to understand possible patterns of political, administrative, sociocultural and religious interactions between Rome and the local élites and vice-versa, related to provincial patronage. The discourse of power embedded in the coins is related to the linguistic element, which is a social construct. Therefore, the analyses contained in this research are supported by the existing archaeological, numismatic, anthropological, sociological, and historical theories, as well as contributions by the linguistic theory of Multimodality, seeking to verify the persuasive intentionality present in the coins, associated to the sociocultural context of Roman Palestine in the 3rd century CE. It is necessary to reflect upon the material culture (coin) and its immaterial representations (power structures), in order to investigate two main questions: i) Which sociocultural principles constituted the foundations of the local élite’s patronage toward the provincial community in late Antiquity? ii) What was the contribution of Roman Palestine coinage to the channelling and legitimation of the power structures in the region in the 3rd century CE?