About

Cristian Mondello holds a BA/MA in Classical Archaeology and a PhD in Archaeological and Historical Sciences. He specialises in Roman History and Numismatics.

Since 2017, he was an assistant (“Cultore della materia”) in the Department of Roman History and Ancient Numismatics at the DICAM (Dipartimento di Civiltà Antiche e Moderne) of the University of Messina. He has contributed to the support and development of the web application DIANA (Digital Iconographic Atlas of Numismatics in Antiquity) created by the University of Messina - LIN Project (MURST 2000). In 2016, his doctoral dissertation on the reception of classical sources by Eusebius of Caesarea was awarded the research prize in Ancient history, “Premio Anassilaos Ricerca”, by the Associazione Culturale Anassilaos.

He joined the University of Warwick in 2018 as a British Academy Visiting Fellow, and since 2019 as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow, conducting research on tokens of late antiquity. He works alongside the Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean team.

Mondello's project on ''The Creation of Tokens in Late Antiquity. Religious 'tolerance' and 'intolerance' in the fourth and fifth centuries AD' has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 840737.

 

Research interests

Cristian works on Roman history and numismatics, with a particular focus on the social, religious and political aspects of the middle-imperial age and late antiquity (3rd-5th centuries AD). He is currently preparing a monograph on the so-called 'Festival of Isis' tokens (4th century AD) and their role in late antique Rome.

As a team member of the project Token Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean, he is interested in Roman tesserae, 'contorniate' medallions, and everyday objects which, as an expression of relationships, exchanges and culture, contain remarkable informative potential for the understanding of broader aspects within ancient communities. He examines the relations between 'pagans' and Christians in the late Roman Empire through an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar approach combining literary/documentary sources, numismatic evidence as well as material and visual culture.

Qualifications

• BA/MA (University of Messina)
• PhD (University of Messina)

Selected Publications

Monographs

• Mondello C., Eusebio e la storiografia antica. Strategie e tecniche di alterazione nella Praeparatio Evangelica. Messina-Roma: DICAM, 2017. Series: Pelorias, no. 24. Pp. 287. ISBN: 978-88-940218-6-8
• L. Bricault & C. Mondello, Isis Moneta. The 'Vota Publica' Tokens from late antique Rome. Volume 1: Catalogue. London: Royal Numismatic Society (forthcoming).
• Mondello C., Roman Lead Tesserae and Medallions from the National Archaeological Museum of Florence (MAF) (in prep.)
• L. Bricault & C. Mondello, Isis Moneta. The 'Vota Publica' Tokens from late antique Rome. Volume 2: Analysis and Context (in prep.)

Papers and Book Chapters

• Mondello C., 'Alexander the Great on Lead. Notes on some tokens from Roman Imperial Athens', in M. Gkikaki (ed), Tokens in Classical Athens and Beyond. Liverpool: LUP, 205-234.
• Mondello C., 'Shaping creeds and identity in early Christian iconography: The roles and meaning of late Roman tesserae', in B. Carroccio et al. (eds), Scritti in onore di Maria Caltabiano per i suoi 50 anni di studi numismatici. Messina: Arbor Sapientiae, forthcoming.
• Mondello C., 'Una ''perduta'' collezione di tesserae romane di Girolamo Tanini (XVIII secolo). Tra fonti d'archivio e strumenti digitali', in M. Puglisi & C. Mondello (eds), Proceedings of the 8th Joint Meeting of ECFN and nomisma.org on Coin Finds and Digital Numismatics. University of Messina, May 2-4, 2019. Messina: Messina University Press, forthcoming.
• Mondello C., The Cult of the Saints and Roman Communities under the Theodosians: Social and Religious Memory on Early Christian Tesserae', Numismatic Chronicle 181 (2021): 129-158. ISSN: 0078-2696.
• Mondello C., 'Re-Reading the So-called "Asina Tokens": Religious Diversity in Late Antiquity', American Journal of Numismatics 32 (2020): 273-312.
• Mondello C., ‘Using and Reusing Tokens: Some remarks about Christian graffiti on the contorniates’, in N. Crisà, M. Gkikaki, and C. Rowan (eds.), Tokens. Culture, Connections, Communities. London: Royal Numismatic Society (Special Publication no. 57), 2019: 145-161. ISBN: 0-901-405-35-3
• Mondello C., ‘Nuove osservazioni sui contorniati: la serie dei Literaten Büsten’, in M. Caccamo Caltabiano et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the XV International Numismatic Congress. Taormina 2015. Roma-Messina: Arbor Sapientiae, 2017. Vol. 2: 772-776. ISBN: 978-88-94820-31-7
• Mondello C., ‘Sui Lares di Severo Alessandro (HA Alex. Sev. 29,2; 31,4-5): fra conservazione e trasformazione’, Hormos. Ricerche di Storia Antica n.s. 9 (2017): 189-229. ISSN: 2036-587X
• Mondello C., ‘Versioni e formae vulgatae degli oracoli di Delfi: alcune note a proposito di Erodoto e dei frammenti di Enomao di Gadara’, Graeco-Latina Brunensia 22 (1) (2017): 165-190. ISSN: 2336-4424
• Mondello C., ‘Simboli nuovi e simboli antichi sui contorniati’, Revista Numismática Hécate 3 (2016): 121-136. ISSN: 2386-8643
• Mondello C., ‘Eusebio di Cesarea e la storia di Roma: il caso del Chronicon’, KOINΩNIA 39 (2015): 127-151.