Prutah - Claudius I Marcus Antonius Felix as Procurator

Felix — a freedman of the imperial household who rose to govern Judaea under Claudius and then Nero — struck these small bronzes under his own authority as procurator, an unusual arrangement that reflected both the administrative flexibility Rome extended to client regions and Felix's own considerable political connections. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of him that he "exercised the power of a king with the spirit of a slave," a damning assessment of a man who used every tool available, including coinage, to project authority. Felix is also the procurator before whom the Apostle Paul appeared, as recorded in Acts 24.