Literary sources, inscriptions and coins present Antoninus Pius as an emperor perfectly representing the traditional ideal of a pious emperor who promotes traditional Roman and Italian cults. On the other side his medallions which were meant to some extent as gifts for his close friends show a series of unusual gods and mythical scenes. Some of these medallions seem to refl ect the emperor’s personal religious belief. Gods connected to mysteries like Ceres and Cybele as well as healing gods like Aesculapius seem to belong to the emperor’s religious strategies to handle diffi cult situations as illness and death within his family – and thus refl ect a more or less ‘powerless’ side within the topic of ‘power and religion’