If you’re only a fraction as fascinated as I am by the Egadi Rams, you still should watch this amazing presentation. I saw a version at the SCS-AIA and cannot stop thinking about it:
Stools on coins
When thinking about the subsellium (quaestor or tribune’s bench) and sella curulis (curule chair) on Roman coins in future, I want to remember these coins from Tarentum (HN Italy 854-6, latter two illustrated below, first is illustrated by Rutter). The stool is commonly called a diphros.
Facing Athena (Minerva)
I was scrolling through some search results (as ya do) and the facing Athenas on some bronzes from Southern Italy from the later 3rd cent BCE (Lucania, Bruttium, Heraclea, Metapontum) all reminded me of RRC 37/1.
1st Cent BCE bronze eye candy
Maryland State Colonization Society Paper Money
Link to discussion in Newman archive.
From the African Repository:
(why were ducks more valuable than chickens?!)
Liberia, Bank Notes
Images of whole series in 1883 reprint.
Family Ties and Enmities
So the moneyer of RRC 434 was the brother of the Julius Caesar’s ex-wife. The one he divorced because Clodius was caught dressed like a woman in his house during the women-only Bona Dea festival. The same scandal that was at the root Clodius’ hatred for Cicero and the latter’s eventual exile.
This adds a new layer to this coin for me. It’s imagery is not just pushing against Pompey’s growing autocratic tendencies (like that of Brutus’ in the same year, RRC 433), but against the so called first-triumvirate.
Rufus has good reason to side with the senate conservatives (Cicero’s boni or optimates).
Trinum nundinum
How long is three market days? I had a great Twitter conversation on this maybe a year ago I need to dig up and archive it had a wide range of opinions and serious scholars chiming in.
I was reminder of the question upon seeing Shackleton Bailey’s certitude its 24
