The Crepereii’ Goddess

This blog post is largely obsolete given my 2018 publication, but it is preserved to story the footprints of that research and drop in new similar iconography.

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Added 5/9/2022:

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Original post:

So, this just came up in a database search for something else entirely.  Image links to entry.  This is a section from plate “K: Histoire égyptienne”

I’ve blogged very briefly about connections between RRC 399/1 and intaglios before.

I, however, talked a great deal about this parallel in Tacoma last May.  Here’s what I said and the slides that go with it.  I’m making this post so all the material on this topic is together  on the blog when (if) I come back to the coin type.

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Excerpt from my lecture: ‘Mass Production and Markers of Identity: A Prolegomenon to the Study of Glass Pastes in the Roman Republic’

The reasons for these marine types have been the matter of intense speculation in the 20^th century.  Suggestions have included Rome’s conflict with Sertorius or the pirates, and the mythical foundation of the gens from a union of Neptune and some nymph or mortal woman. The most enduring theory has been that Hellenistic depictions of sea gods are appropriate for the Creperii because other members of the same gens are known to have been active in the trade on both Delos and Athens in the late republic.  The later point was loosely tied to the existence of known precious gems by Crawford, like this small Cornelian.  I would note that this particular precious gemstone intaglio just happens to be the same diameter as a the dies used to strike denarii.

What I find more historically significant than the connection between the precious gems and the coins alone is that this design is found in remarkable abundance in glass.  Of these, six come from the British Museum and one from the Met.  These are just the ones I’ve stumbled upon in my initial survey of the material, and by no means represent the sum total of the surviving glass pastes of this type.  Based on this, I would anticipate finding dozens more in a thorough survey of extant specimens.   They are clearly not all made from the same mold, although at least two are.

These mold-made glass pastes would not have been desirable objects for the most successful Roman negotiatores in the Greek East, such as we know some members of the gens Crepereii to be.  We even find other Crepereii as negotiatores in Gallia Narbonensis in the 1^st century BCE.  So who was using these imitation gems?  Specifically the clients or agents of the Crepereii?  Or just any sailor seeking a little extra divine protection at sea?  Is it a recognizable family symbol or just popular representation of a popular patron deity?  Regardless the coin type now seems less the artistic fancy of a young equestrian hoping to join the cursus honorum and more an explicit attempt to associate the moneyer with a well-known, popular piece of iconography

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