We often think about career paths at Rome as relatively fixed and there being standard intervals or at least norms to when these various political offices are held. There are numerous diagrams I share with my students to help them try and conceptualize this system. Cicero has influenced our thinking in that he brags about reaching each of the offices in his year meaning the first year he was eligible.
But the exceptions are numerous and interesting. They also warn us about using assumptions about the cursus and relative status of offices to suggest when a particular individual might have been a moneyer in either relative or absolute chronology.
Take the case of
VIBI2495 C. Vibius (16) C. f. C. n. Tro.? Pansa Caetronianus
He is Tribune of the Plebs and a very politically active one at that in 51 BCE. He used his veto to try to help Julius Caesar against a senate controlled by Pompey.
After this tribunate what does he do? He stays in the City and in 50 or 49 BCE campaigns and wins a moneyership (RRC 449 solo, RRC 451 with D. Iunius Brutus Albinus)
Many have assumed that honoring Jupiter A(n)xur(us) means a connection between the moneyer and Terracina (1st cent CE inscription).
In EDCS I can find at least 11 inscriptions attesting to the gens Vibia at Terracina, mostly with praenomen of Gaius or Lucius, but by comparison there are nearly 300 attestations of the gens in all of Latium and Campania (Regio 1). Pansa is not attested at Terracina, neither is Caetronius.
Why take the moneyership after tribunate? We might assume that Pansa stayed in the city to be an agent of Caesar. Some have hypothesized in the past that his coins were struck as aedile or praetor, but we have no other evidence he held these offices.
His cursus looks like this: Tribune–Moneyer–ProPraetorian Appointment–Consul
We could blame Caesar for the irregularities and probably should. BUT how did the Moneyership serve either Caesar or Pansa’s needs in this moment?
Maybe tomorrow I’ll blog about his coin types, the way they evoke his father’s types, Valentina Arena’s thoughts on Liber and Libertas, His collaboration with another moneyer… But now I need to cook dinner.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 