New (to me!) Book Joy – Woytek on Trajan

So I just had a 2.5 hour commute after a very long work day on campus and I’m sitting at the kitchen table knowing that in a moment I will need to swing into the bedtime routine. I probably won’t finish this post now. It will have to be later, but I can leave myself the foot prints to get it done. On the kitchen table was a lovely big box with a book in it. I’d almost forgotten what I’d ordered, but then I recalled my earlier post and questions about Cocles. Woytek has come. It is SO good. I just need to give you a sense.

Here’s the OCRE description of the above type:

Trajan seated left on platform with steps behind approached by togate male; officer seated below; Libertas and tripod behind

Presumably this derives from RIC but I’m too lazy right now to go double check my volumes upstairs in my office. This description is not at all what I see. I hope it is a transcription error.

Now here is Woytek:

Money distribution scene: On the slightly higher, right-hand of two podiums (suggestus), Trajan sits in a toga with his right hand outstretched on a sella curulis. On the left stands a tablifer with a tessera in his raised right hand, looking towards the emperor. In front of the official sits a scribe in a toga. Opposite him stands a togatus with an open sinus. Another citizen climbs a ladder to these.

THIS, this is what I see.

Anyway. I love a good money distribution scene.

A blog post about them.