Inde ab eo anno, quo Cn. et P. Lentuli consules fuerunt, cum deficerent vectigalia, tum centum millibus hominum tum pluribus multo frumentarias et nummariás tesseras ex aere et patrimonio meo dedi.
Res Gestae 18
Beginning from the consulship of Gnaeus and Publius Lentulus, when there was a shortfall in revenues, I furnished TESSERAE for grain and coin from my own money and patrimony, sometimes to 100,000 people, sometimes to many more.
Res Gestae 18
I’m on a train and cannot check Clare Rowan’s book, but I very much want to think more of this passage. Why give out tokens in lieu of coins?! Why not just give out coins?!
We get our first scenes of Liberalitas and the money shovel starting under Nero.
The iconography remains incredibly consistent through out the empire. Liberalitas holds her money shovel high. (too often wrongly called a tessera in catalogues). The recipient(s) ascend the steps in a toga, often using the toga to collect their allotment of coin. The emperor is separate but present.
So when was the money shovel invented?! And what made it more convenient for Augustus to give out tesserae and then have a secondary collection point. The logistics of largess need work.
Also if there were a 100,000 plus such tesserae for any given distribution, surely some should survive?!
I was reading the Res Gestae for a totally different reason but got distracted by the above passage. ho. hum.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 