Here’s Campana’s record of the hoards
He does not include NSc 1884 224 regarding RRCH 223. Moiano. Whereas Crawford thought it might include Social War coins.
Machine translation.
[discovery of tombs described] …Many years ago, a hoard of Consular and Samnite coins, weapons, and various objects was found there; from time to time, many decorated vases were also recovered from the tombs—which were attributed to Sant’Agata dei Goti, as the nearest town to that site. It should also be noted, as many writers affirm, that the ancient city of Saticula must have stood not far away. … Among the objects found in the past on the aforementioned property, I possess the following bronze coin (25 mm in diameter): a male head facing right, with two small dots behind it (indicating a *sextans*); on the reverse, an elephant standing to the left with a bird above it. This coin, of uncertain attribution, shares the same crude style as the one described by the distinguished Minervini, to which it bears a strong resemblance. Sambon describes similar pieces. …
I think it likely the type under discussion is this one typically dated to the second punic war and the time of Hannibal.
Meles Historia Numorum Italy 442, cf. BM specimen (w/o photo), specimen above said by Haeberlin to be in Naples (30.5g.). Typically the object on top of the elephant is identified as a rider/driver but I see how it could be seen as a bird. [link to plate with more examples] Likewise the head is identified with Hercules because a club can be made out between the dots over the far shoulder. We assume the Punic silver struck in Iberia was the model:
I wish I could be confident that the mention of “un ripostiglio di monete consolari e saunitiche” meant this was a social war hoard with social war denarii, but it doesn’t even say it was a silver hoard. If it contained a bronze of Meles than perhaps all the coins were bronze. Boo.
NSc 1893, 441 for CHRR 269. Roccamandolfi.
A cache of silver family coins discovered in the municipality. As early as November 1888, a clay vase containing a large cache of silver family coins was discovered on a farm called Scirno, owned by Mr. Francesco Martelli, in the Roccamandolfi area. The cache was seized by the judicial authorities for administrative reasons, and only now are we able to provide a description of the find. The coins, according to the catalog compiled by the Royal Inspector of the excavations, Cav. De Marco, are 337 and belong to the following families: Aburia 2. Aelia 2. Aemilia 2. Antestia 4. Antonia 16. Appuleia 1. Aurelia 1. Baebia 2. Caecilia 5. Calidia 2. Calpurnia 21. Cassia 2. Cipia 1. Claudia 2. Coelia 2. Cornelia 14. Cosconia 2. Crepusia 11. Curiatia 1. Curtia 2. Domitia 2. Fabia 3. Fannia 4. Flaminia 4. Fonteia 14. Fulvia 1. Furia 12. Herennia 2. Iulia 9. Iunia 16. Licinia 17. Lutatia 1. Maenia 5. Mamilia 3. Manlia 5. Marcia 12. Memmia 4. Minucia 2. Naevia 3. Opeimia 4. Papiria 4. Pinaria 4. Plautia 1. Poblicia 1. Pompeia 1. Porcia 6. Postumia 4. Procilia 2. Quintia 1. Rubria 10. Saufeia 1. Sempronia 1. Sergia 3. Servilia 8. Silia 3. Sulpicia 1. Thoria 6. Titia 8. Tituria 11. Valeria 6. Vargunteia 2. Vibia 16. There are also four uncertain denarii and a Samnite coin from the time of the Marsica League, on which only the number IIIV is visible. Nine other unmarked or poorly preserved family coins were also part of the same hoard.
I’m at least re assured that it is possible to call social war coins Samnite because of this “una moneta sannitica, del tempo della lega Marsica”.
The control numeral means that the coin is almost certainly HN Italy 415 with head of Italia, l. [no legend or I] and Oath scene with eight figures = Campana 3a/35-37.
The picture seems pretty clear. The odd coin survived in the hoards but most were gone from circulation by 79 BCE. There exclusion from the hoards might have something to do with the Lex Cornelia… [Which I think likely re affirmed ideas put forward by Gratidianus: with Alice Sharpless and Kris Lockyear I’ve got a piece on this for which I’m awaiting proofs.]
Am I missing hoards? If so, please let me know. I chased after a possible one in Romania but decided in the end it was a red herring.
I found this cool bibliographical resource on the Social War more generally.
Flashback
In 2022 I found an amusing vase painting where men in Thracian costume reminded me of Roman apices. I cited a drawing not the vase itself, but it was easy to find. This vase has a man in a similar costume.
In 2018 I was playing around with how to visually depict the usage of control marks and serration on the RR coin series. It was the day I broke 50k on the book manuscript. The timelines ended up combined in the book and then took on new life as I thought about these things as I worked on RRDP. See Carbone and Yarrow RBN 2020: 298-299 for a much more detailed chart on the use of control marks and my discussion of the phenomenon.
In 2016 I have no idea what I was working on, perhaps the book but not with an eye to the final version, perhaps this was when I was trying to decide what to do with my manuscript. I was certainly having a day deep in both secondary literature and the primary sources. I know this was about the time I was finishing the first draft of the Romulus’ Apotheosis article, but that doesn’t seem to connect to these posts:
Warm Up Writing
Harry Judge told me it was ok to be an academic and a Christian while I was kicking around Brasenose College as a grad student. He was one of the few fellows who regularly came to chapel and perhaps the most irreverent. He introduced me to the idea of Markian Christianity. Just embrace Mark, Baptism to the Empty Tomb. Leave Q and Gnosticism to the others and you’ll be fine. I sat on bench in the old Quad this past May dedicated to Harry and said a little pray and ask for forgiveness I never stayed in touch. I confessed to another fellow, from another college, this one ordained, my struggles with faith. She gave me two gems. If I struggled with Paul, I should teach the letters and look for the humanity of the man, the divine inspiration in tension with cultural and social norms. She said not to fetishize the early church, originalism is a theological error, when Jesus taught change and a striving towards a better future where we move towards greater equality.
I still struggle with these questions, but I try and it was good to go to church yesterday and light a candle or two and be moved by the simple act of communion. It helped move the grief a little more. In a different more raw and wordless way than writing. I meditated on Joseph the Worker. So patient and steadfast in the face of complex and unknowable forces. And then today I saw this meme and I thought of Harry, and Charlie telling me to embrace my love of the church.
Sitting in the pew with my grief I remembered a little more. He would make my stuffed animals dance around my bed to Camille Saint-Saëns’ carnival of the animals. I had no ear but he wanted me to be comfortable with classical music. There was also Peter and Wolf, but I loved Saint-Saëns more. In my teen years he ensured I got to go to Evita and Madame Butterfly, getting all dressed up and experiencing ‘real’ theatre with ‘real’ music. There was a cracked window dedicated to St. Cecilia about the candles in the left hand aisle of the nave. The crack does not erase the meaning. Our earthy lives are fragile.
Our pattern of life is changing. I’m working from home more and my beloved is out on job sites with his clients long hours. We got a bimonthly cleaner. It helps. She’s the first time we’ve had a cleaner I don’t mind in my personal space. The rest I tolerated a time or two and then let go. I can’t tell you why this one is different. I wish I could have her every week or even more.
At home I’m doing more primary-carer parenting. The kids say they don’t want cell phones if I’m in charge of tech. I’m too strict. I wonder if I am. The intertubes tell me that being strict leads to sneaking. This I know. I’ve been realizing that my concerns over tech is not in any way phone specific. Phones are really just one more device in a tech ecosystem in which they and we as a family are deeply enmeshed. I’ve got to figure out a balance.
On Saturday I did a little work and thought I might blog. I re-read an old blog post, one of those ‘look back posts’ about where I was a year ago, “… Just Email”. It helped me remember the constant struggle for self discipline. So I went for a walk and then worked on bibliography. I got really excited when I saw Donum (ANS library catalogue) connected to Zotero and I decided to again try Zotero for bibliography. Nope. Donum puts articles in as books and leaves out the details so now I get to relook up all the details to manually enter coin article data. These are the moments I wish I had a research assistant I could pay to do the grunt work. I think I will leave Zotero installed. It does a nice job with most other bibliographical databases. I wonder if the INC bibliographies are uploaded into it or can be downloaded into it with the correct formatting… Now that is a thought!
Liv Mariah Yarrow 
