Yes, 30 seconds is an arbitrary number. Many comparisons will be much faster, after much longer. And, no consideration is given to the collection of the images for comparison. But,the numbers a still good to think when consider what sorts of studies are feasible until a meaningful type of machine assist is developed or just the work involved in any individual project.
So for instance, I supervised a masters thesis that was a die study of 383 specimens. If the student had take a full 30 seconds on each comparison that would have been nearly 153 8-hour work days, nearly half a year. Not counting the write up. [The chart above using 24-hour days.] Obviously, on the republican series certain variations within a type, especially control marks when present, can speed up a die study, but even such sorting requires individual consideration and intense record keeping. Without such control marks limiting the number of comparisons required, De Ruyter’s 1996 study of the Coins of L. Julius Bursio would have required upwards of 5,287,700 unique comparisons (NC 156: 79-147).
Based on the New Italy Hoard (Hersh NC 1977), Mattingly holds that the denomination the Dodrans (3/4s of an as = 9 unciae) was first introduced by C. Cassius, not M. Metellus (2004: 220). This rules out his original theory echoed by Crawford in RRC that the type was introduced by the later to provide a space to commemorate a divine ancestor via the legendary Caeculus. Why would Cassius create a new denomination for Vulcan? Mattingly gives a terse answer: “The Vulcanal near the forum was the center of popular and tribunican activity in the early republic.” No footnote. It’s a hard assertion for which to find much support.
Does it have anything to do with Liber on his other new denomination the bes (2/3s of an as = 8 unciae)? What do Vulcan and Liber have in common? Not much but we do have his intriguing passage:
That the two gods could be linked is shown in this little passage from Hyginus’ Astronomica:
This text however seems to me another explanation of a common artistic motif “Hephaestus’ return to Olympus”:
The narrative might go back to a lacuna in the Homeric hymn of Dionysus, some speculate. The narrative is mostly deduced from various vase paintings with the help of this passage in Pausanias:
On the denarius series the reverse is more flexible than the obverse and we see more variation soon there. The first big break in the design of both is likely to be this type of c. 137 or 136 BC:
This type can be seen as borrowing from earlier Roman coin types and is thus at once a radical change and a conservative choice. [Note that Mattingly thinks this is the second big change in the reverse, hypothesizing that the coins with the wolf, twins, Faustulus and fig tree where made the previous year (2004: 214).] It will be nearly two decades before the obverse changes again this time borrowing from the bronze coinage, i.e. keeping the choice in the familiar repertoire:
Then, about five years on another Janiform head:
This feels again like a throw back to to earlier silver designs on Roman diadrachms and the reverse of a ship makes the whole type echo the standard Janus/prow type of the as. The same year, or perhaps the next year, this unusual obverse appears:
Does the legend identify this female divinity as Roma in a different guise that we’ve seen her previously? Maybe. Or perhaps another goddess entirely is intended.
The next year sees even more experimentation on the obverse:
From this point onward — 113/112 if you want to follow Crawford, 110 Mattingly — the obverse design remains flexible and expressive just as the reverse had been since c. 137. Conservative types re occur throughout the series on both obverse and reverse, but after the mid seventies (RRC 387/1) the Roma and biga combination fails to re occur again together. In fact after this Roma appears more often on the reverse than the obverse. She’s not seen on the obverse again until 53BC (RRC 435/1)!
This little silenos figure on a lid of cista no. 45 in the Pierpont Morgan Library collection is labelled EBRIOS. Ebrius is the Latin adjective meaning ‘drunk’. Think English inebriation. Not an inappropriate name for a dionysiac character. I wonder if there is any relation to the river name where Ovid says the Bacchic throng discovered honey (Fasti, book 3):
liba deo fiunt, sucis quia dulcibus idem 735 gaudet, et a Baccho mella reperta ferunt. ibat harenoso satyris comitatus ab Hebro (non habet ingratos fabula nostra iocos); iamque erat ad Rhodopen Pangaeaque florida ventum: aeriferae comitum concrepuere manus. 740 ecce novae coeunt volucres tinnitibus actae, quosque movent sonitus aera, sequuntur apes; colligit errantes et in arbore claudit inani Liber, et inventi praemia mellis habet.
Notice in the midst of this Dionysiac revel Medusa collapses after being decapitated by Perseus and Pegasus rises from her neck framed by a few snakes of her remaining hair. Fantastic image. Great Halloween costume idea too. Here’s the actual object but the line drawing is far clearer:
I couldn’t do my research without the hard laboring librarians of ILL. Those at my own institution process and vet my innumerably requests, but others all over the world slave at scanners to bring me tidbits of information. My favorite part is when I find a little trace of their humanity in the margins of my scans. Thumbs of glory disseminating esoteric knowledge free of charge. Or, more accurately, as all the coversheets now say:
Anyway in honor of the thumb above: ” Dear Librarian of Binghampton University, THANK YOU!”
24 January 2012 Update: Thank you University of Chicago ILL:
I always love a good cross-cultural narrative parallel. There is a dreamer in me that secretly wants Jung’s Archetypes to be real. I’m reading Wiseman’s “Games of Flora” today and he has a nice opening about how Flora under her Greek name, Antho, appears in some versions of the Romulus foundation legend:
So basically the evil king’s good daughter rescues the future leader of the people. This time before the infant leader is tossed in the river, instead of after. Still I can’t help but think of the Exodus story. This led me to a very illuminating look at the character of pharaoh’s daughter in the Jewish tradition.
What does this have to do with coins? Not much particularly, except that now this coin with the head of Flora will probably get a wee mention in chapter 2 along with the more obvious wolf and twins types:
This coin is only known from one unique specimen in Paris. {Irritatingly the digital catalogue entry has the wrong image linked to it as of 7/20/18} Its authenticity seems guaranteed by the accuracy of the Oscan language inscription, which at the time of its first documentation was not yet fully understood. Photos on the internet are hard to find. The wikipedia entry is okay. Heck, I’m impressed it has an entry or sub-entry. I’ve taken the drawing above from Wyler’s 2008 article.
Mostly I’m writing this post to make a note of Mattingly’s rather under-acknowledged theory that this is not a Social War coin at all, but a product of the Mithridatic Wars (2004: 189-192). The usual explanation is that the Italians copied the type from the bronze of Amisos:
And that thus it represents tangible proof of the suggestions in the literature that the Italians sought (and perhaps obtained?) support from Mithridates (Diod. 37.2.10; Athenaeus 5.213C). My enemy’s enemy is my friend, as they say. On Dionysus imagery during the Social War, see:
Pobjoy, M., ‘The First Italia’ in K. Lomas and E. Herring (eds.), The Emergence of State Identities in Italy in the First Millennium BC (London: Accordia Research Institute, 2000), 187-211.
Anyway, Mattingly focuses on this passage from Plutarch’s Lucullus:
He thinks that the Parisian specimen is one of these pieces of gold and that the Oscan was used to unsettle the Italian troops in Lucullus’ army and encourage them all the more to revolt.
This seems even more far fetched, than the Social War explanation. Really the problem comes down to there only being one of these gold coins. We have no comparative evidence or geographical data, let alone archaeological context. We remain in the realm of speculation. Anyway, just to make this post a little more complete, we should note that a similar bust of Dionysus does appear on the Italian’s silver coinage:
Update 8-29-25:
I’m interested in early knowledge of this type/specimen.
I’m reading V. Arena’s fabulous new book on Libertas. The BMCR review made it seem like a very theoretical take. I find it well grounded in both theory and evidence. Really well conceived throughout. She does a brilliant job of integrating numismatic evidence throughout.
In the midst of a well-reasoned discussion of why libertas and victoria are linking in the Roman mind set, she drops in the bit about Cicero I quote above (p. 77).
This kicked off in my mind an old thought I’ve often had while reading the prophesy of Jupiter in Vergil’s Aeneid with my students in gen ed classes. Do we have the Romans to blame for such problematic ideologies as Manifest Destiny, The White Man’s Burden, vel sim. Did all that classical education in post-renaissance Europe provide a template for justifying Imperialism to the emerging christian colonial powers?
I hope some one smarter than me has articulated the connection.
