Met 26.212

Said to be from near Catania, Centuripe, Sicily

I  was beginning to write something along the party line that RRC 335/9 refers to the battle of lake Regillus and A. Postumius Albus’ throwing a standard among the enemy.  And may be does.  Florus Writes:

A battle was fought at Lake Regillus, for a long time with shifting fortunes, until Postumius, the dictator, himself adopted the new and remarkable stratagem of hurling a standard among the enemy, in order that it might be recovered. 3 Cossus, the master of the horse,  ordered the cavalry to discard their bits — another new device — in order that they might charge with greater vigour. 4 So desperate was the fight at last that a tradition has been handed down that gods were present as spectators. Two young men on white horses sped over the battle-field like stars across the heavens; and no one doubted that they were Castor and Pollux. The Roman commander, therefore, himself prayed to them and, bargaining for victory, promised them a temple, and carried out his promise as though in payment to the gods who were his comrades in arms.

But on the above specimen, that looks a great deal like a falcata in the defeated enemy’s hands.   And the so called standards don’t look much like other representations of standards.  On some specimens the top ‘standard’ looks more like a helmet:

Standard iconography is seen elsewhere on the republican series

RRC 365 doesn’t look similar at all.

But 437 does bear some resemblance.

The falcata look alike is probably a fluke.

This is 1 hour and 58 minutes until 5 pm.

This explaining at every conference that being a professor and a parent of twins isn’t terrible because my husband is full time parent.

Then its explaining this is a choice.

“No, I don’t think he’s going to go back to work when the kids go to school.”

(Did your parents? His mom didn’t.)

“How does he like it?  It’s hard.  It’s hard on our finances. It’s hard for him not to have his own intellectual endeavor out of the house.”

“Why yes working from home is more challenging under those circumstances.”

“Yes, I still cook.”

Can we talk about research now please….?

1 hour and 55 minutes until 5pm.

5 pm when I turn back into a parent.

I don’t have writer’s block. I haven’t really since I started this blog.  Good thing.  I used to hate to write.  Now it is a happy place.   I’ve got a new problem.  I can’t find an organizational structure that lets me be concise.  My instincts towards completeness keep driving up my word count.  I need 40,000 words.  50,000 MAX.    That seems impossible.   The file I have now that is supposed to be my short version with just four chapters is already at 11,000 and I’m not done with chapter 1, not by half.  This is a structure problem.   I need some framework that lets me know what NOT to include.  Something that lets me throw out the damn kitchen sink if it is stopping me from building the house.

My strategy for fixing this problem is first to write about it here.  (Better than moaning and avoiding and feeling sorry for myself)  It is an intellectual challenge after all. And then second, to look at other writer’s short organizational principles.

Right now I found the hard copy version of this on my bookself:

So how could I imitate that?

Coins and the Economy

Coins and Exempla

Coins and Empire

Coins and the Enemy

OR

Money

Monuments

Mutinies

Mobility

These are no-chronological but hell chronology hasn’t been working for me.  Let’s play these out a little further.

Money

what motivates the state to strike?

At first she doesn’t!

Early State expenditures – Via Appia? and Aes Grave with the Maritime Defense Network

Distribution of Booty – Currency bars, Gold Donatives

S.C. issues – Caepio Piso and Faustus

Small Change Problem, Bay of Naples

when does coinage change?

spendibility, you make what is familiar to those you pay!

debasement lower weight standards of the quadrigati –> introduction of denarius (c. 211BCE)

Retariffing and new accounting Systems, correlated to increased creativity in the designs (c. 140s BCE)

is quantification possible?

Old debate: dies-to-coins

Lockyear’s different approach

Monuments

Juno Moneta and the importance of exempla in Roman Culture

Our Myths,Their History – Numa, Brutus

individuals, families, and the state

Minucii, Marcii, Aemilii, Marcell(in)us

Wait a second… that’s not really true…

a god-given empire and the ‘just’ war

Wolf and Twins, Roma, Genio Pop Rom,

Appropriating symbols of the enemy: falcata, torque, elephant, kneeling barbarian, Macedonian shield

Mutinies

who revolts and why

Capua during Hannibalic War, Social War, Sicilian Slave Rebellion

the enemy within?

Sulla and the Marians

The dominance of Pompey

responding to rebellion

Conquering by a place? Sicily, Spain, etc…

After Catiline, coins of 62 BCE

Rejecting Autocracy 75 coins and broken diadem imagery in late 50s

Mobilization

Manpower: recruitment and colonization: Narbo, Quinarii

Popular Politics

Grain refs, Ludi refs, Voting Refs

More

did anyone ever look at the coins?

when to question the dates assigned to coins

how to find relevant evidence for your own work

Hmm.  Okay enough time outlining on the blog.  I’m still pessimistic but less so.

I’m trying to confirm on my own Jaia and Molinari 2011: 90 claim that vernice nera estampilles imitate types of RRC 14 and 18.

BUT then what did I spot but another goat horn helmet!  Maybe…

Image source

These are just me backing up Jaia and Molinari 2011 with some pretty pics.

Their Appendix II visualized (Hoards with just first two aes grave)

No promises this is error free, just draft no. 1 no. 2 (now with Compulteria and Nola added)

I’m working on the principle here that a picture is worth a 1000 words hoping I can show rather then tell my audience and save my precious word count.  (link to basic map)

As evidence that this alliance did not meet universal approval we cite an example of this very coinage on which the reverse inscriptions were chiseled away (NAC 9, 1996, lot 115), presumably by a dissatisfied Locrian.

This awesome specimen of RRC 5/1 is from Berlin.  Here’s some commentary on the inscription:

Vecchi says the following:

Fusi-Rossetti 96 (1995) 26 agrees with Vecchi’s translation:

I’ve ILL-ed Guy Bradley’s relevant comments:

To the list of find locations for the type should be added the Pratica di Mare hoard (Molinari 2011).

The findspot is quite a full day of walking from Sestino.  I’d prefer to take two days if I had to walk it.

This piece in trade has been labeled as possibly a fragment from the oh so famous one of a kind elephant and pig type (I’m agnostic on the authenticity of this specimen).  Nope.  I’m pretty confident that is as a caduceus and trident.  RRC 11/1 not RRC 9/1.