I love teaching the prophecy of Jupiter in book 1 of Vergil’s Aeneid in my general education classes, but  I’m not working on that right now.  Instead, I’m thinking about the iconography of supplication.  Hence, I stumbled on this gem above.  The detail that’s blog worthy is this:

That’s a little bit of the zodiac in the sky!  Namely Pisces and Ares, end and the beginning of the cycle.  A perfect symbolic moment for the revelation of the coming greatness of Rome!  It’s not a detail I remember from Vergil.  Perhaps I’ll find the reference one day.

I went looking for my notes on this subject and searched and searched the blog and couldn’t find the post I wanted.  Only to realize that my notes were pre-blog! So for future easier searching here’s a collection of factoids related to RRC 293/1 (c. 113-2 BCE).

The most important coin type for understanding this type is the earlier RRC 259/1 which uses the same style helmet as a reverse symbol by a moneyer, Q.PILIPVS (c. 129BCE).

Textual evidence is clear that this helmet is associated with Macedonian Kings:

 Livy 27.33: [2] The report was current that Philip had been killed; the rumour was due to the fact that in the encounter with the plundering parties from the Roman fleet at Sicyon, his horse flung him against a tree and one of the horns of his helmet was broken off by a projecting branch. [3] This was afterwards picked up by an Aetolian and taken to Scerdilaedus, who recognised it. Hence the rumour.

And not just for Philip V:

Plut. Pyrrh. 11.5: the greater part of the army was all excitement, and went about looking for Pyrrhus; for it chanced that he had taken off his helmet, and he was not recognised until he bethought himself and put it on again, when its towering crest and its goat’s horns made him known to all.

I’d even argue based on these two coins that this gem (in Vienna) was originally created for a Roman with the cognomen Philippus.

Of course the weird thing is how little this intersects with Philip V’s own self representation or really that of any of the Diadochi.

One can point to ibex horns on Seleucid helmets, but visually these are not strong parallels.

It’s also very different than the standard numismatic representation of a Macedonian helmet:

The thing the Roman representation looks most like are the horns on the head of Pan on obverse of Antigonus I Gonatas’ tetradrachms:

Is the helmet emblem of the Roman Philippi derived from one big iconographic misunderstanding?!

It has been suggested that the head of Pan may be intended to be a portrait:

Why the cognomen Philippus?  Briscoe gives a good overview in his commentary on Livy.

RRR Smith on Goat Horn Helmets in 1986:

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Fuller gem info thanks to Dustin McKenzie Jan 2020

Update 1-23-25

Listening to Clive Stannard’s DLitt (hon) inaugural lecture and the symbol also appears on Pompeian coin!

So this iconography is almost always identified as being Rhea Silvia (Ilia) and Mars and being an allusion to the foundation of Rome.  Classic examples are the mosaic from Ostia and or the coins of Antoninus Pius.  And yet this same iconography is on gems identified as Ares and Aphrodite…(another example) Do the Rhea Silvia representations derive from an earlier prototype or is this just a error in cataloguing the gems?  My knee-jerk reaction is the latter, but one needs to keep an open mind.

In a previous post, I asked how Romans would have viewed RRC 308/1. I feel my question has been answered pretty definitively by this type (RRC 494/3):

The reverse is without a doubt modeled on RRC 308/1.  And, in this series the moneyer connects each member of the triumvirate with their divine ancestry (Lepidus = Mars, Antony = Hercules).  Thus by extension, this design in this context must represent Aeneas and Anchises and be alluding to the young Caesar’s connection to Venus via his adoption.

Does this mean Herennius certainly meant to represent Aeneas, and not one of the Catanaean brothers?  No, not certainly.  It is, however, another nail in the coffin of that identification.  (See earlier post linked above for more “nails”.)

I’m intrigued that Regulus did not used Julius Caesar’s own Aeneas type (RRC 458/1).  I’d argue that this rendering may have been chosen because it emphasizes filial piety, over divine piety, and thus is more appropriate for the young Caesar in 42BCE.

 

 

I’ve found this type (RRC 255/1) rather confusing for some time.  It shows Hercules in a slow quadriga (associated with a triumphal procession) holding a trophy (a sign of martial victory) and a club (how we know which god is being represented).  I just came across this entry in Pliny’s NH 34.16 and it seems to help connect some mental dots:

That the art of statuary was familiar to Italian Italy also and of long standing there is indicated by the statue of Hercules in the Cattle Market said to have been dedicated by Evander, which is called ‘Hercules Triumphant,’ and on the occasion of triumphal processions is arrayed in triumphal vestments;

To be clear, I don’t think the coin represents the statue, just that the statue helps suggest why this divinity might be represented in this type of chariot.

See Burnett 1986: 72 and passim for the assertion that Hercules at Rome is a god of victory.

This is a particularly ugly specimen that’s poorly photographed, but what caught my eye was the evidence of failure of the reverse die: notice the large crack and crater in relief above the exergue line and to the left of the twin.  Cracked dies are useful for two purposes: (1) they suggest something of the intensity of the minting operation, that production was valued over  aesthetic considerations; and (2) they can help with the sequencing of a die study.

Notice also that some one has gouged the front of the coin, likely to check for plating.

RRC 20/1, CRRO entry

 

 

This type  has inspired many explanations for what iudex (judge) means on the back of this coin and how it relates to the figure in the chariot (RRC 404/1).  I thought I’d throw my had into the ring with a new (? ish?) suggestion.  What if the staff being held by figure in the chariot is actually a decempeda or pertica or similar measuring stick associated with land distribution/confiscation/centuriation/boundary disputes etc.  This would fit well with themes of Romano-Italic relations on the coinage of these years and obviously the large ear of grain behind the chariot.  This may be what the bumps on the staff are attempting to represent.  (Click on link above for comparative iconography).

This is a little problem specimen I got obsessed with.  I need to move on so I’m just throwing up some material here in case I want to return to the problem later.

My guess is that this is a Dacian imitation made from dies created by hubbing using a genuine Roman Republican coin and then recarved to improve the impression or quality of the imprint.  (More on hubbing in Dacia from a scholarly perspective, here.)

My little obsession was to see if I couldn’t prove this hypothesis via a die link.  My two big clues for the obverse was the large amount of space below the busts  and the edge of the flan and the little lump of what I think is beard on the cheek of the woman.  Circled in red in this pic:

I thought I might have spotted a die link even through the distortion created by hubbing and recarving. So I created the transparency to aid my visual comparison.

I’m not a hundred percent convinced after comparing it with two die linked specimens of the original type (specimen 1, specimen 2) which might have been die linked with the hubbing prototype of this imitation.  But, I think it’s still a likely hypothesis.  And I need to move on with bigger questions for now.

CRRO entry.

This is just a placeholder post to collect references for later use.

 

CRRO entry

On almost all dies for this type the legend reads PONTF MAX up the right hand side and and TVTOR REG down the lefthand side.  (The NTF, and arguably also an I, are in ligature.) On this specimen the die cutter and turned this arrangement around.  (A variation not noted by Crawford or the sales catalogue.)

The whole of legend describes the Roman figure (M. Aemeilius Lepidus, cos. 187), he is both chief priest and guardian of the king (Ptolemy V = the left figure).  However, in the normal layout the legend also serves to clarify and label the image.  We see the intentionality of the original legend lay out in this error.  Here an uninitiated viewer might mistake the boy-king for the chief priest!  Rather than understand that he is the king ruling by the grace of Rome.

Standard images of the type (RRC 419/2).

Here is another specimen from the same reverse die in even nicer condition. And another much uglier one that is also die linked, an illicit hoard must have come to the market with a batch of coins from this previously unknown die.  I hate the thought of the data lost with the dispersal of an undocumented hoard.  We could know so much more!   This specimen was was catalogued for auction correctly as a legend variation and seems to have been known since 1990 at least.