RRC 422/1

This reverse type is accepted to celebrate the destruction of Privernum in 329/328 by Gaius Plautius Decianus Hypsaeus the consul. He triumphed on 1 March. BUT what does Jupiter and a Scorpion have to do with that?

My colleague Lucia Carbone recently published an ANS Magazine piece on the Alexandrian Zodiac coins.

I wonder if the family claimed a tradition that the triumph or the actual sack took place when Jupiter was in Scorpio. The Augustan era fasti list the triumph as being held on the Kalends of March. So I guess scorpio might represent March as it is the month of Mars and Jupiter the triumph. That seems an unlikely stretch.

I’m mostly interested in how the plaques can help us better understand the material world of the late republic, so the themes below are architecture, statues, rituals, spectacles, etc… But also a little of the iconography of gods that appear on coins.

Parade Scene Plaque ; very similar; fragment of similar

Signed Circus plaque

Circus scene: two facing quadriga, monument in middle

Hunt scene set in circus or forum ; similar depiction of spectators but details different; another full scene but almost mirror image of first ;

Theatre scene: 3 actors ; fragmentary version

armor metopes: curaiss, cross oval and square shields; another but with Macedonian shield

prisoner parade

Colonade: two herms, two urns, boxer statue; another very similar; colonade and pediment: four athlete statues flanking a statue of Hercules; colonade: two urns and hercules statue; colonade with pediment: three athletes, one or two herms, vessel and basin on pedestal

trophy with square shield

Gallic trophy and prisoner(s?) (signed)

fragment of a scene with statue (Athena?) on column and building (round shrine?) in background

boar and foot fragment

round shrine (tholos with spiral columns and metope frieze; a more complete version but with less detail in execution of architecture; similar to last; nilotic scene with spiral columns, spiral column fragment; another spiral column; and another; and another; and another; still another;

fragment of architectural detail containing volute capital

fragment with bear

Cupid next to prize table with Archaic female statue, cock beneath

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Update 1/11/23:

Update 19 – June – 23:

Nike, Victory, Victoria

This hairstyle does not appear on the coinage before the time of Caesar.

Louvre Campana Plaque (relief)

Eumenes, Argos, Ulysesses, Eurecleia

I digitally recombined the photos to may the scene easier to read. Ulysses silences his old nurse as she recognizes him. There is a better preserved but worse photographed copy in the BM.

This other Louvre plaque has different boarder so likely from a different series. I wonder if the Odysseus fragment is original or a restoration.

I came across this other specimen in the Yale collection while browsing there for another reason and it’s attribution in that catalogue got me curious. I then found a handful in the ANS with a different attribution. The CNG cataloguing of this above 2021 specimen gave some good context. Basically I just want to keep this as an object lesson on how iconography cannot compete with hoard evidence.

an incomplete list mostly for my own use

Institute for Advanced Study, School of History (Princeton) – October 15 Deadline

Residential, salary replacement up to 39-78k, half or full year, no letters of reference required for those 10 years out from PhD!

Rome Prize (American Academy in Rome) – Nov 1 Deadline

residential, 15-30k plus housing, family friendly, 1/2 years and full years

ARIT (Ankara for ancient studies) – Nov 1 Deadline

residential, 4-12 months, 5k per month

Loeb Classical Library Fellowship – Nov 6 Deadline

non-residential, 1-40k

NEH public scholar book grant – Nov 15 Deadline

non-residential, 30-60k – can be be held with other awards, writing sample must be in the style of proposed book, if not actual sample chapter, letter of interest/intent from publisher recommended

ISAW – Nov 20

Center for Hellenic Studies (DC) – Dec 1 Deadline

residential, 5-40k plus housing, travel costs, one month, one semester, or full year options (not clear about partners/kids, must ask)

ANAMED (Istanbul) – Dec 15 Deadline

residential, covers local cost of living for singles and couples, but not families, some travel and research funds, 1/2 year for senior scholars, full year everyone

Berlin Museums – Dec 30 Deadline

residential, 1-3 months, 1200 euro stipend per month plus 500 euro for travel

Tytus Fellowship (Cincinnati) – March 15 Deadline

residential, $1500 a month plus housing, (not clear about partners/kids, must ask)

NEH Fellowship – April 15 Deadline

non-residential, 6-12 months max award: $60,000 ($5,000 per month) project can start in January, need not start with academic year (only about 7% of apps are funded)

Fulbright Awards

Start planning in Spring as lots of steps, Deadline in the Aug 15 to Sept 15 range typically

Guggenheim Fellowship – Mid September Deadline

Berlin Prize (AAD) – End of Sept

residential, 5k per month, plus housing, family friendly,

ICS fellowships are currently suspended but will likely resume in future (residential London)

I was looking up Mars in the index of Woytek’s Arma and Numma to make sure I hadn’t missed something on the reverse of 494/16. (I was tweeting about this latter type yesterday, wondering if it’s Mars was at all related to the testimony of the vowing of a temple to Mars Ultor on the eve of the battle of Philippi, Suet. Aug. 29.2; Ov. Fast. V.569‑578). What I found instead was his ID of the above obverse as Mars not Roma, and I could not agree more.

Mars not Roma was blind spot for Crawford. I’ve blogged about other misidentified types and Woytek’s conclusion only strengthens my views.

Relevant types

RRC 345/1 – Blog post

RRC 388/1 – Blog post with comparative iconography

RRC 14/2 – Blog post (here Crawford saw Minerva, rather than Mars (or Roma).

RRC 21/2

RRC 25/5

RRC 27/6

Update 3-9-23:

The same type of question also arises in other iconographic contexts (link).

5-5-23 update:

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update 2/26/24:

Look at this lovely teeny tiny coin! 11 mm and weighing on average just .38 grams! It was made c. 40 BCE in the Roman colony at what is now Nimes, France. What I love in particular is how the obverse reminds me of young Mars on republican coins and the wreath plus inscription of the small late uncia struck at Rome and other wreathed reverses from Sicilian bronzes struck by Romans https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/519. RPC 520 and 521 have the same head on the obverse.

This led to my talking more with him about Killen’s work Parasema: Offizielle Symbole griechischer Poleis und Bundesstaaten. (publisher’s link, ANS catalogue link). This blog post is really just a bibliographical reminder to myself to check out the book the next time I’m in the ANS. Seems an invaluable resource for political iconographic work on the Roman Republic.

I wanted to juxtapose this coin with this terracotta plaque I saw yesterday the Altes Museum (Berlin)

Part of me wonders if the dating could be off and these plaques might possibly be part of the Augustan era classicizing/archaizing impetus.

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Updated 1/20/24:

Glass paste BM

Notice the sacrifice is to Artemis!

Arachne link, impression of A. Furtwängler, Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium, Königliche Museen Berlin (1896), Kat.Nr. 9548 (Karneol).

Arachne Link. (Consider if iconography of Nike temple on Acropolis is relevant at all, esp. Balustrad

Thorvaldsen has two such gems, neither yet digitized.

Cf. Cupids engaged in Bull Sacrifice in the reliefs from the Forum of Julius Caesar honoring Venus Genetrix

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Update 10/5/22:

Louvre has bull slaying scene too, but a different mold. Wierd how this one has the palmettes at the bottom.

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The another plaque in this set also shares a similar iconography with other numismatic representations:

Minerva/Athena Promachos? Palladion? Your call.

Updated 10-10-22:

Update 12/8/22:

comparative iconography. What do we call these grassy crowns?!