adventures in my head
A tweet that turned into a thread that really should have been a blog post so it would be stable and searchable.
screen shots:
Thoughts 3/24/25:
I’m interested that Augustus sits on a bench or subselllium. What is the symbolism of its usage here?
The only use of the term in epigraphy is also in relation to the Saecular Games.
Some colleagues asked if I had something to say about kings on coins after 44 BCE. I have lots to say pre 44 BCE on that topic but I’m trying to work out if I have anything worth saying in print on the evolution and what parameters I might put on such an essay. Hence if you see me posting about stuff later than I usually do that why. Just in the pre-writing survey stages.
I wish the type below was in the footnotes of my book as it is lovely illustration of how aware elite families are of their earlier coin types. This one imitates RRC 401/1.
Update 10-10-22:
Most specimens look like the one below with a blank field above the plectum, but a few including the one above seem to maybe have a tuning key.
Those with the tuning key may be
Schaefer Dies
O = McCabe specimen above
Just possible also on AE but not clear from images
Looking over the Schaefer binders it seems like the die engravers didn’t like the blank space above a short plectum and kept trying to make it longer and on just a couple dies that plectum extension transforms into a lyre key. I don’t ascribe any particular meaning to this variation, just an interesting feature.
I am indebted to D. Levinson, @Ancientlyric, and James Lloyd for helping educate me on tuning keys.
It’s speculated that the name for the city in which this mosaic was found derives from their an indigenous or Semitic word meaning ‘black’.
Notice that the animals (esp. the giraffe = cameleopard) are African not exclusively “Indian.” Notice the emphasis given to the textured hair of three of the four captives. Notice the purple stripes on two of the captives garments and the diadem marking them as high status prisoners.
How would this read to a Roman veteran assigned to this colony or the children of such veterans as they lived in a north African landscape? The artist makes a clear distinction between the heroic/divine as white/pale skinned, the tanned/brown of the fauns and satyrs (non-human), and the black/dark brown of the bound captives. The image of Dionysus esp. Victory holding a crown above his head and riding in the chariot recalls imperial triumphal imagery.
—
Blanchard-Lemée, Michèle. “Dionysos et la victoire: variations sur un thème iconographique à Sétif et à Djemila.” Comptes Rendus / Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, no. 1 (2001): 529-543. Doi: 10.3406/crai.2001.16281
RRC 279 and 276 are likely struck by the brothers of cos. 120 who killed himself in 119 when convicted because of his actions on the land commission. Given how the dating of these two issues is approximate 122-119 ish AND the drama around their brother it seems worth some further thought.
See:
Beness, J. Lea. “Carbo’s tribunate of 129 and the associated dicta Scipionis.” Phoenix 63, no. 1-2 (2009): 60-72.
Arachne Entry = = impression of Berlin specimen from Stosch coll. glasspaste Winckelmann 1863
From Logeion:
BUT what of the PAV… could it be from this:
You don’t need to read this post. You just need to read:
Colonna, Giovanni. “Gli scudi bilobati dell’Italia centrale e l’ancile dei Salii.” Archeologia classica 43 (1991): 55-122. It is gloriously illustrated. JSTOR link
There I learned that the first intaglio (impression) above derives from a coin of Pius. He doesn’t seem to know the above specimen but the reset of this post and FAR More he covers v well.
Impression of original:
Update 6-2-21:
Now I know why those shields were tickling my numismatic brain:
Update 1-25-22:
Ferri, Giorgio. “I Salii e gli « ancilia ».” In Apex : studi storico-religiosi in onore di Enrico Montanari, Edited by Casadio, Giovanni, Mastrocinque, Attilio and Santi, Claudia., 87-95. Roma: Quasar, 2016. Ordered from ILL 27 June 2023
A. Furtwängler, Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium, Königliche Museen Berlin (1896), Kat.Nr. 9515 ZenonJ. J. Winckelmann, Description des pierres gravées du feu Baron de Stosch, dédiée à son Eminence Monseigneur le Cardinal Alexandre Albani (1760), Kat.Nr. II,285 Zenon
This post supplements appendix 2 of my 2018 article.
Cf. RRC 372/1
Other coins-glasspaste connections
Artemis of Ephesus in her temple
Portrait (Sextus Pompey?), cf. 483/2 and 511/1
man headed bull crowned by victory
Other gems of numismatic interest
A so called Sulla Portrait that looks nothing like 434/1
Link for next three (Notts collection).
I’m supposed to be grading and prepping for some serious meetings but I needed to start my day by just looking at some beautiful iconography and reminding myself I’m more than a bureaucrat in a large bean counting public institution.
I see imagery/attributes associated with Isis and Athena and Victory but cannot quite make out what is in her hand. Can you?
Update 5/16/22: I think it might be the top of a bow such as Artemis/Diana would have.
If you’re here for the coins, think about this one (RRC 409/1):
Just posting to archive.
Liv Mariah Yarrow 