My first Nero has arrived

I’ve wanted tet since seeing one at Stacks in New York back in November. It was my first NY trip and I had an opportunity to pop in. All their ancients were slabbed but a Nero tet caught my eye. It was too expensive but inspiring. The clerk was very helpful nonetheless and I enjoyed the time in there even if their selection was small.

 

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Yes, Greek has a letter for the "el" sound called Lamda which looks like our upside down V. If you see am image of a Spartan shield you will see the Lambda on it for the Spartan name of their region , Lacedamonia or in its shortened form, Laconia. What appears on the Alexandrian tetras as our letter L is not the Latin letter L but an abbreviation, as professor Laing writes, for the letter Epsilon, first letter of ETOYS, the year of.

 

With all due respect to Prof. Laing (and Kevin M) this explanation of the "L" symbol did not originate with him. The following appears in the Historia Numorum of Barcley Head (1911 edition Argonaut reprint): p. 847 "This was formerly supposed to be an Egyptian sign, perhaps of demotic origin, but it may be no more than a fragmentary survival of the initial E of E T O V [Sigma] (J.H.S., 1902, pp. 149 ff)." I take the reference J.H.S. to refer to the Journal of Hellenic Studies, but did not find it in his bibliography. Nonetheless, by Head's testimony, the idea goes back at least to the turn of the twentieth century.

 

I did not mean to imply that Lloyd Laing had originated that interpretation. He may have read of the earlier account or perhaps reached that conclusion on his own. I think the important and relevant matter in this discussion is that there is good evidence from knowledgeable numismatists that the L is a shorthand fragment of Epsilon "E" the first letter of ETOYS, the year of... .

 

Properly speaking, that is not correct. We have been shown some learned opinion, but that is not evidence. So far we have not been shown anything by way of material corroboration or parallel to substantiate the claim, which has always been asserted speculatively, even by the scholars who mention it. I really don't think we are going to find anything better, but nonetheless I would be curious to know the contents of the article in the JHS for 1902.

 

The JHS for 1902 is online now.
https://books.google.com/books?id=PUIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q&f=false

It would be interesting to know if scholarly consensus has changed in the last 116 years. Although Egyptian coins and coins from Tyre use the L I have seen the symbol look more like < on coins of Arados. I remember on our thread about reading Phoenician numerals some of us thought there was a year symbol in Phoenician.

 

Is there any other scholarly opinion on what else the L symbol stood for or its origin for the purpose of dating. We have two scholars saying that it derived as a shorthand of Epsilon but I have not heard or read of another interpretation. What kind of evidence might there be that could make one interpretation more accurate than the other? Thanks

 

Thank you for tracking that down, Ed!! It is an important study for our purposes. The science of sematography today comes under the umbrella of semiotics, which is the broad field of scientific/linguistic study of signs and signification. The author, Prof. F.W.G. Foat, presents a wealth of information and data on the symbolology used in ancient and later Greek papyri, and includes some discussion of symbols on coinage.

Comcast had an outage which took away my Internet yesterday, and today I have a major moving project which will probably tie me up tomorrow as well. Thursday I have another commitment for the day, but by Friday I expect to be open. Whenever I can I intend to devote attention to the article and will share whatever I find of substance whenever I get the chance. Other linguists on the list should feel free to jump in whenever they are free as well. I am anxious to see how much substance there is to all this discussion.

 

Yes, thank you for posting that 1902 JHS article. I think the evidence for the L being a fragment of Epsilon in Alexandrian pieces is strongly suggestive.

 

Well, thanks to an automobile breakdown (which is going to cost a bundle to fix) I had a chance to review the Foat article today. The article covers much more than numismatic questions, but with respect to the L symbol on the Alexandrian potin tets here is what I found:

Foat references Sydney Poole in BMC-Alexandria, and George Hill in a couple of monographs, who point to parallel symbols that have the appearance of "sytlized abbreviations" of an upper case E initial for "etous." Foat correlates these data with the use of parallel symbols in select Greek papyri, and forms the conclusion that the mark in question is indeed a symbol for the word "etous" (i.e. year). He then presents data to differentiate this symbol from a variant delta symbol for "drachma." [That thoroughness really impressed me.] Foat's treatment of the data is so complete and convincing, that for the last century all numismatic scholarship has deferred to his interpretation without challenge. That too is impressive. I don't think we are in any position to do better.

Thanks to Ed Snible we now have the establishing argument available to us for our own confirmation. For those who have not followed this, the data and argument are put forth by Prof. F.W.G. Foat in the article "Sematography of the Greek Papyri" Journal of Hellenic Studies (1902) 135-173. To this I say, "Bravo!"

 

Thanks for investigating that for us, lrbguy!

(sorry about your car)

 

Nero and Tiberius Bl tetradrachm

 

We had all this chat about the symbol for etous and no examples of the word in use on an Alexandrian tet. But it just so happened that John had one in his weekly auction, and since I had never seen one I couldn't pass it by. It's not Nero, but here is a tet with the word "etous" spelled out on the coin instead of the "L" symbol as a marker for the regnal year:


EGYPT, Alexandria. Aurelian, AD 270-275.
BI Tetradrachm, 20mm, 8.1g, 12h; Dated RY 5 (AD 273/4).
Obv.: A K Λ ΔOM AVPHΛIANOC CЄB; Laureate and cuirassed bust right.
Rev.: ETOVC Є; Eagle standing left, head right, holding wreath in beak.
Reference: Emmett 3924, p. 200

 

That's a nice Aurelian! JA has had a good selection of provincials in recent months.

Here's one from my collection which shows ETOVC in lieu of L.


EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius
year 2, CE 138/9
tetradrachm, 24 mm, 12.63 gm
Obv: AVTKTAIΛAΔPANTωNINOCEVCEB, bare head right
Rev: ETO VC B, canopus of Osiris right on cushion
Ref: Emmett 1373.2, R1

 

@TIF that is a fantastic coin. The top of a canopic jar. Who would imagine such a thing on a coin? I usually associate those things with funerary rites and body parts of the deceased, but in 138-139 Faustina was still alive though not for much longer. Maybe she had a lingering illness? If they saw it coming, it might have motivated his over-the-top adulation of her after death. In any case that coin is remarkable. How did you acquire it? JA too?

 

Ditto plus. Love that coin.

 

Canopus was a city on the Nile delta. In that city, Ptolemy III built a temple to Osiris and in that city Osiris was depicted as a vase-like or jar-like sculpture. I don't know more about this temple or the artifacts, but that general style of lidded funerary vase (jar topped by an animal or human head) was dubbed "Canopic" jar by modern Egyptologists because of the resemblance to these artifacts of Osiris found in the town of Canopus.

I don't know why Osiris was depicted in that form, nor do I know the significance of its appearance on this coin, but maybe I just haven't read enough .

Here are the standard four funerary canopic jars, with heads of the four sons of Horus:

Image from Sadigh Gallery

Imesty (the human headed jar) is for the liver;
Duamatef (jackal head) holds the stomach;
Hapy (baboon head-- the third one in the array shown above) is for the lungs;
Qubehsenuf (falcon headed jar) holds the intestines

Here are a couple more Roman Egypt coins in my collection depicting "canopic jars":


EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian
year 11, CE 126/7
billon tetradrachm, 26 mm, 12.6 gm
Obv: AVTKAITPAI AΔPIACEB; laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind
Rev: L ENΔ EKATOV: Canopus of Osiris right
Ref: Emmett 827.11, R3; Milne 1205


EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian
year 18, CE 133/4
Æ drachm, 26.4 gm
Obv: AYT KAIC TPAIAN (A∆PIANOC CEB), laureate and draped bust right
Rev: Canopic jars facing; L I H across fields
Ref: Emmett 933.18, R1

That A-Pi Canopic jar tet came from a Triskeles auction, 2013.

...

A Canopus of Osiris from Hadrian's Villa:


The God Osiris-Canopus, from Hadrian’s Villa, 131-138 AD. Vatican Museums (Gregoriano Egizio); from FollowingHadrian.com

 

@TIF Fabulous story and writeup! Thank you for sharing it. You made my world a little larger.