New Constans

While I had a Constans from an uncleaned hoard it was not appealing to the eye. So I took the chance to upgrade in the recent @John Anthony auction. This one was struck when Constans was Caesar, A.D. 333-337. It has a nice patina and (to me) a fairly unusual obverse legend.

Constans, A.D. 335-336

AE17, 1.5 grams, 8h; Siscia mint

Obverse: F L CONSTANTIS BEA C, Laureate and cuirassed bust right.

Reverse: GLORIA EXERCITVS, Two soldiers, holding spears and shields, standing facing, one standard between them; in exergue delta SIS star

Reference: RIC VII 264, p. 470, r3.





Please share your Constans' here!

 

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Nice Patina and good details. A sweet LRB.

I don't have one yet for this Emperor. I really want and need one, but I've been too busy with my 12 Caesars set completion and hunting Qin and Han Dynasty coins. That's the problem...so many coins I need and too little time and money.

 

12 Caesars win out over LRB's anytime, IMHO

 

The unusual legend is because it is in the genitive case rather than the usual nominative. The coin was issued for the very young Constans reading 'Of Constans' which is unique in the Roman series. I always say that this is a coin every Latin teacher should own because there are rather few names that formed their cases in the Third Declension as here. Third declension is characterized by the nominative form being irregular compared to the other cases. In this case it drops the T from the root leaving Constans.

I bid on the coin at JA's minimum bid to make sure it sold and was happy to see someone outbid me. I was hoping that meant someone had read about the matter in one of the many posts on the matter that have been on Coin Talk or even my pages rather than just someone wanting just any Constans coin. Can't win them all.

The coin comes in two versions: earlier, heavier two standards type and later, lighter one standard variety like your new coin. Below are both.


Had I won it, I would have given it to a Latin teacher. As it is, I hope it will drive you to learn Latin. Trivia: Which mainstream, adult and very famous emperor sometimes issued coins using the dative case 'dedicated to ______'? His name was second declension so he used _____o in place of the nominative ____us.

 

Nice pickup!

 

That would likely be Trajan: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC:




Nominative: Traianus; Traiani
Genitive: Traiani; Trianorum
Dative: Traiano; Traianis
Accusative: Traianum; Traianos
Ablative: Traiano; Traianis
Vocative: Traiane; Traiani

 

Beautifull example Doug!

 

Here's one from such a hoard. The fact that this obverse inscription was only used in Siscia allowed me to attribute it to that mint.


Constans, Caesar AD 333-337
Roman billon reduced centenionalis, 1.21 g, 16.1 mm, 1h
Siscia, AD 336
Obv: FL CONSTANTIS BEA C, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers standing facing each other, one standard between them; mint mark illegible due to weak strike.

 

Also from a lot, my budget Constans as Augustus

 

Exactly right, @dougsmit , In both Latin and Greek, the genitive stems are used with the inflectional endings to make the case forms. In the third declension of each language, the masculine and feminine take -s to make the nominative (neuter is different) in the singular and -es in the plural. The genitive stem of the adjective constans is constant-. It takes little imagination to know this word means constant, unchanging, steadfast in English.

Here is how it is declined (singular; plural - masculine/feminine only):

nominative: constans; constantes
genitive: constantis; constantium
dative: constanti; constantibus
accusative: constantem; constantes
ablative: constanti; constantibus
vocative: constans; constantes

As I mentioned above, the actual case ending in the nominative case is -s in the singular and -es in the plural, both for Latin and Greek. So, the nominative singular would be constants. But in each of these languages, the consonant cluster -ts was not considered euphonious and it loses the t, becoming simply s: constans. However, -tes (the plural) was considered euphonious and the t is retained. Constans, constantes.

Here's a similar word in Greek, which everyone will recognize in English because of its genitive stem. The word is χάρις, which means grace:

Nominative: χάρις; χάριτες
Genitive: χάριτος; χαρίτων

I'll transliterate into Latin characters for those unfamiliar with the Greek alphabet:

Nominative: charis; charites
Genitive: charitos; charitōn

Building off the genitive stem, charit-, the nominative singular would be charits. But, as discussed above, the consonant cluster -ts was not considered euphonious and it loses the t, becoming simply s: charis. As with the case in Latin, tes (the plural) was considered euphonious and the t is retained. One charis, three charites -- the three Graces.

This explains some of the so-called "irregular" plurals in English:

index; indices
phalanx; phalanges

In the former instance, the word is the Latin third declension index, with its genitive stem being indic- (from which we get various words having to do with pointing: indicate, indication, index finger). Indi- + -s --> indics (the consonant cluster cs being represented by a separate letter, x) --> index.

In the latter instance, the word is the Greek third declension phalanx, with its genitive stem being phalang-. Phalang- + -s --> phalangs (the consonant cluster gs being represented by a separate letter, ξ (x in Latin) --> phalanx.

Here ends today's Latin and Greek lesson.

 

I haven't got one but if I did I would like one as nice as yours ancient coin hunter, great detail. Congrats.

 

nice addition!

 

Nice Constans. I have with common obverse legend CONSTANS PF AVG:

and I have this Constantine II with obverse legend DN CONSTANTINO IVN NOBC:

 

Wow, Doug and RC-- I think I could spend all day just trying to begin to understand that Latin lesson! Maybe I'll start by looking up what those declination cases mean (I don't even know if "declination cases" is the correct term-- nominative, genitive, dative, etc).

 

It is not necessary to learn Latin or Greek beyond the alphabets to collect coins but there are a few places where it adds a side interest. The other place you see genitive is on the reverses of Provincials where towns are identified as "of the Marcianopolitans" rather than just Marcianopolis, for example.

 

It's difficult for an anglophone to understand these concepts because we have only a very, very rudimentary case system in modern English (though old English was fully inflected, with three genders (m/f/n) and five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental). In modern English we have a subjective case (for the subject of a sentence), an objective case (for objects of sentences, whether direct or indirect) and a possessive case (the inflectional ending is 's). With the exception of the possessive case, we see this only in our pronouns:

Subjective: she, he, it, you, we, who, whoever
Objective: her, him, it, you, us, whom, whomever
Possessive: her(s), his, its (without an apostrophe), your(s), our(s), whose

So, in the sentence, He gave her his wallet, he is the subject (the one doing the action), her is an indirect object (the one indirectly receiving the action of the verb), and his indicates possession. The direct object is wallet as it directly receives the action of the verb, gave. In Latin and Greek, he would be in the nominative, her would be in the dative, his would be in the genitive, and wallet would be in the accusative.

Cases indicate syntactic relationships between words in sentences. Because English has lost almost all its inflectional endings (wallet is the same whether it's an object or a subject), English uses prepositions and word order to indicate these relationships. Inflected languages do not need prepositions or a specific word order to do so. The inflectional endings identify who did what to whom (who is subjective case and whom is objective case) and word order and prepositions are not required, but are sometimes used for clarity.

Indo-European languages originally had eight cases to indicate various syntactic relationships:

Nominative: the subject of a sentence.

Accusative: the direct object of a sentence or object of a preposition indicating motion toward something. English has a couple of words with vestigial inflectional forms indicating motion toward: hither and thither, meaning to here and to there, respectively.

Genitive: possession or a relationship between two objects not specified by another case, which is often indicated by the English preposition, of (as in freedom of choice).

Dative: indirect object of a sentence, which is often indicated by the English preposition, to (He gave his wallet to her); this case is also used to indicate benefit (dative of advantage) and may be indicated by the English for (I've done everything for you; you've done nothing for me, to quote Rick Springfield's cover of the Sammy Hagar tune).

Instrumental: indicates by what means the action of the verb occurs, which is often indicated by the English preposition, by (We went by car).

Locative: indicates location where the action of the verb occurs; it needn't be a physical location, it can be a point in time. This is often indicated by the English prepositions in or at (in a house, at noon).

Ablative: indicates motion away from a noun, which is often indicated by the English preposition from (She ran away from home). English has a couple of words with vestigial inflectional forms indicating ablation: hence and thence, meaning from here and from there, respectively.

Vocative: indicates the person to whom one speaks. Context (and often a comma) is required to indicate this in English ("Physician, heal thyself" or "You're doing it all wrong, son").

Now, over time, certain cases became lumped together. In Greek, the ablative function was assumed by the genitive case (used for both of and from) and the instrumental and locative functions were assumed by the dative case (used for to, by, and in). In Latin, the ablative case assumed the instrumental and locative functions (used for from, by, and in). Hence, there are five cases in Greek and six cases in Latin: the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative in the case of Greek, and the nominative, genitive, dative, ablative, accusative and vocative in the case of Latin.

Alright, so what does this have to do with coins? Well, inscriptions on coins demonstrate these inflectional endings. For example, coins may bear an image of Juno and bear different inflectional endings:


IVNO REGINA is nominative, the case used for the subject of a sentence and for simple titles. It's just plain "Juno the Queen."


IVNONI REGINAE is dative and means "for Juno the Queen."


IVNONEM is accusative; it's unclear why it is used here but probably indicates the "motion towards" aspect of that case: "to Juno." In all of Roman numismatics, IVNONEM appears only on coins of Julia Domna, even though Juno appears on many coins over a period of centuries.


The reverse inscription, ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ, is genitive and indicates a possessive or ablative idea: "of the Nicaeans."


FAVSTINA AVG(usta) ANTONINI AVG(usti) PII. Here FAVSTINA AVG is in the nominative (a simple title, "Empress Faustina") but ANTONINI AVG PII is genitive, indicating possession, "(wife) of Emperor Antoninus Pius."

See how it works?

 

Thank you for taking the time to write that out! I really appreciate it and look forward to learning more about the subject!

You really have a knack for explaining these complex matters.

I can now see how having an understanding of Latin grammar would enhance a person's enjoyment and appreciation of Roman Imperial coins. No wonder some of you folks are intent on finding coins with full legends

 

You're welcome! I didn't earn this medal for nothing!

 

Oh great. Now I have to Google what that means

Kidding-- congratulations!!

(and Google Translate failed badly for this medal-- the obverse says "not memorable" according to Google )

 

It is part of a quotation by Horace, et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor: "I try to subject circumstances to me, not me to circumstances."

The reverse is translated, "the importance of classical languages" Praestantia is nominative singular; linguarum classicarum is genitive plural: "of classical languages"