Voting in Republican Rome

I picked up two coins this week to make a small set of RR coins with voting on them. I suspect that there are some control marks that involve voting. If you know of other RR coins with voting, let me know.



from top left, clockwise
Date, Moneyer
-126, C.CASSI - C. Cassius Longinus
-112, P·NERVA - P. Licinius Nerva
-63, L CASSI LONGIN - Lucius Cassius Longinus
-55, Q CASSIVS VEST - C. Cassius Longinus

I just ordered this book:


a bit more here -
http://rrdenarius.blogspot.com/

 

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Those coins in your set are what I consider four of the most interesting Republican, each with a story to tell.
Very nice.

 

Interesting graffito on the P. Nerva. Do you think it was deliberate?

 

The coin circulated a long time. I think the marks are cuts to check purity, or testing for fourees.

 

Top pic, bottom right...I think I see a "hanging chad"!

 

No. That's a campaign contribution.

 

Unusually nice coins, the portrait on the "Q CASSIVS VEST" is particularly stunning. All have a great, "I've been tucked away in a cabinet for a while" look. I am curious to see the reverse of your "126, C.CASSI" (Correction: just found it in your attachments). Here's my "63, L CASSI LONGIN" -

L. Cassius Longinus, moneyer, AR Denarius minted at Rome, 63 BC.
Obv: Draped bust of Vesta veiled left, kylix behind, letter before
Rev: Male figure left, dropping inscribed tablet into a cista
Ref: Crawford 413/1; Syd. 935; Cassia 10

Quite the family tree:
L Cassius Longinus (moneyer) brother of one of Julius Caesar's assassins and son of Gaius Cassius Longinus Varus (consul of 73) son of L Cassius Longinus (consul of 107) son of L Cassius Longinus Ravilla (consul of 127)

In 113 BC L Cassius Longinus Ravilla was special prosecutor in the case of three Vestal Virgins accused of violating their vows of chastity.

Lucius Cassius [Longinus Ravila, consul 127, censor 125] was (as I have already often noted) a man of greatest severity. As often as he was a quaesitor in some trial in which inquiry was being made concerning the murder of a man he would advise and even instruct the jury as to what Cicero is now advising: that they should consider in whose interest (cui bono) it was that the man perish whose murder they were investigating. Because of this rectitude, on the occasion on which Sextus Peducaeus the tribune of the plebs [113] indicted Lucius [Caecilius] Metellus [Delmaticus] the Pontifex Maximus [from before 114 to 103] and the whole College of Pontiffs on the grounds of having improperly passed judgment [December 16 and 18, 114] on the chastity of the Vestal Virgins, because they had condemned only one, Aemilia, but exonerated the other two, Marcia and Licinia, the Populus appointed this Cassius to investigate the same Vestal Virgins. He condemned the two of them, and several others besides, with too great asperity (as people think).
- Asconius note 32 on Cicero's Pro Milone

Lex Cassia tabellaria one of four laws replacing oral declaration with secret ballot:

• 139 BC lex Gabinia tabellaria : secret ballot for election of magistrates
• 137 BC lex Cassia tabellaria : secret ballot for juries except in cases of treason
• 131 BC lex Papiria : secret ballot in the passing of laws
• 107 BC lex Caelia : secret ballot expanding Cassia to cases of treason

Several other coins for this theme (ACSearch links, not my coins)
- a coin of C. Malleolus 118 BC showing a voting tablet
- a coin of C. Malleolus, A. Albinus, and L. Caecilius Metellus 96 BC with voting tablet
- a coin of L. Papius 79 BC with a voting tablet and voting urn
- a coin of C Piso Frugi 67 BC with voting tablet control mark
- a coin of Caius Cœlius Caldus 51 BC with a voting tablet

 

These are certainly of special interest! I just have the one:

Agreed.

 

Beautiful coins. This is my voting coin



P. Licinius Nerva, denarius.
113-112 BC, Rome.
Obv. Helmeted bust of Roma to left, with spear and shield.
Rev. P NERVA, voting scene, three citizens voting in the comitium. One voter casts his vote to right, to left another receives his from an attendant.
Crawford 292/1, Sydenham 548, RSC 169, Licinia 7.

 

The thing that looks like a net in a game of tennis, is actually a bridge (pons) you had to cross in order to cast your vote on the other side. I recently acquired this Nerva coin too.

 

A couple:





Phil Davis

 

Thanks for the links. It looks like I have a few more coins to find. I found a great Crawford 335/3, but it is a b not a g or f.

 

Nice examples. Many subtle details on these types, which are some of the most "real life" types in the Roman Republic, particularly the Licinia. Ok, maybe "voting to condemn a Vestal" wasn't an annual event....

 

Great set, and good idea for a sub-series


L. Cassius Longinus, Denarius
Rome mint, 63 BC
Veiled bust of Vesta left. Control mark L below chin
LONGIN IIIV, togate citizen standing left, voting
3.93 gr
Ref : RCV # 364, RSC, Cassia # 10, Crawford # 413/1, Sydenham # 935


Q

 

I noticed a couple of voting coins in this weekend's Nomisma SPA E-Live 20. It is a good thing I did not see this one before the auction started, or I would have less $ to buy cast bronze. The seller's description does not mention the ballot, with V, to the left of Apollo's head.

Calpurnia – L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi - Denarius (90 bc.C.) Head of Apollo a d. - R/ Knight galloping to d. with palm branch – B. 11; Cr. 340/1 AG (g 3.76) Ex Artemis 2006, lot 1283. Stain on D/ Grading/Status: SPL+

The seller's description does not mention the ballot, with V, to the left of Apollo's head.​

Cassia – L. Cassius Longinus - Denario (63 a.C.) Testa di Vesta a s. – R/ Cittadino votante a s. – B. 10; Cr. 413/1 AG (g 3,94) Ex Nomisma 34/2007, lotto 149. Graffietto sulla guancia al D/; Grading/Status: FDC

​

 

Great coins, interesting history and it makes for a nice subset. No coins like these to add, but I do wonder about the reverse of 55, Q CASSIVS VEST - C. Cassius Longinus and the relation to voting? Im not very knowledgable about these types....

 

The coin is a Roman Republican denarius -
Roman Republic, AR Denarius. Rome, Q. Cassius Longinus, 55 BC
Obv - Veiled bust of Vesta right; Q•CASSIVS behind; VEST before
Rev - Curule chair within circular temple of Vesta between urn and voting tablet inscribed AC (Absolvo; Condemno).
Sydenham 917;
Crawford 428/1.
This coin relates to an ancestor, L. Cassius Longinus, and his Lex Cassia Tabellaria, a law relating to the method of voting. This Cassius, having been appointed in the year of Rome 641, under the Peduceian Law, as Commissioner with praetorian power to investigate certain cases of violation of chastity in Vestal virgins, summoned again to trial and condemned to death Licinia and Marcia, who had allegedly been improperly acquitted by L. Metellus P. M, according to Asconius Paedianus on Cic. Pro Milone. Cassius was so great an exemplar of severity that he was commonly called ‘reorum scopulus’, and Cassiana judicia became a proverb. The curule chair within the temple denotes the praetorian power. The urn, or cista, is that into which the tabella were cast.

 

I am happy to add this coin to this thread, and it gives me a good excuse to revisit the OP Q. Cassius Longinus, Cr. 428/1.

C. Calpurnius L. f. Frugi, AR Denarius, Rome 61 BC
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo to right; behind, voting tablet
Rev: C PISO L F FRVG, naked horseman galloping right, holding palm branch; above, wheat fractional sign
Ref: Crawford 408/1a (dies 33/38), BMCRR Rome 3782
Notes: Roman Voting Laws