I received this coin over the weekend with a representation of the Dei Penates. I spent a lot of time attempting to get a good image, but in the end I used my new Samsung S10 (great camera lens). I tried various lighting techniques, but the best images were taken in a shady area outside. These images are truest to color in hand whereas using my normal camera and various indoor lighting seemed to produce brownish images. Of course, the Die Penates is what drew my attention to the coin, but the representation of the hog is what sealed my desire to be the custodian of this coin. What a mean looking, long snouted pig! That eye just looks evil. In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates or Penates were among the dii familiares, or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. They were thus associated with Vesta, the Lares, and the Genius of the paterfamilias in the "little universe" of the domus. Like other domestic deities, the Penates had a public counterpart. The Penates of Rome (Penates Publici Populi Romani) had a temple on the Velia near the Palatine. Aeneas and the Penates, from a 4th-century manuscript Now the coin: C. SULPICIUS C.f. GALBA AR Serrate Denarius OBVERSE: Conjoined laureate heads of the Dei Penates left REVERSE: Two soldiers swearing oath over a sow; F above; C SVLPICI C F in ex Struck at Rome, 106 BC 3.8g, 19mm Cr312/1; Syd 572; Sulpicia 1
I have enjoyed mine since I got it in 2000 from Jonathan Kern. There is just something special about swearing an oath on a pig that makes this a must have type. Of course, I know you agree with me that there is another great type with jugate heads. I love the 3/4 view of the galley of Mn, Fonteius. I once hoped you would trade me your better one but I settled for this one. In this case, the pair are Castor and Pollux. Honos and Virtus look good. too. The scene of Italia and Roma would be special in many comparisons but almost seems ordinary when put up with pigs and ships. A flat strike on the reverse impairs my Marcius Censorinus detracting from the fact that the one rider has two horses. The interest here is the pairing of two old Roman kings, Ancus Marcius and Numa Pompilius. For the reverse to enter the class of the others here, we would need the design to show the rider jumping from one horse to the other. Yes, I believe it is true: Two heads really are better than one! Are there other jugate Republicans?
Congrats @Bing on your new addition & nicely photographed coin! Here's my miracle of the sow denarius. C. Sulpicius C.f. Galba, AR serrate denarius, Rome, 106 BC Obv: Jugate heads of Dei Penates left, DPP before Rev: Two male figures standing facing one another, each holding a spear and pointing at sow which lies between; L above Size: 18.5mm, 3.96g Ref: Crawford 312/1, RSC Sulpicia 1 A temple with an inner sanctuary had been built for the images of the gods which Aeneas had brought with him from the Troad and set up in Lavinium, and the statues had been removed from Lavinium to this sanctuary; but during the following night, although the doors were most carefully closed and the walls of the enclosure and the roof of the temple suffered no injury, the statues changed their position and were found upon their old pedestals. -Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities But Cato, in the Origin of the Roman Race instructs us thus: that a sow bore thirty piglets in the place where Lavinium now is, and when Aeneas had decided to establish a city there and was lamenting on account of the sterility of the soil, that in sleep there appeared to him likenesses of household gods encouraging him to persevere in the establishment of the city which he had begun; for, after as many years as were the offspring of that sow, Trojans would move to fertile spots and more fruitful soil and would establish the city of the most famous name in Italy. - ORIGO GENTIS ROMANAE Thomas M. Banchich 2004
