Geographic Personifications

Here is one for Trajan. Arabia Acquired. Certainly a different message from the Flavians with their Ivdea Capta coins.

 

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AFRICA


RI Commodus 177-192 CE AR Denarius laureate hd and Hercules and Africa

 

Arabia with her canes and camel:


Trajan, AD 98-117.
Roman AR denarius, 3.35 g, 18.3 mm, 7 h.
Rome, AD 103-111.
Obv: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P, laureate bust, right, with drapery on left shoulder.
Rev: COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC, Arabia, draped, standing left, holding branch in right hand over camel walking left before her and a bundle of canes (?) in left hand.
Refs: RIC 142; BMCRE 297-299; Cohen 89; Sear --; ERIC II 400.

 

Antoninus Pius. ALEXANDRIA HARBOR SCENE. Alexandria, Egypt; dated 154/155 AD (year 18). Æ drachm (32 MM). Obv: Bust of Antoninus Pius, l. Rev: Isis Euploea standing facing, head left, holding grain ears upward in right hand, reversed rudder in her left. To her left, prow of galley with billowing sail, moving right, behind her. Another similar galley to her right moving left (neither visible in Emmett specimen). Euthenia reclining right to Isis' left and river-god Nilus holding rudder, reclining left on the right at her feet. Date “L – IH” across upper fields

 

Oh, I forgot about this one -- my Rhine River coin:


Postumus, AD 260-269.
Roman billon antoninianus, 2.54 g, 22.4 mm, 12 h.
Trier (some attribute to Cologne), 1st emission, 2nd phase, AD 260-261.
Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: SALVS PROVINCIARVM, river god Rhinus, bearded and horned, reclining left, resting right hand on boat and holding anchor in left, left arm resting on urn.
Refs: RIC 87; RSC 355b; Mairat 1-5; RCV 10991; AGK 88c; De Witte 290; Hunter p. lxxxviii.

 

Great idea for a thread! I can add a couple of river gods.

River god Orontes:


Trebonianus Gallus, 251-253, Seleucis and Pieria, Antioch-on-the-Orontes, AE Octassarion (30 mm, 18.53 g). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Trebonianus Gallus to right./ Rev.Tyche of Antioch seated facing with river god Orontes swimming left below; all within tetrastyle portable shrine surmounted by ram leaping right; on bottom of shrine, carrying poles. RPC IX 1851.

River god Borysthenes:


Scythia, Olbia. Circa 310-280 BC., (AE 28 mm, 9.07 g), Horned head of river god Borysthenes to left/ Rev. OΛBIO Axe and bow in bowcase.

 

Didn't this one represent EGYPT Chained?


RI Augustus oak crown Agrippa rostral crown L AE Dupondius 26mm 12.6g Type III 9-3 BCE Nemausus chained Croc wreaths RIC I 158

 

Hadrian Ar Denarius 134-138 A.D. Obv Head right bare Rv Alexandria standing left. RIC 300 RIC II/3 1502 3.19 grams 18 mm Photo By W. Hansen

 

Thanks! I wish I had more, especially some bronzes from Hadrian's Travel series, which include provinces that don't have a counterpart in silver, such as Bithynia, Mauritania, Cappadocia and Dacia.

Nice sestertius. I wanted to say that the Hadrian ITALIA denarius doesn't show her with a turreted crown, but a quick google search turned up this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italia_turrita
I wonder if the change in depiction first occurred with the Pius issue.

 

While Claudius II coins are not the height of artistry... I've always liked this depiction of poor little Goths captured, moping and being made part of a victory display. I need to get a better picture of this coin... it's really nice for the type. Some of the glare suggests some rough surfaces but it has smooth surfaces and is a really a fun coin.

 

Heres' a Nilus too:

Antoninus Pius Alexandria

 

Don't forget the Tiber river.
Antoninus Pius Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 140. ANTONINVS AVG - PIVS P P TR P COS III, Laureate head right / TIBERIS, Tiber reclining left, leaning on urn which pours out water, resting right hand on ship and holding reed; S-C across field. RIC III 642a; BMCRE 1313; Cohen 819. 26.52g, 33mm, 11h.

 

@DonnaML.....Nice thread....Great looking Septimius, but my favourite is the RR Hispania lovely detail...
Antoninus Pius, 138 - 161 AD
Billon Tetradrachm, Egypt, Alexandria Mint, 23mm, 11.94 grams
Obverse: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Antoninus right.
Reverse: Nilus reclining left holding reed and cornucopia from which emerges Nilus, crocodile below.
Emmerr 1413.13 // Dattari 2294 // Koln 1594 // K&G 35.426

Gallienus, Antoninianus, Minted AD 258-259 (Joint reign)
Obverse..GALLIENVS dot P dot F dot AVG Radiate, curaissed bust right
Reverse..GERMANICVS MAX V trophy between two seated and bound German captives
RIC VI#18 variant obv legend dots..Cologne

 

MAXIMIANUS, Follis
Carthage, 299-303
8.96 g - 28 mm
S 13306 - C 510 - RIC VI 31b
IMP MAXIMIANVS PF AVG, Laureate head right
SALVIS AVGG ET CAESS FEL KART, Carthago standing facing, head left, holding fruits in both hands

 

Great idea for a thread, @DonnaML, here is one that hasn't made a showing yet - Two Pannoniae, Upper and Lower

Trajan Decius, AD 249-251, AR Antoninianus, Rome mint, struck AD 250
Obv: IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: PANNONIAE The two Pannoniae, both veiled, draped, standing front, turning left and right away from one another; the one on the left holds standard in left hand; the one on the right raises right hand
Ref: RIC IV 21b

 

A severe case of buyer's remorse caused me to return this one for a trade of another type with better surfaces.

Hadrian Restitutor Africae as - note elephant headdress


I believe someone posted the denarius match for this sestertius earlier.

Reclining Nilus from Alexandria has been shown.

 

Britannia:

*REPLICA COIN*


Obverse: Hadrian, laureate head right
Inscription: HADRIANVS AVG COS III PP
Reverse: Britannia seated half left with feet on rocks holding sceptre with shield to right
Inscription: BRITANNIA - SC (in exergue)

I included this modern reproduction because I have been unable to find a presentable genuine coin of this iconic issue in my price range - despite years of searching. Purportedly this replica was cast from a specimen coin in the British Museum collection.


RIC II, ANTONINUS PIUS, As, No. 934
Obverse: Antoninus Pius, laureate, draped, bust facing right
Inscription clockwise from bottom: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP TRP XVIII
Reverse: Britannia seated left on rock, shield and vexillum in background
Inscription: BRITANNIA COS IIII - S C (exergue)

@John Conduitt has a much nicer coin than mine. I hope he reads this post and then posts his coin here.

 

A couple:

Hadrian, AE drachm, Nilos reclining.

Egypt, Alexandria - Hadrian. (117-138)
Year 127-128

Type: AE Drachm, 32mm 24.42 grams

Obverse: AVT KAI TPAI AAPIA CEB, Laureate draped and cuirassed bust right

Reverse: LDW (delta) EK in exergue, Nilos reclining left upon a crocodile, holding cornucopia and reed, Genius emerging from the cornucopia and pointing at letters IS in upper field

Reference: Milne 1269





This coin is quite historical and commemorates Hadrian’s arrival in Egypt in the year 130-131.




Hadrian. 117-138 AD.

Æ Drachm, 36mm, 22.1g, 11h; Alexandria, Year 15 = 130/1 AD.

Obverse: AVT KAI - TRAI AΔPIA CEB; Bust laureate, draped, cuirassed right.

Reverse: Alexandria kisses the hand of the arriving emperor; he is laureate and togate, stands left, extends right hand to Alexandria and holds scepter in left; she stands right wearing elephant skin headdress, guides the emperor's hand to her mouth with her right hand, and holds two wheat ears downwards with her left hand; in lower field L - IE.

Reference: Cologne 1034; Emmett 964/15.

 

Thanks for this; I was hopeful that someone might have an original Britannia to show, but wasn't really expecting it. I would guess that coins depicting Britannia are probably the most coveted and most expensive of all Roman geographic personifications, for pretty obvious reasons. I don't remember exactly when the personification of Britannia was revived on British coinage; off the top of my head, the earliest British coins I have with Britannia on the reverse are a couple of Charles II farthings from the 1670s.

 

Thanks for this. I had no idea that a turreted crown is still an attribute of Italia even now, after 2,000 years. Or that her depiction wearing one descends directly from depictions of Cybele, who is portrayed with a turreted crown on more than one Republican coin -- for example, the obverse of the Aulus Plautius denarius with the Bacchius Iudaeus with camel reverse that I posted in another thread just yesterday:



(Cybele asked me to convey her apologies for her poor skin condition. It doesn't show that much without magnification. Always a mistake to look at one's skin that way.)

I also find it interesting how generic some of the personifications are. Nilus and the personification of the Euphrates seem way more individualized than the personifications of the Rhine and the Tiber, which appear only to have generic nautical attributes like boats, etc. portrayed with them. And, unlike Aegyptos and Dacia, among others, the portrayals of Asia (with a hook and rudder) and the two Pannoniae (one with a standard) also seem pretty generic. For some provinces, there may not have been any specific attributes that the public would immediately recognize.

Also, assuming that the gender of a personification was determined by the grammatical gender of the location's name -- hence most provinces being portrayed as female, and most rivers as male -- I wonder why one of the portrayals of Germania posted in this thread appears to be clearly male, and the other female. Unless the male one is simply "a defeated German warrior," and the female is the actual personification "Germania."* I've been assuming that the Trajan Decius personification of Dacia that I posted is male -- because that's how the figure looks to me -- but perhaps not.

*Just as (see the recent thread on the subject) the actual personification "Virtus" is always female, whereas male portrayals accompanying a "Virtus" legend are not the personification herself, but rather the emperor or a soldier reflecting the attributes of "Virtus."