In the recent Aureo & Calico auction I added yet another victoriatus to my collection, special for a couple of reasons. It has an interesting symbol and a fantastic provenance that was not listed in the sale, but I'll save the provenance discussion for the end. This victoriatus has a symbol that has traditionally been called a "knife", and even today most sellers call the coins of this and the related Crawford 109 series a "knife". While it does look like a bladed implement, but as Ted Poulton points out, this is in fact, a Celtiberian sword known as a falcata, a weapon which the Romans would no doubt have encountered during the Spanish campaigns of the Second Punic War. Ted's paper is short and worth reading, so I will not restate his entire "falcata" discussion here, but I will share one illustration from it because it gives a good idea of the size of a falcata and honestly, it's probably the best illustration I have seen in any numismatic paper. As far as the context of the minting of this coin, it is actually the latest victoriatus in my collection. This type was struck circa 206-195 BC, during the period where the Second Punic War was winding down or possibly even after the war. Even with the war winding down, Rome still had large numbers of troops in the field, some of which were in areas the denarius system hadn't really taken hold such as Gaul and Spain. As such, they continued minting victoriati here and there, though not anywhere near the massive numbers minted during earlier in the war. During this period, Rome also minted victoriati with sow, dog, thunderbolt, meta and staff on obverse(as opposed to the wartime staff reverse victoriati) but this is the only one with a symbol with an identity that isn't so obvious. Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(2.90g). Anonymous, second Falcata series, 206-195 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right; border of dots / Victory standing right, crowning trophy; falcata between. In exergue, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 120/1 Ex Aureo & Calico 375, 20 October 2021, lot 111, ex Joseph Martini Collection, Rodolfo Ratto Lugano 24 February 1930, lot 151 This coin comes from the 24 February 1930 Rodolfo Ratto Lugano sale of the Joseph(also known as Giuseppe) Martini collection. Martini was a bookdealer from Lucca, Italy who moved to New York in 1901, perhaps to explore new markets, but also because he had been caught attempting to sell stolen books, some of which he'd covered the shelfmarks on with his own person ex-libris in an attempt to hide that they'd been stolen from public libraries. In New York it seems that Martini developed an excellent reputation(or perhaps got so good at stealing that he never got caught, we may never know) and by 1912 had published his first American catalog and was selling books and manuscripts to a number of high profile clients. In 1924, Martini closed up shop in New York and moved to Florence for a few years and then later to Lugano where he lived until his death in 1944. It's thought that he may have left Italy this second time because he was in trouble once again, not for stealing, but instead for his anti-fascist leanings. Martini's Roman Republic collection spanned the entire extent of the coinage, from early aes grave issues to wonderful struck prow bronzes to Imperatorial rarities like the denarii of Cornuficius. In addition to the Ratto sale from which this coin came, some of Martini's coins were sold in Michele Baranowsky's 25 February 1931 sale, along with the collection of Valerio Traverso of Genoa. Below I've attached a picture of Martini along with my provenance scans in a new format I'm trying out. Interestingly, if you check out the text you'll notice that whoever previously owned the copy of the Martini sale that I have access to was apparently interested in this coin, as it's been marked to the left in the text. Credit: Archivio Diocesano de Lucca As always, feel free to post anything relevant
It's definitely similar. I'm far from an expert on ancient weapons but the sources I've read seem to think the falcata is descended from curved sickle weapons like the falx. In both cases the weapons were most effective when the wielder would try to bring one heavy blow down onto an enemy's helmet and both are known for being able to break right through Roman helmets and shields.
That's a very clear image of the weapon on that victoriatus - great find! And great provenance as well, although Martini does look a bit shifty in that pic. The used-book version of the used-car salesman.
... until my recreation of Elagabalus carting around the Sacred Stone makes it into some paper . Elagabalus AR denarius, 19.4 mm, 3.5 gm Antioch, 218-219 CE Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS FEL AVG, Laureate draped cuirassed bust right Rev: SANCT DEO SOLI / ELAGABAL, Quadriga right, bearing sacred Baetyl stone, flanked by four parasols Ref: RIC IV 195 Vauctions 310, lot 250 (25 Sept 2014) ex CNG Mail Bid Sale 33, lot 914 (15 March 1995) https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-a-boy-and-his-stone.254886/
I've got three of that series - victoriatus, denarius & a triens. The denarius is ex-Clain-Stefanelli, the others I don't know where they were before I picked them up in 2017 and 2013. This is the Cr. 120/2 denarius: I have one coin from the Martini collection, also ex-Leo Benz Collection. It was my "Coin of the month" in April. Cr. 494/27: Here was old scarface in the 1930 Ratto sale of Martini's coins: BTW, the Ratto catalogue and many more are on the French Bibliotheque Nationale de France Gallica site - https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/content/accueil-en?mode=desktop# I don't think the 2000 Lanz Martini sale is on that site, but I have the dead tree edition of that in any case. ATB, Aidan.
This Regulus is really, really excellent. Definitely worthy of being a "coin of the month" or even coin of the year.
A falcata (machaira) is a marker of Celtiberian identity on Roman republican coins. The falcata was used to great effect by the armies of Carthage in their wars against Rome. The term falcata is not ancient. It seems to have been coined by Fernando Fulgosio in 1872. It is difficult to tell when, or even if, it is being referred to in ancient literature. There is, however, one passage that is generally agreed to refer to this type of sword, in Seneca's De Beneficiis 5.24: A veteran who had been a bit too rough with his neighbors was pleading his case before Julius Caesar. "Do you remember," he said, "Imperator, how you twisted your ankle near Sucro?" When Caesar said he did remember: "Then you certainly remember that when you were lying to rest under a tree that was casting just a tiny shadow, in a very tough terrain with just that one lonely tree sticking out, one of your men laid out his cloak for you?" Caesar said "Why shouldn't I remember, even if I was exhausted? Because I was unable to walk I couldn't go to the nearby spring, and I would have been willing to crawl there on hands and knees, if it were not for a good soldier, a brave industrious chap, hadn't brought me water in his helmet?" to which the man replied, "Then, Imperator, you could recognize that man, or that helmet?" Caesar answered that he couldn't recognize the helmet, but certainly the man, and added, a bit irritated I think, "And you certainly are not him!" "It's not surprising," said the man, "that you do not recognize me, Caesar; for when that happened I was whole. Afterwards, at Munda my eye was gouged out, and my skull smashed in. Nor would you recognize that helmet if you saw it: it was split by a Hispania saber (machaera Hispana)." Caesar awarded the case to the veteran. AR Denarius, Hispania, Emerita Augusta, ca. 25 - 23 BC 19 x 20 mm, 3.554 g RIC I 2b (S), RSC I 401, BMCRE I 279, BMCRR Spain 112 Ob.: IMP CAESAR – AVGVST Bare head of Augustus to left Rev.: P CARISIVS (LEG PRO) PR, round shield with central boss within eight pointed star with studs, spearhead with short shaft above, machaira (curved short sword) below, linear border.
Great coin. Fully centered and all details defined. The provenance is significant and I'm impressed with your research to find this in the Ratto sale.
Thanks! When I saw the Aureo & Calico sale I had a feeling there might be some old provenances from the looks of some coins. I only researched a small number of coins but also found that the spearhead quinarius in the sale had a provenance to the Ratto sale of the Bonazzi collection in 1925, and I passed this tip on to a friend of ours who won the quinarius. I suspect there were others but I didn't have time to research the full sale.
Great writeup. Yeah, that's no knife...it's a sword. Are we sure this was minted in Rome and not Spain?
You'd think they're from Spain based on the imagery and the fact that you have the RRC 109 falcata denarii that probably are from Spain but the style of these(and the associated RRC 120 denarii and bronzes) look like Rome mint to me. There's also pretty good stylistic continuity from certain RRC 53 victoriatus groups to the later RRC 57 and related symboled victoriati to these victoriati in the 206-195 BC range that suggests a single mint made them all or at least that they had shared engravers
