Also part of the Goldberg mixed lot. I don't have many Romans (...well, I do now...) but one of the few I have is also a Germanicus, one of my favorite coins. Happy to add another one of his coins. It had no attribution other than "Germanicus" so I hope this is correct. Germanicus, father of Caligula assassinated October 10, 19 AD struck 42/43 AD under Claudius, Rome mint AE As, 30mm Obv: bare head right; GERMANICVS CAESAR TI AVG F DIVI AVG N Rev: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P around large SC Ref: RIC I 106 (Claudius); Sear5 #1905; Cohen 9; BMC 241
dang..that was is great, super sharp and centered bulls eye right down the middle. nice lookin' color also!
That's certainly a great portrait of his. I quite like the "what should I be saying then" sort of smile he has Good catch Q
Germanicus looks rather handsome on all of his coins. Since all were struck posthumously, I wonder how accurately the engravers captured his visage. It's not like they could just look at a photograph to recall his features. Maybe they were based on busts or statues? Were any of those carved during his lifetime or were they idealized versions carved from memory?
Germanicus was a very, very prominent general,incredibly popular amongst the people, and expected to be the next emperor. There was most likely more than a few statues of him during his lifetime. However, my understanding of Julio-Claudian portraiture is limited but all of the Julio-Claudian was somewhat idealized (For example Augustus is never shown old even in later statues when he was 60+). It was used as a propaganda tool to remind the citizens of their lineage. They wanted the people to remember that they were descended from Augustus himself. The statues of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius all had some stylized version of Augustus' 'crab claw locks' Germanicus would have been no different. When I say the people loved Germanicus, my understanding that they LOVED Germanicus and Caligula would have played that up a lot when trying to gain favour from the people. He would have been idealized in a Julio-Claudian fashion and in a heroic pose. A good example of this would be the coin of Germanicus that Caligula struck showing on the obverse the triumph and on the reverse Germanicus standing in military dress. To my understanding after Caligula was removed from power Claudius also played up his relation to Germanicus to develop favour with the masses. In short, yes I believe they would have been based on preexisting statues but those statues would definitely have been idealized somewhat in a Julio Claudian Fashion. This is my humble understanding of it from a class I took two years ago when completing my undergrad. Hopefully someone will come improve on it and correct what I mistakenly placed.
Selecting a ruler based on who their father was rarely went well for the Romans but it is a lesson never learned. If there was an exception, it might be Titus but he died so early it is hard to say. Selecting a ruler by who swings the sharpest sword sounds like a worse answer but the system produced many of the greatest emperors. It can be fun to ask how history would have unfolded if, say, Germanicus had lived and Caligula had not been exposed to concentrated Tiberius but it really does no good.
Doug I can agree with you about the joys of 'What If' sometimes. One of my profs completed his grad school with a person who was most likely the #1 Biggest Fan in the Pertinax fan club. He always chuckled when he spoke of this fellow. Caligula really did get the worst period of Tiberius. Another one of those What If's if Caligula had been older in the early years of Tiberius where he was a competent ruler. I mean in all reality he probably would have been a statesman or a general and Tiberius would have gotten paranoid and taken action.
