With Halloween almost upon us, I thought I would show something a little macabre... maybe? This coin has a nightmare-to-photograph obverse (dark+glossy+rough), but the reverse, which is its selling point for me, is really quite nice. Behrendt Pick in Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands Vol I/I (AMNG), calls the figure shown "Eros (als Todesgenius)", Eros (as the Genius of Death). Many sale descriptions of this coin type just go with "Thanatos", the Greek personification of Death. What, this little cherub... Death? COMMODUS AE20 4.43g, 19.6mm THRACE, Philippopolis, circa AD 180-192 RPC Online Vol. 4, #7572 var (obv legend and bust type) O: AV KAI M AV ANT [KOMOΔO], laureate and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind. R: ΦIΛIΠΠOΠOΛЄITΩN, winged Eros, legs crossed, resting on an inverted torch. The depiction of a winged youth, leaning rather sadly on an inverted torch, as if to symbolize a life extinguished, is a common decorative motif on Roman sarcophagi and other funerary art (as seen below in an early 4th century Roman sarcophagus). But what does Eros, the Greek god of love and desire, have to do with Thanatos, and why would anything as inauspicious as a Death aspect be used as the main device on coins bearing the image of a living emperor or child caesar? For me, the latter question would be the main stumbling block in the identification of the figure as Thanatos. Some think it really is just a case of mistaken identity, and the figure shown is just one of the Erotes, manifestations of Eros who symbolize different aspects of love or sex. I won't say this is absolutely clear to me, but I think it at least makes more sense than Sweet Baby Genius of Death on a coin. If you're keen on reading more, the matter is explored in an excellent essay here. Coins of this type were struck in just a handful of cities in Thrace, Moesia and Asia Minor (most commonly by the Severans and the Antonines), but numerous other cities had coins that unambivalently show Eros in another pose or context. If you have any coins with members of the Cute Collective (Eros, the Erotes, or Cupid), please do share them.
Sweet Baby Genius of Death? New metal band name What a strange device for a coin... very interesting! This type is definitely going on my BUY list .
In certain provinces, a few themes indigenous to the local cultures are repeated relentlessly on the coinage. That is not the case with Philippopolis. If you look through all the coinage of this city, you'll find practically all the major gods and goddesses of the time being portrayed, either in their original Greek aspects or in their Roman forms. If you want to collect gods on provincial coins, Philippopolis is the place to go! So I know it takes a little mystery out of it, but why wouldn't Eros be depicted? He's just one more major god in the pantheon - that doesn't take anything away from the OP coin, the type is quite scarce and desirable. 2000 years from now will someone ask, "Why did they put Millard Filmore on a coin?" And the answer will be the same: they were putting them ALL on coins.
Finding the type is not all that hard. Finding nice ones may be a different story. My Septimius Severus is from Nicopolis. The Caracalla Caesar is from Philippolis.
If one accepts that it's "only" Eros shown on the coin, there's certainly no mystery... he was a popular kid, afterall. The question is really if Eros has indeed been mistaken for Thanatos. The linked essay makes a convincing argument, and also quite convincingly explains why the confusion has arisen, but how much certainty can we ever arrive at when we're 2000 years removed from the context.
I'll read the essay, thanks for posting it. I just don't have the time till tomorrow. I loves me a good coin essay!
Nice!! => I'm lovin' the sweet baby death cupid!! (it looks so sweet and innocent ... man, that's a deceptive trick) great score
