The Faces of Titius

Circa 90 B.C., during the time of the Social War, Q. Titius and C. Vibius C.F. Pansa were co-moneyers at Rome. The Social War was a civil war between Rome and her Italian allies who had broken-away in a demand for citizenship rights. It was a time of massive coinage output by the Rome mints, likely to pay the costs associated with the conflict. Not much is known of TItius or Pansa. TItius is the only member of the TItia gens for whom coins are known. Pansa was possibly the father of the later Pansa who struck coins in 49 BC and became consul in 43BC.

Some of Titius’ silver coin types feature a male head with long, pointed beard. There is speculation that the head represents Mutinus Titinus, another name of the minor god Priapus, and a naming pun for Titius. His AE asses overwhelmingly depict a Janiform head with atypical, long. pointy beard, resembling the head shown on his silver coins.

On the other hand, obverses of Pansa’s AE asses overwhelmingly depict Janus with a more traditional, curled beard. The fact that the obverse styles of Pansa’s and TItius’ contemporaneous asses are so different supports the argument that the pointy-bearded character on TItius’ coins represents someone other than Janus.

The fact that Titius and Pansa served as moneyers at the same time is evidenced by occasional mules of Titius’ pointy-bearded obverses with Pansa reverses and vice versa. Below are two AE Asses of Titius from my collection.

The first coin bears Titius’ typical, pointy-bearded Janiform head on the obverse with a prow right reverse.

Rome, The Republic. Rome Mint.
Q. Titius, 90BC
AE As. 8.01 grams; 27 mm.
Obv: Laureate Janiform head with pointed beard.
Rev: Prow right; Q·TITI above.
Crawford 341/4a or 4c; Sydenham 694; BMCRR 2231-2235


The second coin, a recent acquisition, is an interesting mule pairing a Pansa, curled-beard Janus head with a rare Titius reverse depicting a right-facing prow with palm symbol behind the prow stem. The reverse inscription is Q. TITI, so there’s no mistaking the reverse die.

Rome, The Republic. Rome Mint.
Q. Titius, 90BC.
AE As. 10.78 grams; 27 mm.
Obv: Laureate Janiform head with curled beard.
Rev: Prow right; palm symbol behind prow stem; Q·TITI above.
Crawford 341/4d; Sydenham 694b (R4); Hannover 2942


An online search of acsearch, Coin Archives and Coins of the Roman Republic Online yielded only four auction sales and one ANS example of this rare reverse, and all of them were paired with a pointy-bearded obverse. However, the Kestner Museum Hannover has a similar mule that may be a double die match to my coin (see Berger, Hannover 2942). Further, the Kestner Museum has a Pansa AE As in their collection with an apparent obverse die match to my mule (see Berger, Hannover 2974).

Based on these Titius/Pansa mules what could we surmise about administrative practices at the Rome mint circa 90BC?

One unlikely possibility is that obverse dies, which contained no legends, were mixed freely among the two moneyers; however, the overwhelming conformity of pointy-bearded TItius asses and curled-beard Pansa asses refutes this suggestion. The mules are too scarce to suggest any freewheeling intent.

A second, more-likely possibility is that all dies, TItius’ and Pansa’s, were controlled by a central mint repository which assigned the dies to teams at the commencement of work shifts and likely collected them for security at the end of work shifts. Care was certainly taken to pair pointy-bearded Janus obverses with TItius reverses, as evidenced by the super-majority of extant coins. Mistakes were inevitably made. How long it took the mint to correct such mistakes is unclear. The fact that my collection and the Kestner Museum share a mule from the same dies suggests that a good number of coins were made by that die pairing, probably on the same day. The fact that Kestner Museum also has the same Pansa obverse die paired with a correct Pansa reverse proves that die combination was a likely mistake; whether the correct pairing was made at a previous work shift, at a subsequent work shift when dies were reassigned, or in the middle of the same work shift cannot be determined – the coins are not in such great condition that die states can be easily compared.

Third, the mules suggest that TItius’ and Pansa’s coins were struck at the same mint and perhaps in the same workshop by different striking teams. Though I don’t think it’s possible to extrapolate whether the dies were controlled on a workshop basis vs. a full mint basis.

Feel free to pile-on with your coins of Titius or Pansa, mules of Titius and Pansa, or your own theories.

 

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i loved the style of the "pointy beard" janiform coins, cool coins and interesting post!

 

Great coins. I love the difference in style. #1 seems very stylized while #2 looks more realistic.

Here is my Pansa denarii from 90 BCE



And I also have a Frugi from 90 BCE. Notice the difference in control numbers on obverse and reverse. The reverse dies wore out quicker.



Both coins quite common thanks to the Social War, or as I like to call it, the "Oh darn, we should have made them citizens" War.

 

Very informative post, thank you! I have no Pansa or Titius in Bronze, just a couple pedestrian Silvers. This was an incredible time in Roman History (Social War), where they literally lost the war due to their conceding all political terms. However, they won the war militarily, as well as effectively wiping out their nemesis, Samnia.

 

@Carausius

A very nice writeup. I really enjoyed reading about those coins.

 

Thanks @Carausius. Great coins and great write-up.

 

A very enjoyable and informative write-up...and really super coins!!

 

Thanks for the excellent write-up on these interesting issues.

 

I always wondered about those pointy Titius beards... thanks, great coins and writeup!

 

Great research and very interesting history.

This kind of thread is a highlight of cointalk for me.

John

 

Good to see a couple of republican As in such good condition. And an interesting write up. Congrats.

 

nice coins of the era of the "social wars". here's a quinarius of cato the elder minted at that time. (89bc).

 

Thanks @Carausius for opening this thread. I love this critical time in Roman History...

CRITICAL JUNCTURE IN HUMAN HISTORY (Part I):
This is one of my favorite period in Roman / Italia History. Rome may had never been, had they WON the war and NOT given the Italians their rights and their demands... And who knows what would have happened if the Italians WON the war militarily! Would they have just broke away from Rome?

Social War 90-88 BCE:

ROME:

90 BCE:

RR Vibius Pansa 90 BCE AR Den Apollo Minerva Quadriga Sear 242 Craw 345/5

89 BCE:

RR Titurius Sabinus 89 BCE AR Den Tarpeia buried shields Sear 251 Craw 344/2a

88 BCE:

RR Cn Cornelius Lentulus denarius 88 BCE Sear 254 Craw 345/1

 

CRITICAL JUNCTURE IN HUMAN HISTORY (Part II):
This is one of my favorite period in Roman / Italia History. Rome may had never been, had they WON the war and NOT given the Italians their rights and their demands... And who knows what would have happened if the Italians WON the war militarily! Would they have just broke away from Rome?

Social War 90-88 BCE:

MARSIC CONFEDERATION:

90-88 BCE:

Marsic Confederation denarius 90-88 BCE Italia-Corfinium Sear 227


Marsic denarius 89 BCE Bovianum-Asernia-Samnia O-R HN Italy 407 Sear 230


Marsic Confederation denarius 89 BCE Italia-Corfinium Obv-Rev Campana 105 HN Italy 412a Sear 228

 

Q TITIUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Head of Mutinus Titinus (Priapus) right, wearing winged diadem
REVERSE: Pegasus springing right, Q TITI on base
Struck at Rome 90 BC
3.8g, 18mm
Cr341/1, Syd 691; Titia 1

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Head of Taitus facing right, SABIN behind, palm before
REVERSE: Tarpeia buried to her waist in shields, fending off two soldiers about to throw their shields on her; L. TITVRI in exergue
Struck at Rome 89 BC
3.2 g, 20 mm
Cr344/2b; Sydenham 699; Tituria 4

 

yes! this period is the foundation of what made the latter of the republic and birth of the empire!

 

Those Marsic confederation coins are awesome @Alegandron. #2's obverse in particular just blows me away.

My only coin from the Social War, the common L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi denarius from 90 BC:

 

Thank you, your Frugi is great! Great features, centered, and good devices.

I love all 3 of my Marsics... the first one representing the solemn oath scene of the 8 Italic Tribes forming the Marsic Confederation; the second for the striking face; and the third for its extreme scarcity.

 

i was bidding on a sabinus coin a while back and let it go..curse me the blabbed lip

 

You know it's rare when...

(I'd be bragging about my rare coin if I had one of the "common" ones...)