What's the story behind this Numerian reverse type?

What's the backstory behind this reverse design?

I don't know as much as I would like to know about the iconography on the reverse of this coin of Numerian. The inscription reads CLEMENTIA, which typically identifies the personification of mercy (clemency). Clementia is usually portrayed as a female deity, holding a branch or scepter, and sometimes leaning on a column. However, on this coin, the reverse depicts the emperor receiving Victory on globe from Jupiter ...


Numerian, Augustus AD 283-284
Roman billon Antoninianus; 4.09 g, 20 mm
Cyzicus, AD 284
Obv: IMP C NVMERIANVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev: CLEMENTIA TEMP, Numerian standing right, holding short scepter and receiving Victory on globe from Jupiter standing left, holding scepter; officina mark B in field; in exergue, XXI
Refs: RIC 463; Cohen 8; RCV 12243.

Now, I'm familiar with this motif on somewhat later coins of Maximian and Diocletian bearing the CONCORDIA MILITVM inscription, here on coins also from the Cyzicus mint:


Diocletian, AD 284-304
Roman Æ Antoninianus; 3.32 g; 19.4 mm
Cyzicus, AD 284-295
Obv: IMPCCVAL DIOCLETIANVS AVG, radiate and draped bust, r.
Rev: CONCORDIA MILITVM, Emperor standing r., receiving Victory from Jupiter standing l., Γ in field, below; XII in exergue
Ref: RIC 306



Maximian, AD 286-308
Roman Æ Antoninianus; 3.78 mm, 23.0 mm, 12 h
Cyzicus, AD 293-294
Obv: IMP C M A MAXIMIANVS AVG, radiate and draped bust right
Rev: CONCORDIA MILITVM•, Emperor standing right, receiving Victory from Jupiter standing left; Г/XII•
Refs: RIC 607; Cohen 53; RCV 13115.

But what does this reverse type have to do with clemency, anyway? Does anybody know?

I'd love to see other examples of this reverse type used with other inscriptions. Please share but, of course, feel free to post whatever you feel is relevant!

 

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I have no idea but the type had been around for a while. Here is Tacitus and Probus. I would read it as a plea for the mercy of Jupiter to be bestowed upon us.

 

Learned something new again! Great coins to boot!

 

This is how Curtis Clay explains:
There's doubtless an extensive bibliography on the subject, that I haven't read, but Melville Jones' article Clementia in hisDictionary of Roman Coins might be a place to start.

He says that Julius Caesar was famous for his mercy to his defeated enemies, so the Senate voted to erect a temple to Caesar's clemency, which is depicted on some coins of the year of Caesar's assassination, 44 BC.

As to later appearances of Clementia on coins, Jones thinks the specific meaning of mercy to defeated enemies was preserved under Tiberius, Vitellius, and Clodius Albinus as Augustus, whereas under Hadrian and the Antonines Clementia might just be a general imperial virtue without "special reference to contemporary events."

Jones thinks this general meaning was repeated when the type reappeared on coins from Gallienus to Maximianus, sometimes with the legend you ask about, CLEMENTIA TEMP(ORVM).

At first glance I wonder about this supposed general meaning. Why choose a Clementiatype unless you specifically meant mercy to defeated enemies? Even good emperors had to deal with foiled conspirators and accusations of treason.

 

Yes. Especially when you couple that with an image of Jupiter handing you Victory.

 

Thank you @dougsmit and @EDDOP for your insight.

So, perhaps the Numerian CLEMENTIA TEMP(ORVM) issue is intended to be a message to the troops of Diocletian: "Surrender; we will be victorious but we will show you mercy." In turn, the CONCORDIA MILITVM issue of Diocletian--issued just months after--may mean "It's time for the army (former troops of Carus and Numerian and troops of Diocletian) to come together."

 

Thanks for the analysis @Roman Collector !

 

I was searching for the meaning for the CLEMENTIA TEMP legend on my Probus coin, when I ran into this thread. Let me present another idea that I found that is different from the preceding posts.

The following reference says that it may be hope for a merciful break in the weather to end a famine. Maybe it could have continued after a famine in the hopes that it would not reoccur.

Check the reference out too … Spink & son 1897. Whoa, I never imagined Spink went that far back!




The quote in Latin translated (by Google Translate);
•“Quicquid ad Eoos tractus mundique teporem Labitur, emollit gentes clementia coeli”
•Whatever the eastern regions of the world warming falls, it softens nations mercy Heaven.

From:

The Numismatic Circular and Catalogue of Coins, Tokens, Commemorative & War Medals, Books & Cabinets, Volume 5, Spink & Son, 1897
https://books.google.com/books?id=HsZLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2165&lpg=PA2165&dq=meaning of CLEMENTIA TEMP on roman coins&source=bl&ots=O0RKflmH1g&sig=ACfU3U1zNCMhXfBsMBfxvDOHRoqvaAotyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_mt7s2eLgAhXwHjQIHd2CBnoQ6AEwBnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=meaning of CLEMENTIA TEMP on roman coins&f=false

 

Here is a reference to famine in Rome from smithsonianmag.com.

Climate and the Fall of the Roman Empire
Even in our modern age, humans are incredibly vulnerable to changes in weather and climate. And earlier in human history, we were even more so. Even the Romans, who managed to build monuments, roads and aqueducts that still stand today, weren't immune, according to a new study published last week by Science.


Scientists in Germany and Switzerland created a 2,500-year-long record of Central European summer precipitation and temperature variability from nearly 9,000 samples of larch, pine and oak tree rings.They found that the region experienced above average precipitation and little temperature fluctuation up until about A.D. 250, with a couple of colder periods around 350 B.C.—when the Celtic peoples began to expand across the continent—and 50 B.C., which was when the Romans were conquering Britain.

But around A.D. 250 began a 300-year period of extreme climate variability, when there were wild shifts in precipitation and temperature from one decade to the next. The Romans didn't fare so well. The Roman Empire nearly fell during the Crisis of the Third Century and split into two in 285. In 387, the Gauls sacked Rome, followed by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. By 500, the western Roman Empire was gone.


Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scie...he-roman-empire-42171285/#lVlVV5EmhziPqIzr.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

 

Wow! Thank you, @Jimski for posting this! That is certainly an interpretation that I never imagined. Thank you so much for posting the blurb from Spink's Numismatic Circular and the article in Smithsonian.

And now that you mention clementia as a term referring to the weather, the English phrase "inclement weather" immediately comes to mind. This should have come to me from my days of studying Latin long ago (Koine Greek is the ancient language I'm most fluent in), but we get so used to thinking of words in numismatic terms we forget there are other semantic nuances and denotations. It takes a Mr. Spink to remind us "In this legend there is no reference to the older worship of the personified virtue," but it refers to the climate.

I offer my translation of the relevant passage of Lucan's Pharsalia VIII 366:

"But as the sky slopes towards the eastern lands and gentler climate, so do nations."

 

The weather! What an interesting interpretation!

 

Thats a good way to describe our weather in Canada. We have had inclement weather since November the 8th. when we got snow (a month earlier then the norm) Ever since that day, its been way colder, had more snow/ ice storms. Today, its warm (-5 high celsius) next week back in the deep freeze.

 

@panzerman
Don't thank me for it, but you have our snow (NE Ohio). We are way under for this winter. I only had to blow the drive twice.

 

@Roman Collector
Thanks for identifying the reference Lucan's Pharsalia VIII 366: