Featured Snakes of the Roman Republic

Wonderful coins and write up Donna! How isn't this thread featured yet?
Lol! I really laughed at:

Surprised no one had posted one of these serpents:

Julius Caesar 49-48 BCE AR denarius (18 mm, 3.43 g, 2 h). Military mint traveling with Caesar. CAESAR in exergue, elephant advancing right, trampling on horned serpent / Simpulum, sprinkler, axe (surmounted by a dog's head), and priest's hat. Crawford 443/1; HCRI 9; Sydenham 1006; RSC 49. Banker's mark on obverse, porous. Near fine. From the Expatriate Collection.
From the Expatriate Collection.[/QUOTE]

 

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@Ryro , are you happy now??? Good gosh, you got my Elephant so excited, he crapped all over the place...


RR Julius Caesar AR Denarius 49 BCE Traveling Mint Elephant trampling snake-Pontificates Sear 1399 Craw 443-1 Residual AE from hoard

 

MARCUS ANTONIUS
Ionia Silver Cistophoric Tetradrachm
OBVERSE: M ANTONIVS IMP COS DESIG ITER ET TERT, head of Antony right, wreathed in ivy, lituus below, all within wreath of ivy and grapes
REVERSE: III VIR R P C, bust of Octavia right on cista flanked by snakes
Ephesus 39 BC
11.8gm, 26mm
RPC I 2201, Sydenham 1197, Sear 262

AUGUSTUS
AR Quinarius
OBVERSE: IMP VII CAESAR - Bare head right
REVERSE: ASIA RECEPTA - Victory standing left on cippus, holding wreath and palm, snake on either side
Uncertain Italian Mint 29-27 BC
1.7g, 13mm
RIC 276, S 1568

SEVERUS ALEXANDER
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: IMP C MAV R SEV ALEXAND AVG - Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: P M TRP II COS II P P - Salus seated left, feeding snake on altar
Struck at Rome, 223 AD
2.7g, 19mm
RIC 32, BMC 117, C 239

 

You could well be right. It's hard to change my perception to seeing the snake go behind Valetudo, after I started seeing it go in front of her, and perceiving as a pouch or basket what you see as part of her gown. It's kind of like that "is the dress blue or gold?" meme that was popular on the Internet a year or two ago.

 

What a fun post & thread!

My Glabrio Valetudo isn't great, but the provenance is cool: it's from the Quidenham hoard, buried at the time of Boudicca's revolt.


I'm pretty sure the feature you're looking at, @DonnaML, is just drapery, kind of like this:


I talk at tedious length about the serpent on Caesar's famous elephant coin in this thread. I think it represents the genius of Caesar/the paterfamilias/the people. It's interesting to note which Republican snakes have the magical crest & beard:


One more, with a rather silly looking banker's mark:

 

Regarding the drapery, OK, you guys win! But how do you know that she doesn't keep her snake in there?!

Regarding Caesar's elephant/snake coin, someone recently tried to tell me on Facebook that there's a legitimate controversy as to whether that's supposed to be a snake or a carnyx. I'm highly skeptical! I've seen lots of photos of different examples of the coin, and it doesn't look to me like a carnyx in any of them. Harlan argues vigorously in his Roman Republican Moneyers book not only that it's a snake, but that the coin is pro-snake, not pro-elephant as most people assume. He has various reasons, including the positive view of snakes in Rome. Which sounds like your point, although I haven't yet read the thread you cite.

 

Music to my ears. I cite Harlan in the post; various others have filled the theory in more. If you're interested I recommend reading the thread through to the end.

 

Apparently, it's called a palla, and is a shawl.



Akeady already pointed out that on some examples you can see the snake's tail behind the column. I suppose it's still possible that the snake could have crawled into her palla, and then emerged from it, but I don't know if following that thought is going to take us places we really want to be going.

 

My other Glabrio... I do not see any basket... jest a snake!


RR Acilius Glabrio 49 BCE AR Den Salus Valetudo snake S412 Cr 442-1a

 

Lovely coins and an interesting thread. It made me look over my little collection of Roman Republics and I found a few snakes.

A quinarius with a snake, wrapped around the omphalos:



Roman Republic Quinarius
L. Rubrius Dossenus
(87 B.C.) - Rome mint
Neptune laureate right, trident and DOS S[EN] behind / Victoria walking right with
[wreath] & palm, garlanded altar right with snake & Omphalos, [L RVBRI] behind.
Rubria 4; Crawford 384/4.
(1.54 grams / 14 mm)

Here's the famous biga of serpents - I think there are far, far nicer ones in Coin Talker collections. This one is a Fourrée that lost all its silver foil. The serpents are peeping from behind the pits and corrosion. Sorry.

Roman Republic Fourrée Denarius
M. Volteius M.f.
(78 B.C.)
Rome mint
Head of Bacchus right, wearing ivy wreath / Ceres in a biga drawn by two serpents, cornucopiae behind, M.VOLTEI. M.F. in exergue.
Volteia 3; Crawford 385/3.
(3.01 grams / 18 mm)

Another Glabrio - one of them Titus Pollo found on the wagon (for you HBO Rome fans).


Roman Republic Denarius
Man. Acilius Glabrio
(49 B.C.)
Rome Mint
SALVTIS (upwards), head of Salus right / MN ACILIVS III VIR VALETV, Salus standing left holding serpent.
RCV 412, Acilia 8, Syd 922, Cr442/1a.
(3.56 grams / 18 mm)

 

You reminded me, @Marsyas Mike, that I'd only searched for snake and not serpent - I have a few listed as serpents that we haven't had already. I hope to finish my coin database in 2020 and realise that I need some thesaurus features for the likes of this...

We had a couple of Volteia bigas, this is a fairly worn Vibia snake chariot...

Denarius of C. Vibius C. f. C. n
Obv. PANSA - Head of young Bacchus right, wearing ivy-wreath
Rev. C. VIBIVS C. F. C. N. - Ceres in biga right, drawn by two serpents; legend before and below, reading downwards and inwards
Mint: Rome (48 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 3.40g / 18mm / 8h
References:

• RSC 17 (Vibia)
• Sydenham 945
• Crawford 449/3b

There's a small snake here too:

Denarius of L. Procilius
Obv. S. C - Head of Juno Sospita right, wearing goat-skin headdress
Rev. Juno Sospita, holding spear and shield, in biga right; serpent below
Exergue: L PROCILI F
Mint: Rome (80 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 3.95g / 18mm / 5h
References:

• RSC 2 (Procilia)
• Sydenham 772
• Crawford 379/2

And a "serpent staff" (referred to as a carnyx by Crawford, but hey, it was sold to me as a serpent staff and has been described as such by Roma and CNG on occasion).

Denarius of L. Porcius Licinus
Obv. L. PORCI LICI - Helmeted head of Roma right, * behind
Rev. Gallic warrior (Bituitus?), raising spear held in right hand, holding shield and serpent staff in left, driving galloping biga right
Exergue: L. LIC. CN. DOM
Mint: Rome (118 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 3.91g / 19mm / 7h
References:

• Rsc 8 (Porcia)
• Sydenham 520
• Crawford 282/5

ATB,
Aidan.