My Constantius II coin. Has a wonderful obverse and reverse with an interesting green patina. Tha captives are wearing strange crested hats. Does anyone know anything about them?
they are usually referred to as Phrygian caps. from Konrad Kraft's article about the FEL TEMP types, the two captives FTR was most likely issued to celebrate the victory of the Roman Army under the command of Constantius II at the Battle of Singara, which occurred in A.D. 344. The Roman Empire claimed to have defeated the Sassanid Army led by Shapur II, but in reality the Persians broke off the siege, as Shapur II probably realized his forces were spread too thin.
Victor, thanks for the information. Also, thanks for this wonderful coin of Licinius. I purchased it from your shop a few months back.
That’s a gorgeous fel temp. That’s one of the more uncommon reverses, and the condition is impeccable
Wow.. that is a wonderful coin. The reverse is stunning! The tassels hanging off the standard, the captives, the clothing detail... - again, wow!
The captives in this Constans FEL TEMP centenionalis are wearing caps also described as "Phrygian," although they don't look much like the ones in your coin to me: Constans (son of Constantine I), AE Centenionalis, Alexandria Mint (1st Officina) 348-350 AD. Obv. Draped and cuirassed bust left, wearing pearl diadem and holding globe in right hand, D N CONSTA - NS P F AVG / Rev. Emperor in military dress, standing left and holding labarum in right hand and shield in left, placing right foot on leg of one of two captives before him with hands bound behind their backs, wearing Phrygian caps and kneeling facing with their heads turned towards one another, FEL TEMP REPARATIO. ALEA [Alexandria Mint, 1st Officina] in exergue. RIC VIII 56(A) (p. 542), Sear RCV V 18706. 20 mm., 3.45 g. (Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 211th Buy or Bid Sale, 2020, Lot 302.)
What a wonderful looking coin. A fantastic example of the type. I have gathered a few (by which read too many) of this type over the years. Here are my lowly Antioch RIC 125s and RIC 127s.... On my fourth coin you are able to see that the right hand captive is also depicted as bearded
Here are my Alexandrians under Constantius II (RIC 54 and 55 (obverse headwear varieties)) and Constans (RIC 56 and 64 (no star, star))
I have other mints too but won't swamp the thread. I will pick out three that are somewhat more interesting. Constantius II - Siscia - Common but nice - captives are standing and no kneeling Obv:– D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed bust left, globe in hand Rev:– FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Emperor bare headed & in military dress standing, holding standard with chi-rho on banner in his right hand, resting left hand on shield, two bound captives in Phrygian helmets standing, facing each other before him Minted in Siscia (* | _ // BSISM). A.D. 348-350. Reference:– RIC VIII Siscia 225 (Rated C2) Constantius II - Rome Obv:– D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, Pearl diadem, draped, cuirassed, globe in hand; N behind bust Rev:– FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Emperor bare headed & in military dress standing, holding standard with chi-rho on banner in his right hand, resting left hand on shield, two bound captives in Phrygian helmets standing, facing each other before him Minted in Rome (N | _ //R dot T). before June A.D. 350 Reference:- RIC VIII Rome 189 (R2) 21.02 mm. 3.10 gms, 0 degrees Constantius II - Aquileia Obv:- D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped & cuirassed bust left, holding globe in right hand, N in right field Rev:– FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Emperor bare headed & in military dress standing, holding standard with chi-rho on banner in his right hand, resting left hand on shield, two bound captives in Phrygian helmets standing, facing each other before him Minted in Aquileia (//AQP Dot) Reference:- RIC VIII Aquileia - Looking at RIC there are three issues for this type at Aquileia. The first has no letters on either side. The captives are described as standing and would have AQP:dot: in exe. - RIC VIII Aquileia 107 The next two both have N behind the bust and an N in the left field on the reverse with the captives described as kneeling. with AQP in exe this would be RIC VIII Aquileia 119 and with AQP* in exe this would be RIC VIII Aquileia 120 My example seems to be a mule from the later issues with letter behind the bust and the earlier issue with the captives standing but with no letter on the reverse
In recent years more attention has been given to identifying the opponents shown on the FTR coinage using their attire and hairstyles. My favorite coin of the type is not high grade but was selected for the mintmark correction ANZ over ANH. It also added the Christian cross-rho on the banner. The matter of depictions of the enemy warriors is particularly important to me since it was what started my web pages. In 1997, had the desire to learn to code HTML and used free web space offered by Geocities for my first two pages. One was on my specialty of Eastern Severans but the other came from my friendship with Victor Failmezger and supported his belief that some of the Falling Horsemen coins showed the use of stirrups. He was fighting the long-standing belief that stirrups were not invented until much later. That first week, my intention was to replace each of those two pages with something new but I decided then to leave up the old ones and make an index of what was there. In 1997 there was not a lot of guidance available on how to 'Blog' (a term not yet in use generally). I was ten trying to develop an interest in LRBC to supplement my primary activity in Severans. I was more interested in the horsemen but the same headgear is to be found on them as on the bound captives. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/notsev.html It happens that my first page did not show an enemy with the Phrygian cap but there certainly are many of them in the series. Some are more extremely curved than others.
Battle of Singara, 344 A.D. under Constantius II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Singara_(344) Not to be confused with the siege of Singara (360) under Julian as recounted in Ammianus Book XX, Chapter 6. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Ammian/20*.html
