Ancient Comestibles and Numismatics

Once I tried to enter crustacean in MS Word and it spell corrected to crushed asian.

 

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Here is my CRAB BOIL, just add some Silphium for greens. Even comes with the pesky fly that hovers around your picnic:


Sicily Akragas
AE Onkia
16mm 3.8g
425-406 BCE
Eagle r fish fly -
Crab conch, pellet of value
SNG ANS 1062 var

 

Great show and tell everyone. Thanks for the lesson also.

 

It's my understanding that when animals were sacrificed in ancient Rome, the unused remains were shared in a communal meal and/or went to the priests, either for their own consumption or for distribution to the populace. So here are two coins showing impending sacrifices of edible animals:

1. Roman Republic, L. Pomponius Molo, AR Denarius, 97 BCE. Obv. Laureate head of Apollo right, L•POMPON• MOLO / Rev. Numa Pompilius [legendary second king of Rome after Romulus], holding lituus in left hand, standing right before a lighted altar, at which he is about to sacrifice a goat, which is led by a victimarius standing left, NVMA•POMPIL in exergue (MA and MP in monogram). Crawford 334/1, RSC I Pomponia 6 (ill.), BMCRR Italy 733, Sydenham 607, Sear RCV I 214 (ill.). 19.7 mm., 3,86 g.*



*See RSC I at p. 77: “This type is an allusion to the supposed descent of the gens [Pomponia] from Pompo, one of the sons of Numa Pompilius, who is here represented as sacrificing to Apollo.” Crawford’s interpretation is the same; see Crawford Vol. I at p. 333.

2. Roman Republic, A. Postumius A.f. Sp.n. Albinus (Aulus Postumius Albinus, son of Aulus [mint magistrate ca. 96 BCE], and grandson of Spurius [Consul 110 BCE]), AR Serrate Denarius, 81 BCE. Obv. Draped bust of Diana right, with bow and quiver over shoulder, bucranium above [off flan] / Rev. Roman priest standing facing on rocky ground (on Aventine Hill), head left, with right arm extended holding aspergillum, sprinkling heifer [Harlan, RRM I*], bull [Crawford & Sear], or ox [RSC] which he is about to sacrifice, a lighted altar between them, A POST - AF - SN • ALBIN [AL in monogram] around. RSC I Postumia 7, Crawford 372/1, Sydenham 745, Sear RCV I 296 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 1 at pp. 1-7, BMCRR 2836. 18.54 mm., 3.85 g. Ex. Spink & Sons Ltd. (before 2000 because of address on Spink coin tag; probably before 1974 given citation to Sydenham but not Crawford.)



* See Michael Harlan, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012) (“RRM I”) (using this coin-type as the cover illustration for his book). At pp. 3-4, Harlan argues that in the legend which, as Crawford acknowledges, is the basis for the reverse of this coin -- namely, the sacrifice to Diana on the Aventine Hill founding her temple there ca. 500 BCE, establishing Rome as the caput rerum for all of Italy [and symbolizing the victory of Sulla over the rebel Italians in 82 BCE] -- the sacrificed animal was a heifer with wondrous horns, not a bull or an ox. (Citing Livy, The History of Rome, Book 1, ch. 45 [available at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0145:book=1:chapter=45].)

 

Great gastronomic tour. This would make a very good article in the ANA's The Numismatist. You could expand a bit, but as a stand alone short article I'm sure
the editor, Caleb P Noel at editor@money.org would be interested in the concept.

I certainly enjoyed it. I have had one article published there. A great experience and a lot of fun.
Test the waters, you never know.

 

Something else about that apple and Roman food. The Romans had a saying similar to our "soup to nuts" for a complete meal. Theirs was, "ab ovo ad malum" for one of their complete meals, which started with an appetizer of eggs, to fruit, "from an egg to an apple".