If anyone wishes to purchase a coin directly tied to the Colosseum and not spend a fortune, look no further than my latest purchase. This is the second variant of the type I've acquired, both I would consider budget coins. Domitian Æ Quadrans, 2.00g Rome Mint, 84-85 AD Obv: (No legend) Rhinoceros stg. r. Rev: IMP DOMIT AVG GERM; S C in centre RIC 248 (C). BMC 496. BNC 536. Ex Numismatic Salon, Auction 8, 18-19 September 2021, lot 3298. A few years into Domitian's reign an extraordinary issue of quadrantes were struck featuring a rhinoceros. Although the coins are undated, their production can be narrowed down between late 83 when he assumed the title Germanicus and 85 when the consular date XI appeared on the quadrantes. The type is highly unusual and breaks with the standard obverses that were normally featured on the quadrans. One may ask, why a rhinoceros? Certainly the animal was rare in Rome and most difficult to obtain. The rhinoceros depicted on the coin is the African species, identified by the two horns. Martial in his book 'On Spectacles' tells of such a rhinoceros in the Colosseum. Presumably, these coins were struck with that very 'star performer' in mind. Ted Buttrey wrote about this coin type in his article Domitian, the Rhinoceros, and the Date of Martial's "Liber De Spectaculis": "it is wrong to write off the rhinoceros of Domitian's coin casually, as if the coin were a picture postcard from the zoo: 'This is a rhinoceros'. No, coin types are pointed. Everything has to do with imperial advertisement and with its importance at the moment of issue: 'This is my rhinoceros'. Domitian's rhinoceros, in its supremacy in the arena might well stand as a metaphor for the invincible success of the emperor conquering general who had recently assumed the historically-weighted title of Germanicus." Coming back to Martial, he also speaks of tokens being showered upon the cheering crowds - could these quadrantes struck cheaply and in massive quantities have been gifts to the cheering mob at the arena? In essence, can this coin double as currency and a souvenir from a long ago day at the games in the Colosseum? This is the most common variant of the famous rhinoceros quadrans with the beast facing right and the reverse legend beginning from the lower left. As mentioned above, the rhino depicted on the coin is the two-horned African species. In contrast, the Indian rhino has one horn. Pliny in his Natural Histories describes the rhinoceros as a one horned creature (although confusingly he confirms its Ethiopian origins), Martial said it had two. The rhino was so rare in Rome, Pliny had to go all the way back to the games of Pompey the Great in 55 BC to find a reference for the animal on display in the city, apparently it was a one-horned Indian rhino. At any rate, both the numismatic evidence and Martial's description coincide rather nicely to confirm that Domitian, at great expense no doubt, brought to Rome an African rhinoceros for his shows in the new Colosseum. The surviving coins featuring this fantastic beast prove how important a feat this was to the emperor. Please show your quadrantes, 'Colosseum' coins, or anything you feel that is relevant.
Clickbait !!! Haha, good one David, from the title I was expecting an actual colosseum coin !! Excellent rhino nonetheless Q
I get the feeling that the scenario describing the emperor causing largesse to be thrown to the crowds in the form of these tokens is right on. And it would also advertise to the crowd that the ruler had caused an African rhino to be displayed in Rome.
Here's my Colosseum coin: Titus. AD 79-81. AR Denarius (17.5mm, 3.29 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck 1 January-30 June AD 80. Laureate head right / Elephant, wearing armor, walking left on exergual line. RIC II.1 115; RSC 303. Ex CNG And here are some rhinos I photographed in Namibia.
I believe that in early Imperial times the African rhino could be found in Egypt still, just like the hippo. However by the 4th century the Nile valley was mostly denuded of the larger mammals due to collection for the games in major cities throughout the Imperium.
I have a few quadrantes but none with Domitian legends. The anonymous series lacing legends other than SC interest me most but I am uncertain of the arguments placing them to any date. Each shows a god (Minerva, Mars, Juno) with reverse (owl, armor, peacock) appropriate to that god. The identifiable by legend ones are Trajans.
Great examples of the rhino coin, @David Atherton and @rg3! Here's mine, along with a few other pachyderms associated with the Colosseum: Domitian (son of Vespasian), AE Quadrans [1/4 As] 84-85 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. African Rhinoceros with two horns advancing right with head down/ Rev IMP DOMIT AVG GERM (clockwise around starting at 1:00), S C across. RIC II-1 Domitian 249 (2007 ed.), Sear RCV II 2834, Cohen 673. 16.5 mm., 2.56 g.* *This variety, with the legend starting at 1:00 on the upper right, rather than 7:00 on the lower left, is the rarer of the two varieties that depict the rhino facing right (there are also two with the rhino facing left). There are only four examples of this type at OCRE, eight at acsearch by my count, and none at the British Museum. See http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2_1(2).dom.249. The number of examples with the legend beginning at 7:00 is far greater. The coin must have been issued after Domitian’s assumption of the Germanicus title in late 83 AD, but before the Consular date XI was added to his quadrantes in 85. It was possibly distributed as a token and/or souvenir to the crowds at the Colosseum, which Domitian completed in 82 by adding the uppermost story. See Martial’s Liber De Spectaculis (http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_on_the_games_of_domitian_01_text.htm), which mentions Domitian's exhibition of a rhinoceros at the Colosseum, as well as the practice of showering the crowd with tokens. See also T.V. Buttrey, “Domitian, the Rhinoceros, and the Date of Martial's ‘Liber De Spectaculis,’" The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 97 (2007), pp. 101-112, at https://www.jstor.org/stable/20430573?seq=1. Titus's elephant, issued a few years earlier, supposedly to celebrate the opening of the Colosseum: Antoninus Pius's elephant, apparently issued to commemorate the games at the Colosseum celebrating Rome's 900th anniversary in 148 AD: Philip I's elephant and his wife Otacilia Severa's hippo, issued to commemorate the games at the Colosseum celebrating Rome's 1000th anniversary in 248 AD:
