Comprehensive List of People on Roman Bust Coins

Hello,

I've been trying to put together a full list of people whose busts appeared on Roman
coins (Imperatorial, Imperial, and Provincial) from Julius Caesar through Theodosius I. I keep thinking that I've got them all, yet, I still periodically come across someone on a provincial coin that I didn't previously know about.

I've compiled the information into a Google Doc spreadsheet, here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CxHtHO2-rz_danZCMbi_9uhOMvHtQcdGZSPe6DsA2hM/edit?usp=sharing

I thought that some of you might find the list interesting/useful, and I was especially hoping that you guys might have some helpful feedback to provide (People that I'm missing or shouldn't have included, incorrect details, etc).

Please don't be too critical of the distinctions that I've made between emperors/non-emperors. My list deviates from traditional lists because I went through and applied my own criteria/opinions on whether they qualified. I'd look forward to having a discussion on the topic if you'd like, but this isn't what I'm talking about when I say "Incorrect Details".

Just to clarify, the list is intended to include people that have proper busts on coins. I'm not including people whose names appear on coins without busts, or people that are represented in an abstract way on the reverses of other people's coins.

 

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Great list! I think you did a great job of separating the "real" Roman emperors from the ones of dubious/complicated status. How about continuing it through Romulus Augustulus?

I would make female portraits a different color.

 

Better might be family members, or "non-emperors," since a range of different persons can appear on the coins. (And the wives were actually on occasion rulers.)

Perhaps a category/color for deceased and or Divus/Diva.

 

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, incorporating this type of information would definitely be interesting. I, however, am only interested in the list over this timeframe and I'm not concerned with male/female, living/postmortem, etc, etc. Therefore, I haven't included these things for my own purposes.

That being said though, the version that I posted to Google Sheets is there for everyone to manipulate/download. If you have an idea for improvement, then please feel free to make any changes/updates that you think are useful!

It would be really cool if the community found this type of resource to be useful, and it evolved to become more comprehensive and informative through community efforts. Recolor cells, add tabs, add comments, and whatever you like!

 

I add P. Scipio to my list. I like this coin from Spain that looks a bit like a Roman head on a Carthaginian coin and could have been minted while Scipio was campaigning there.

Spain, Carthago Nova Æ Unit. Roman Occupation, after 209 BC. Bare-head left (Scipio Africanus?) / Horse standing right; palm tree behind. SNG BM Spain 127-128

 

I forget what his exact role was in Spain, but after the Carthaginians were gone I think he was more like the acting general for a time. More or the less the head of state (i.e., under Roman military control). I don't know if Carthago Nova would've been part of a Province, or if he could've been a Governor/acting Governor.

I do think these "Romanized" heads on the Carthago Nova coins are probably Scipio, but the evidence isn't great. I do think they "look like" his contemporaneous portraits, but that's not altogether reliable.

Here's the "Scipio Section" in one of my trays, showing a lower grade small module AE plus a later Roman Republican Cn. Blasio denarius with a (possibly) posthumous depiction of him, and a denarius struck by one of his descendants, Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio:

 

Very nice list! I've been working on a similar one to capture the distinctions of whether coins exist for each as caesar/augustus/divus etc.

A few things I caught in my first pass through:
- Nero and Drusus were sons of Germanicus, not Drusus Sr.
- Missing Germanicus and Tiberius Gemellus, sons of Drusus the younger, grandsons of Tiberius

- Vitellius also put his son and daughter on the reverse of his denarii
- I don't think Diva Domitilla (I) has any portrait coins; only the funeral carriage? Domitilla II does have posthumous coins
- Missing Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, Trajan's father (an extremely rare provincial, and a more rare aureus do have portraits)


- Missing Galerius Antoninus, Antoninus Pius' biological son


- Missing Annius Verus, Commodus' younger brother (he isn't named on either coin type he is supposed to be featured on, but he is named on a few medallions with his bust)


Also I didn't double check the imperatorial issues, but I thought that Pompey's sons never actually appeared on coinage? There were a lot of other imperators and other politicians on coins, e.g. Livineus Regulus, who I am still not 100% clear today who he is or why he was on coins?

 

Scipio would definitely be on a short list of Republican bust coins, however, he is a bit before Caesar, so doesn't fall within the time frame covered by the list.

Right? Or am I confused about the person/time?

Good catch, I guess I got a bit sloppy with my copy/pasting. Fixed.

These "2 son" type coins are borderline "Busts", but I have been including them (Tiberius-Germanicus, Nero-Drusus for instance). I didn't even know Drusus the Younger had sons, thanks for the info and pic! Fixed.

Found an example, Fixed!

Ya, the only Domitilla I coins that I've seen are the carriage, I included her just in case there were others. Updated Details.

Added, thanks!

Added, thanks!

Added, thanks!

I see bust coins labeled as being "Sextus Pompey", whether they are actually likenesses of his father, I do not know. I'm more skeptical about Gnaeus Jr though, as all of his coins seem to be of Roma. I included him on the list just in case there were others.

I didn't know about Livineus Regulus, and also don't know why he has coins. But he was during Caesar so I added him to the list. Thanks again!

 

Yes, you are correct that Scipio Africanus (the first one, there were some others later!) lived c. 150-200 years before Julius Caesar (the last one, there were some others earlier!).

But:

A. Scipio is often proposed as the first Roman to have placed his bust on a coin (that opinion is far from unanimous). I think @rrdenarius and I assumed your list starts with J.C. because he was the first. If there was an earlier one you might push the starting line back.

Then again, not only is it uncertain, but Scipio was "only" a General not Emperor, so whether to include him might depend on: (1) whether you believe it's him; (2) whether you're including only rulers, like Caesar, or all "people"; and, finally, (3) whether you'd include a coin that was actually struck in Spain, so it's not really a Roman Republic coin, maybe a Roman Provincial at best.

And:

B. Scipio probably was portrayed posthumously on the Roman Republican denarius of Cn. Bursio. (Top left in my red tray photo above.)

 

Just came across yet another person that needed to be added to the list, Quintus Labienus.

Pic taken from a Roma auction listing


He was a legate in Caesar's army while his father, Titus Labienus, was a general. The father and son eventually decided to oppose Caesar and fight in support of Pompey during the Civil War. The father was killed at the Battle of Munda, but Quintus went on to support the Liberators. Quintus decided to rekindle the Liberator cause following the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Phillipi, however, was eventually defeated and killed by armies of Mark Antony (Antony didn't actually participate, as he was "busy" with Cleopatra).

 

Yet another... apparently Caligula's last wife, Milonia Caesonia, had coins. Is there no end!


Edit: And another... Domitianus (Domitian II) is thought to have been a Gallic usurper against Victorinus. He's only known from 3 coins that are in museums, but he still goes on the list!


Edit: Discovered the "Coin Project" website, which brought these to my attention:

Livilla- Drusus Elder's daughter, Gaius Caesar and Drusus Younger's wife

Volusius Saturninus- Politician and cousin of Tiberius

Bonosus- Usurper against Probus

Amandus- Rebelled against Diocletian. Only a few coins, might be fakes.

Constantia- Chlorus' daughter, married to Licinius. Only a few coins.

Galla Placidia- Theodosius's daughter

Edit: Also,
Made Magnentius a proper emperor, he was at it for 3 years, I guess that qualifies.

Added Theodosius' sons and corresponding coins to the list. Their rules marked the starting point of the East-West empires being permanently split. Figured that was a more ideal place to end.

Edit: And another found in an auction:
Postumius Albinus- Consul. Interesting because coins were minted by Decimus Brutus, Brutus’ distant cousin, Caesar General, and Liberator (convinced Caesar to attend the Senate on the Eids of March)

Edit: Kind of a random thing, but minted during Caesar:
Numonius Vala - Stormed a vallum at some point, descendants minted coins in commemoration.

 

A ruler list of perople on Roman imperial coins based on a whopping database by the author of ERIC, Ras Suarez.

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/Roman_Ruler_RarityModified2.pdf

It is based on ERIC II and gives the frequencies in order, most common (Constantine) to #206. He also wrote one for Roman provincial coins:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/ProvincialRarityStats.pdf
which gives a much different order.

 

Thanks a lot for the links! I'd figured that this type of list had been compiled multiple times by different people, but I wasn't able to find anything online that was comprehensive. Plus, the data pertaining to rarity is interesting and useful.

I went through the entirety of both lists, and didn't find a single person that I'd missed, which is promising! There were a few people on my list that weren't included in Mr. Suarez's analyzes though:

Amandus, Annius Verus, Bonosus, Claudia Octavia, Galerius Antoninus, Lucius Caesar, Lucius Vitellius, Marcus Ulpius Traianus, Postumus Agrippa, Quinctilius Varus
Statilia Messalina, Vespasian Junior, and Volusius Saturninus.

He did have a few on the list that raised some questions for me though:

- Ariadne - So far as I can tell, this would refer to the god associated with the Minotaur Maze myth. Was there a person with this name that had coins?

- Maximus, Maximus Caesar - Both of these names are included on the list. Are they both referring to Thrax's son? Or was there another Maximus?

 

I've added "Rarity" columns to the spreadsheet based on Suarez's categories.

Edit: Bumped Magnus Maximus to Emperor. He was at it for 5 years, and was officially recognized by Theodosius and Valentinian II.
Also bumped Severus II to Emperor, suppose he was legit.

Edit: Added Julia Drusilla and Drusilla, Caligula's sisters. Not proper bust coins, but they appear along with the other sister Agrippina the Younger as small busts.

 

Ariadne was on some gold coins as a daughter of Leo I.
"Maxmius" usually refers to the son of Maximinus Thrax, but there was a Maximus 409-411 in Spain who issued silver siliquae, so the list had to distinguish those two by adding "Caesar" to the son of Thrax.

Some of the names on your list refer to people who
1) are so rare they never occurred even in a huge database (Saturninus)
2) didn't really issue coins but barbarous radiates have been (mis)read to refer to them (e.g Bonosus)
3) were in the past attributed to coins which have since been reinterpreted (e.g Galerius Antonius)
4) Were never thought to be on "imperial" coins (e.g Quinctilius Varus, Messalina). Their coins are considered to be "provincial".
5) Are on coins issued by someone else (e.g Trajan's father by Trajan).

 

Ariadne wasn't in my original timeframe (been expanded now), but I wasn't able to differentiate her from the goddess until I had something specific to search on, so thanks for that.

Maximus of Hispania was within my original timeframe, but had completely slipped past me, so double thanks for that.

I probably should have been more explicit about the reasoning when listing additional coins that I had included, it was not my intention to insinuate that he had "missed" coins that should have been included. My goal was to put together a comprehensive list of people with bust coins, where:

- no differentiation was made between imperial, republican, provincial, or some mixture of the types.
- the definition of "Bust" is a bit liberal.
- any indication that they had coins (only a few/potential misinterpretations/potential forgeries/etc) got them on the list (Err on the side of inclusion)

Given the loose criteria, I figured that my list probably included some people that needed to be pruned out. I do appreciate you breaking down specifics for each of the people listed above though. Provides more information in determining which might need to go

Actually ended up taking your advice on this one, the list has been expended to include East and West through to the fall of the West.

 

@Valentinian - I'm curious about your remark about Galerius Antonius - who said the coins don't depict the dead biological son of Antoninus Pius? There are lots of questionable attributed coins, but the Galerius antoninus coin explicitly names him M ΓAΛEΡIOC ANTΩNINOC AYTOKΡATOΡOC ANTΩNINOY YIOC - "M Galerius Antoninus, son of Emperor Antoninus"

It could theoretically be a young Marcus Aurelius or Lucius Verus, but Faustina I is deified, which would make the bust too young for Marcus, and neither future emperor ever had the name Galerius. That, coupled with the fact that the existence of Marcus Galerius Antoninus, son of Pius who died and whose ashes were initially interred in the Mausoleum of Hadrian - I think that the attribution is clear and certain.

 

I'm wondering if "Poemenius" should be added to the list. Apparently, he started a revolt in Trier while Constantius II was going after Magnentius in 353. His revolt was in support of Constantius II, and he even got around to minting some coins in Trier, which mimicked coins that were being minted of Magnentius (Chi Ro on reverse). Here is an example that I found online:



When NGC slabs these coins, the labels look like this:



Does the (?) mean that the bust likeness might be Poemenius? Or does "for Constantius II" mean that the bust is that of the emperor? I've checked the NGC website and searched for information like this, but didn't find anything.

There is some information to be found online about the coin in general, but indications about who the bust represents are inconsistent. I'm leaning toward Constantius II, but wanted to see if any of you might know something more definitive.

 

I think the "Poemenius(?)" on the label is intended to be read as "issued by, or under the authority of, Poemenius". I don't believe it is suggesting the obverse portrait is a likeness of Poemenius.

 

I kind of thought this to be the case as well. However, when comparing to other instances where this kind of thing happened, as with when Aureolus tried to garner Postumus' support by minting coins in his likeness, NGC uses this type of scheme:



Where the (?) is missing after the name and "In the name of" is used in place of "For".

Although, there is a (?) after the date in this example, so I'm guessing that it just means "We aren't certain". So, the (?) after Poemenius is probably just saying, "We think the person that minted this coin was Poemenius, but we're not certain.

I'm betting that you are correct, and that this is probably the intended interpretation. I'm settling on the bust being Constantius II, and that Poemenius shouldn't be included on the list of "People on Roman bust coins".