Since TIF made such short work of the first set of images, we'll move on to a second set using 12 Caesars' denarii, but this time only eyes and noses. Good luck to all you wizards trying to outguess the strega!
oh dang, thats a bit hard for me. i think top row #2 is nero and # 5 is domitian.....and...i give up on the rest.
Definitely harder! The Flavians share the same general brow and nose shape-- especially Vespasian and Titus. Some of Vespasian's earliest portraits look very different too. Losing the visual cues of chin and facial hair make the exercise harder. I'll refrain from a public guess. I think I have them correct but don't want to hog the game (again ). I'll send IOM a PM It would be interesting to see how the general ease of recognition changes as the centuries progress. Generally, I find identification of Imperial rulers fairly easy until the Severan kids, at which point it is sometimes necessary to look at the legend. After the Severans I have a little more trouble but still think most are distinctive-- I'm just not as familiar with them. Constantine onwards... I think ID by eyes/nose/jaw would be very unreliable in general. This looks like a fun project for a quizrevolution quiz. Perhaps I'll borrow IOM's pictures and put the test in a format where users can take the test in private and receive their score. When time permits, it would be interesting to do the same for various later groups of emperors. If enough people take the quizzes the resulting data might be revealing.
I have so little 12 Caesars experience I'm not getting these but the aurei seemed easier. As I see it a lot of a test like this is whether the images are selected to be typical. I have a Vitellius with portrait that looks like Otho and several Severans that are just plain odd. I suspect we could make a test using oddball coins that would make 50% a good score. A lot has to do with how many coins you handle. I once made an image of coins of Philip I to illustrate his Greek lettered officina reverses but included an obverse of Philip from his numbered officina series because I did not own a duplicate and shot the coins all together rather than piecing them together. Curtis Clay called me on the error. It bothered him that the obverse I showed was used with those reverses. He did not even mention that two of the reverses in the set have portraits of other family members. That was so obvious that it would bother no one. Perhaps Curtis has looked at too many coins of Philip??? If TIF wants to take this ball and run with it, I would suggest posting a group of faces and asking how many different rulers were shown. This test could be made a lot harder if you put in a couple ringers that were not from the 12 but just other people on coins. I tried quizzes like this that do not allow Googling answers for a page on my site. It was among the least popular pages I ever did.
Okay, I tried to do this fast before someone else responded. #1 Galba, #2 Nero, #3 Augustus, #4 Vespasian, #5 Titus, #6 Vitellius, #7 Claudius, #8 Domitian, #9 Caligula, #10 Otho, #11 Tiberius, #12 JC Edit: In other words, since I rushed I can't be blamed for my errors!
This one was too tough. I myself probably wouldn't have gotten all of them, and they're my coins! TIF got close in her private guess, though. Here's the answer: Row 1: Otho, Nero, Galba, Vitellius, Titus, Vespasian Row 2: Claudius, Domitian, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula
Here's an interactive version of IOM's 12 Caesars denarius quiz: http://www.tifcollection.com/coin-quiz-4
