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<p>[QUOTE="lrbguy, post: 2850543, member: 88829"]I'm really enjoying the writeups you have created, Ides. You have a good balance of historical detail and the "personal touch." That the coins are outstanding examples is a characteristic of your approach. Great stuff, this.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Servius Sulpicius Galba (68-69)</b></p><p><b>(<i>BMCRE</i> 8; <i>RSC</i> 55; <i>RIC</i> 4)</b></p><p><b>Minted at Rome</b></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/lrbguy/20170811_7b-Galba-den-sm.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG</b></p><p><b>bare bust of Galba, laureate, facing r.</b></p><p>The facial features on this coin are not common to his coins generally, but are known on other examples. The prominent nose with the disfiguring bulb just below the supraorbital ridge (prominent eyebrow) and strongly defined zygomatic arch (cheekbone) gives a crude, almost bestial appearance to the emperor's visage. A respondent in another thread commented on a similar image on a coin of orphew (see above), "I wonder if it has to do with the fact that Galba only ruled for 7 months. Perhaps the engravers at the various mints [sic] simply didn't have enough time and practice to settle into a more-or-less homogeneous style. ... One sees a hint of Nero in Galba's busts, and I can even imagine the engravers being told, 'Well he looks like Nero, but with a smaller head and a larger, aquiline nose.'" </p><p><br /></p><p>Since there are examples with a similar, though less prominent bulb on the nose, and some without anything like it altogether, on other coins, it would seem that there was indeed some confusion about just how to represent the actual feature.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>DIVA AVGVSTA</b></p><p><b>Livia draped, standing left, holding patera in r. hand and long scepter in left</b></p><p><br /></p><p>On the use of Livia for the reverse, Mattingly commented thusly: "Livia, consecrated by Claudius, is represented as a divine being with scepter and patera. Suetonius tells us that Livia had assisted Galba in his youthful career...." to which he appends the quotation in Latin to the effect that: Augusta Livia is noteworthy above all on account of her gracious life valued by many who speak in testimony of her in death. (my loose translation). About the image he adds an interesting footnote: The patera, which belongs strictly to the priest or priestess, is commonly transferred to the object of worship." This observation is in keeping with the role of ritual enactment of myth as a drama in which the temple functionaries stand in for the mythological figures. At any rate, it is the gracious generosity of Livia toward Galba that is being celebrated in and by this reverse.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="lrbguy, post: 2850543, member: 88829"]I'm really enjoying the writeups you have created, Ides. You have a good balance of historical detail and the "personal touch." That the coins are outstanding examples is a characteristic of your approach. Great stuff, this. [B]Servius Sulpicius Galba (68-69) ([I]BMCRE[/I] 8; [I]RSC[/I] 55; [I]RIC[/I] 4) Minted at Rome[/B] [IMG]https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/lrbguy/20170811_7b-Galba-den-sm.jpg[/IMG] [B]IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG bare bust of Galba, laureate, facing r.[/B] The facial features on this coin are not common to his coins generally, but are known on other examples. The prominent nose with the disfiguring bulb just below the supraorbital ridge (prominent eyebrow) and strongly defined zygomatic arch (cheekbone) gives a crude, almost bestial appearance to the emperor's visage. A respondent in another thread commented on a similar image on a coin of orphew (see above), "I wonder if it has to do with the fact that Galba only ruled for 7 months. Perhaps the engravers at the various mints [sic] simply didn't have enough time and practice to settle into a more-or-less homogeneous style. ... One sees a hint of Nero in Galba's busts, and I can even imagine the engravers being told, 'Well he looks like Nero, but with a smaller head and a larger, aquiline nose.'" Since there are examples with a similar, though less prominent bulb on the nose, and some without anything like it altogether, on other coins, it would seem that there was indeed some confusion about just how to represent the actual feature. [B]DIVA AVGVSTA Livia draped, standing left, holding patera in r. hand and long scepter in left[/B] On the use of Livia for the reverse, Mattingly commented thusly: "Livia, consecrated by Claudius, is represented as a divine being with scepter and patera. Suetonius tells us that Livia had assisted Galba in his youthful career...." to which he appends the quotation in Latin to the effect that: Augusta Livia is noteworthy above all on account of her gracious life valued by many who speak in testimony of her in death. (my loose translation). About the image he adds an interesting footnote: The patera, which belongs strictly to the priest or priestess, is commonly transferred to the object of worship." This observation is in keeping with the role of ritual enactment of myth as a drama in which the temple functionaries stand in for the mythological figures. At any rate, it is the gracious generosity of Livia toward Galba that is being celebrated in and by this reverse.[/QUOTE]
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