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A Late Sestertius of Faustina II with a Dative Obverse Inscription (Previously Unattested)
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<p>[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 5398515, member: 75937"]I was the high bidder on this homely sestertius of Faustina II at the current Bertolami auction.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232766[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Faustina II, AD 147-175.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman orichalcum sestertius, 20.66 g, 29 mm, 6 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, AD 174-175.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: FAVSTINAE AVGVSTAE, bare-headed and draped bust, right; late coiffure.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: DIANA LVCIFERA S C, Diana standing right, holding lighted torch in both hands.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: Dinsdale 007295 (this coin), otherwise unattested with dative obverse inscription; cf. RIC 1630, BMCRE 899-900, Cohen 88, RCV 5272, MIR 8-6/10c.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>The coin may not look like much but it appears to be a previously unattested inscriptional variety and may well be unique. It bears the dative case obverse inscription FAVSTINAE AVGVSTAE, which had not been previously described for this issue. This is very interesting and significant.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE DATIVE CASE IN ROMAN NUMISMATIC TITULATURE</b></p><p><br /></p><p>A discussion of the significance of the dative case is going to involve a bit of Latin grammar, so bear with me. The simplest and most familiar form of Roman coin legend is: on the obverse, the names and titles of the emperor written in the nominative case and, on the reverse, a figure of some god or goddess, with the name also in the nominative, often with the appendix AVG. This is illustrated by the usual form of this sestertius, RIC 1630, as exemplified by this example from a recent Roma auction (E-Sale 75, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7411784" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7411784" rel="nofollow">lot 648</a>, 15 Oct 2020). On this coin, the obverse bears the nominative inscription FAVSTINA AVGVSTA. The reverse is also in the nominative case: DIANA LVCIFERA.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232767[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The formulation of legends of this type seems so bland and repetitive that it has attracted little attention. This usage is likely what is known as a <i>nominative absolute</i>, which is the use of the nominative case in introductory material (such as titles, headings, salutations, and addresses), which are not to be construed as sentences. Such an inscription is not the subject of an implied verb, such as "made," and "the nominative simply names the imperial person who appears on the coins and does not mean that he or she made them."[1]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the names of imperial personages are sometimes written in the dative case on Roman coins of the imperial period, particularly in the second century AD, meaning "to" or "for" the person concerned (dative of advantage).[2] In ancient Rome, this was the most common case used for dedicatory inscriptions of all kinds, on statues and buildings in particular.[3] On Roman coin legends, as in these inscriptions, the name of the emperor often appears in the dative after the nominative S P Q R[4]: "The Senate and People of Rome to the Emperor [...]." Such is the case on this denarius of Trajan bearing the inscription (which extends from obverse to reverse) IMP TRAINO AVG GER DAC P M TR P/COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC. This is translated "The senate and people of Rome for the emperor Trajan, the revered one, victor over the Germans and Dacians, highest priest, holder of tribunician power, consul for the 5th time, father of his country, the best of leaders."</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232768[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, the inscriptions consist only of abbreviations and most of the inflectional endings are lost, but TRAINO is clearly in the dative, as is OPTIMO PRINC[IPI].</p><p><br /></p><p>The dative case occurs frequently on coins made in the name of deceased members of the imperial family, DIVAE FAVSTIN AVG MATR CASTROR for instance, as on this sestertius of Faustina II with a CONSECRATIO reverse type.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232770[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Lastly, the dative case is not infrequently used on coins issued for princes and women issued by their fathers or husbands <i>in honor of</i> or <i>for</i> them. The dative case conveys this notion of "for so-and-so." Examples include:</p><ul> <li>Nero under his adoptive father Claudius (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-103" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-103" rel="nofollow">NERONI</a>)<br /> </li> <li>Commodus under his father Marcus Aurelius (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1958-1101-53" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1958-1101-53" rel="nofollow">COMMODO</a>)<br /> </li> <li>Hannibalian as nephew, and Constantine II and Crispus as sons under Constantine the Great (<a href="https://numid.uni-mainz.de/object?id=ID124" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://numid.uni-mainz.de/object?id=ID124" rel="nofollow">CONSTANTINO</a> etc.)<br /> </li> <li>Lucilla under her father Marcus Aurelius and her husband Lucius Verus (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14482" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14482" rel="nofollow">LVCILLAE</a>)<br /> </li> <li>Plautilla under her father-in-law Septimius Severus (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-15343" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-15343" rel="nofollow">PLAVTILLAE</a>).</li> </ul><p>So was the case when Antoninus Pius issued coins for his daughter, Faustina II, with the obverse legend FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG F(IL), used from AD 147 to no later than AD 150,[5,6] as on this sestertius in my collection:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232772[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the nominative case was used on coins of Faustina II for nearly a quarter of a century afterward -- until the dative case was again used for the DIANA LVCIFERA coin with which this thread begins. This is puzzling; [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] rightfully ponders,[7] "Faustina's obverse legend had been in the nominative case since about 150; why this occasional return to the dative c. 25 years later?"</p><p><br /></p><p>The answer, I believe, is to be found in the only other reverse type from this period that uses the dative case: a very rare sestertius of the MATRI CASTRORVM S C reverse type (RIC 1660), as illustrated by <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1872-0709-695" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1872-0709-695" rel="nofollow">this specimen</a> in the British Museum (BMCRE 929).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1232776[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In the reverse inscription, MATRI is in the dative case (CASTRORVM is genitive, "of the camps"). It seems best to take this as a dedicatory inscription.[8] Indeed, Curtis Clay continues, "Perhaps the mint wanted to acclaim Faustina with her new title Mother of the Camps, so wrote MATRI rather than MATER CASTRORVM, sort of like SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI for Trajan. Then it would be natural to put the obverse legend too in the dative case, agreeing with the reverse legend."</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is also known with the obverse inscription in the nominative (<a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1659" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1659" rel="nofollow">RIC 1659</a>). Mr. Clay goes on to postulate, "The MATRI CASTRORVM sestertii with nominative obverse legend might be from older obverse dies that had originally been cut for use with a previous reverse type. For Diva Faustina, the MATRI CASTRORVM type was continued and was always coupled with an obverse legend in the dative case."</p><p><br /></p><p>So how to explain the use of the dative case on the DIANA LVCIFERA coin which, unlike the MATRI CASTRORVM issue, does not name a title bestowed upon the empress? Could it possibly be a mule/hybrid, accidentally struck with an obverse die intended for the MATRI CASTRORVM type (RIC 1660)? Were it a die match with any of the known examples of RIC 1660, this would be proven. Unfortunately, I have been able to find only two examples of RIC 1660 online (<a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+1660&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0&currency=usd&company=" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+1660&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0&currency=usd&company=" rel="nofollow">an example</a> Bertolami attempted to sell three times and the British Museum specimen above). It is not an obverse die match to either.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, the absence of a die match does not disprove the mule theory, particularly since there are only two examples with which to compare it. However, the purpose of the dative case on the obverse inscription on the DIANA LVCIFERA coin must therefore remain unknown.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>THE INSCRIPTION'S IMPLICATION FOR DATING THE DIANA LVCIFERA ISSUE</b></p><p><br /></p><p>We know that Faustina received the title of Mater Castrorum (Mother of the Camps), associated with Marcus Aurelius' seventh acclamation as Imperator, in mid-174.[9] Therefore, it is not unreasonable to conclude the DIANA LVCIFERA reverse type was issued at the same time or shortly following the MATRI CASTRORVM issue. The coin must have been issued sometime between mid-174 and the empress' death in late 175.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Post comments, coins with dative case inscriptions, or anything you feel is relevant!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Jonathan Williams. "The Republican identity of Roman imperial coinage. 1st to mid-3rd centuries AD." <i>Money and Identity. Lectures about History, Design and Museology of Money</i> [Proceedings of the 11th Meeting of the International Committee of Money and Banking Museums (ICOMON), Seoul, 2004] edited by Reiner Cunz, Hannover 2007, pp. 57-72; see p. 68.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. "Allen and Greenough / Latin Grammar." <i>Dative of Reference | Dickinson College Commentaries</i>, dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/dative-reference.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Williams, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 61.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. As brought to my attention by [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] in a <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/its-hard-to-be-humble.360590/page-2#post-4530729" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/its-hard-to-be-humble.360590/page-2#post-4530729">previous thread</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. "AD 147- about 150": Mattingly, Harold, <i>Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. 4, Antoninus Pius to Commodus</i>. London, 1940, reprinted with alterations 1968, pp. xliv, lxxvi-lxvii; 158 ff.</p><p><br /></p><p>6. "AD 147-149": Strack, Paul L., <i>Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius</i>. Stuttgart 1937.</p><p><br /></p><p>7. Personal communication.</p><p><br /></p><p>8. Williams, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 68.</p><p><br /></p><p>9. Levick, Barbara. <i>Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age</i>. Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 78.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 5398515, member: 75937"]I was the high bidder on this homely sestertius of Faustina II at the current Bertolami auction. [ATTACH=full]1232766[/ATTACH] [INDENT][SIZE=3]Faustina II, AD 147-175. Roman orichalcum sestertius, 20.66 g, 29 mm, 6 h. Rome, AD 174-175. Obv: FAVSTINAE AVGVSTAE, bare-headed and draped bust, right; late coiffure. Rev: DIANA LVCIFERA S C, Diana standing right, holding lighted torch in both hands. Refs: Dinsdale 007295 (this coin), otherwise unattested with dative obverse inscription; cf. RIC 1630, BMCRE 899-900, Cohen 88, RCV 5272, MIR 8-6/10c.[/SIZE][/INDENT] The coin may not look like much but it appears to be a previously unattested inscriptional variety and may well be unique. It bears the dative case obverse inscription FAVSTINAE AVGVSTAE, which had not been previously described for this issue. This is very interesting and significant. [B]THE DATIVE CASE IN ROMAN NUMISMATIC TITULATURE[/B] A discussion of the significance of the dative case is going to involve a bit of Latin grammar, so bear with me. The simplest and most familiar form of Roman coin legend is: on the obverse, the names and titles of the emperor written in the nominative case and, on the reverse, a figure of some god or goddess, with the name also in the nominative, often with the appendix AVG. This is illustrated by the usual form of this sestertius, RIC 1630, as exemplified by this example from a recent Roma auction (E-Sale 75, [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7411784']lot 648[/URL], 15 Oct 2020). On this coin, the obverse bears the nominative inscription FAVSTINA AVGVSTA. The reverse is also in the nominative case: DIANA LVCIFERA. [ATTACH=full]1232767[/ATTACH] The formulation of legends of this type seems so bland and repetitive that it has attracted little attention. This usage is likely what is known as a [I]nominative absolute[/I], which is the use of the nominative case in introductory material (such as titles, headings, salutations, and addresses), which are not to be construed as sentences. Such an inscription is not the subject of an implied verb, such as "made," and "the nominative simply names the imperial person who appears on the coins and does not mean that he or she made them."[1] However, the names of imperial personages are sometimes written in the dative case on Roman coins of the imperial period, particularly in the second century AD, meaning "to" or "for" the person concerned (dative of advantage).[2] In ancient Rome, this was the most common case used for dedicatory inscriptions of all kinds, on statues and buildings in particular.[3] On Roman coin legends, as in these inscriptions, the name of the emperor often appears in the dative after the nominative S P Q R[4]: "The Senate and People of Rome to the Emperor [...]." Such is the case on this denarius of Trajan bearing the inscription (which extends from obverse to reverse) IMP TRAINO AVG GER DAC P M TR P/COS V P P S P Q R OPTIMO PRINC. This is translated "The senate and people of Rome for the emperor Trajan, the revered one, victor over the Germans and Dacians, highest priest, holder of tribunician power, consul for the 5th time, father of his country, the best of leaders." [ATTACH=full]1232768[/ATTACH] Of course, the inscriptions consist only of abbreviations and most of the inflectional endings are lost, but TRAINO is clearly in the dative, as is OPTIMO PRINC[IPI]. The dative case occurs frequently on coins made in the name of deceased members of the imperial family, DIVAE FAVSTIN AVG MATR CASTROR for instance, as on this sestertius of Faustina II with a CONSECRATIO reverse type. [ATTACH=full]1232770[/ATTACH] Lastly, the dative case is not infrequently used on coins issued for princes and women issued by their fathers or husbands [I]in honor of[/I] or [I]for[/I] them. The dative case conveys this notion of "for so-and-so." Examples include: [LIST] [*]Nero under his adoptive father Claudius ([URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-103']NERONI[/URL]) [*]Commodus under his father Marcus Aurelius ([URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1958-1101-53']COMMODO[/URL]) [*]Hannibalian as nephew, and Constantine II and Crispus as sons under Constantine the Great ([URL='https://numid.uni-mainz.de/object?id=ID124']CONSTANTINO[/URL] etc.) [*]Lucilla under her father Marcus Aurelius and her husband Lucius Verus ([URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-14482']LVCILLAE[/URL]) [*]Plautilla under her father-in-law Septimius Severus ([URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-15343']PLAVTILLAE[/URL]). [/LIST] So was the case when Antoninus Pius issued coins for his daughter, Faustina II, with the obverse legend FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG F(IL), used from AD 147 to no later than AD 150,[5,6] as on this sestertius in my collection: [ATTACH=full]1232772[/ATTACH] However, the nominative case was used on coins of Faustina II for nearly a quarter of a century afterward -- until the dative case was again used for the DIANA LVCIFERA coin with which this thread begins. This is puzzling; [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] rightfully ponders,[7] "Faustina's obverse legend had been in the nominative case since about 150; why this occasional return to the dative c. 25 years later?" The answer, I believe, is to be found in the only other reverse type from this period that uses the dative case: a very rare sestertius of the MATRI CASTRORVM S C reverse type (RIC 1660), as illustrated by [URL='https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1872-0709-695']this specimen[/URL] in the British Museum (BMCRE 929). [ATTACH=full]1232776[/ATTACH] In the reverse inscription, MATRI is in the dative case (CASTRORVM is genitive, "of the camps"). It seems best to take this as a dedicatory inscription.[8] Indeed, Curtis Clay continues, "Perhaps the mint wanted to acclaim Faustina with her new title Mother of the Camps, so wrote MATRI rather than MATER CASTRORVM, sort of like SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI for Trajan. Then it would be natural to put the obverse legend too in the dative case, agreeing with the reverse legend." This coin is also known with the obverse inscription in the nominative ([URL='http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.3.m_aur.1659']RIC 1659[/URL]). Mr. Clay goes on to postulate, "The MATRI CASTRORVM sestertii with nominative obverse legend might be from older obverse dies that had originally been cut for use with a previous reverse type. For Diva Faustina, the MATRI CASTRORVM type was continued and was always coupled with an obverse legend in the dative case." So how to explain the use of the dative case on the DIANA LVCIFERA coin which, unlike the MATRI CASTRORVM issue, does not name a title bestowed upon the empress? Could it possibly be a mule/hybrid, accidentally struck with an obverse die intended for the MATRI CASTRORVM type (RIC 1660)? Were it a die match with any of the known examples of RIC 1660, this would be proven. Unfortunately, I have been able to find only two examples of RIC 1660 online ([URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=Faustina+1660&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&thesaurus=1&order=0¤cy=usd&company=']an example[/URL] Bertolami attempted to sell three times and the British Museum specimen above). It is not an obverse die match to either. Of course, the absence of a die match does not disprove the mule theory, particularly since there are only two examples with which to compare it. However, the purpose of the dative case on the obverse inscription on the DIANA LVCIFERA coin must therefore remain unknown. [B]THE INSCRIPTION'S IMPLICATION FOR DATING THE DIANA LVCIFERA ISSUE[/B] We know that Faustina received the title of Mater Castrorum (Mother of the Camps), associated with Marcus Aurelius' seventh acclamation as Imperator, in mid-174.[9] Therefore, it is not unreasonable to conclude the DIANA LVCIFERA reverse type was issued at the same time or shortly following the MATRI CASTRORVM issue. The coin must have been issued sometime between mid-174 and the empress' death in late 175. [I]Post comments, coins with dative case inscriptions, or anything you feel is relevant![/I] ~~~ 1. Jonathan Williams. "The Republican identity of Roman imperial coinage. 1st to mid-3rd centuries AD." [I]Money and Identity. Lectures about History, Design and Museology of Money[/I] [Proceedings of the 11th Meeting of the International Committee of Money and Banking Museums (ICOMON), Seoul, 2004] edited by Reiner Cunz, Hannover 2007, pp. 57-72; see p. 68. 2. "Allen and Greenough / Latin Grammar." [I]Dative of Reference | Dickinson College Commentaries[/I], dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/dative-reference. 3. Williams, [I]op. cit.[/I], p. 61. 4. As brought to my attention by [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER] in a [URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/its-hard-to-be-humble.360590/page-2#post-4530729']previous thread[/URL]. 5. "AD 147- about 150": Mattingly, Harold, [I]Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. 4, Antoninus Pius to Commodus[/I]. London, 1940, reprinted with alterations 1968, pp. xliv, lxxvi-lxvii; 158 ff. 6. "AD 147-149": Strack, Paul L., [I]Untersuchungen zur Römischen Reichsprägung des Zweiten Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Die Reichsprägung zur Zeit des Antoninus Pius[/I]. Stuttgart 1937. 7. Personal communication. 8. Williams, [I]op. cit.[/I], p. 68. 9. Levick, Barbara. [I]Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age[/I]. Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 78.[/QUOTE]
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