Two recent arrivals have given me a great amount of pleasure over the past week. The first is this dupondius of Titus with a superb smiling portrait. Titus Æ Dupondius, 11.40g Rome mint, 80-81 AD Obv: IMP T CAES VESP AVG P M TR P COS VIII; Head of Titus, radiate, bearded, r. Rev: VESTA in exergue; S C in field; Vesta std. l., with palladium and sceptre RIC 212 (C). BMC 200. BNC 203. Ex eBay, 9 February 2020. It's not unusual at the start of a reign for the Rome mint to strike coin types that conjure up feelings of familiarity and continuance. Vesta is certainly one of those types and Titus' moneyers made full use of her propaganda value. She frequently appears on the bronze coinage with her message of religious piety and security. Her main attribute here is the palladium - a wooden cult image of Pallas Athena which oversees the safety and well being of Rome. The second arrival is this fantastic book on the Colosseum by Nathan T. Elkins. This is one of best treatments on the monument I've come across. Elkins weaves together the latest scholarship to tell the story of the Colosseum's early days under the Flavian emperors. I can't recommend this book enough! It's kind of fitting that the Titus dupondius arrived within the same week - a coin that possibly was minted near or during the Colosseum's inaugural 100 days of games.
That portrait of Titus is great. Also, thanks very much for the book recommendation, I just ordered a copy for myself.
Beautiful Titus, I like the color. As for the book, it sounds interesting. Maybe I should also order it (it seems pretty affordable). I personally visited two amphitheathers in southern France. Of which one: Arles was built during the reign of Domitian. Both are also inspired by the Colosseum, but smaller. They are interesting places to visit, but without a guide or audiotour a bit boring.
When I think of Nathan Elkins, I think of his activities to end the private ownership of ancient coins: http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2015/05/ http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2015/05/coiney-straw-men-speaking-again.html I prefer to support the activities of the ACCG and Peter Tompa: http://www.accg.us/home.aspx
I wasn't sure if I should have mentioned his involvement with all that or not ... instead I was hoping someone would pick up on the irony of the photo I included of the book sitting next to a privately owned ancient coin.
I can. Must we only seek out people we agree with? Does his stance of private collecting mean that he has nothing of value to contribute to the topic he covers in his book? There are plenty of people I disagree with including you on this topic Doug. Should this mean that I should ignore your posts? To do so would be a grave mistake. You provide many things of value to this group. To ignore this because I disagree with you on a related issue would I think be folly. I may not always agree with you Doug, but there have been cases where I have learned from you. I hope this will be the case with this book.
There's a way around this issue of not financially supporting a vociferous anti-collector while still benefitting from his research: buy a used copy.
I just ordered the book, solely on David's recommendation - that's good enough for me. If Mary Beard came out and said she hates ice hockey and its fans (me), but wrote yet another book on just about anything involving ancient Rome, I'd still buy the book.
The only difference here, using your analogy, is that it would be more than Mary Beard saying she hates ice hockey: she'd have to be actively lobbying trying to get ice hockey banned so that no one could enjoy ice hockey. It's one thing to have differing interests/opinions but it's another issue entirely to try to force them upon people involuntarily.
