Here are some coins from Rome with a curious cryptogram in the mintmark. Constantine I A.D. 320 19mm 3.6gm CONSTANTINVS AVG; helmeted and cuirassed bust right. ROMAE AETERNAE [To everlasting Rome, fifteen yearly vows (quindecennalia)] Roma std. r., shield in lap inscribed X/V [note that Victory holds a clear example of a stylus that she used to inscribe the shield] in ex. R ЄѠC P RIC VII Rome 194 Licinius I A.D. 320- 312 18mm 3.0g IMP LICINIVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. D N LICINI AVGVSTI surrounding wreath enclosing VOT XX. In ex. R ЄѠC S RIC VII Rome 228 Part of this mint mark is a cryptogram, and is Greek for eros, which in Latin is amor. Amor and Roma are palindromes-- they read the same backward or forward. Amor was the secret name of Rome. This may have been an attempt by the pagan aristocracy of Rome to use the old religion of mystery and romance to confront the pro-Christian policies of Constantine. The first letter in this mintmark is the Latin letter “R”, for Rome. The next symbol is a ligature, which consists of two Greek letters epsilon and rho, and then an upward sweep which transforms the ligature into the Greek letter omega. What looks like a “C’ is actually the Greek letter sigma. The last letter is a Latin letter which is the officina, and there were four workshops at this time- P, S, T and Q. So, the Greek cryptogram section reads epsilon rho omega sigma or Eros. This picture shows the close relationship of the temples for Venus and Roma located in Rome. The Romans were fond of palindromes, and there is a famous example in Virgil’s Aenid (4:37), where Aeneas said to Dido that the oracle commanded him to go to the land of his “amor”-- which is Roma. Sidonius Apollinaris was a Gallo-Roman poet who lived from A.D. 430-480. He was the author of a classic palindrome-- roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor, which roughly translates as "Rome, your love will suddenly collapse in disturbances."
