Ancient - Another Roman Repulican

I've been watching for an affordable example of this and finally found it. It's a bit over-cleaned with some cleaning scratches, but the image does not do it justice.

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBV: Head of Taitus facing right, SABIN behind, palm before
REV: Tarpeia buried to her waist in shields, fending off two soldiers about to throw their shields on her; L. TITVRI in exergue
Struck at Rome, 89 BC
3.2 g, 20 mm
Cr344/2b; Sydenham 699; Tituria 4

In a subplot of the myth of the rape of the Sabine women, Tarpeia was a Vestal Virgin
that betrayed the city of Rome to the Sabines when they were attempting to rescue
their wives and daughters. The price for her betrayal was what the Sabine soldiers
wore on their left arms, meaning their gold bracelets. The Sabines were offended by
Tarpeia's greed and treason, and took her price literally. She met her death under
the crushing weight of the soldiers' shields.

 

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The Tapeian rock, in Rome, was named after her, specifically the place she was buried.


Also, current though is that the Rape of the Sabines is based on historical fact, if it isn't fact.

 

Looks like Taitus was one of Jay Leno's ancestors.

Super coin, Bing! Love all your RR's.

 

Yeah, great coin. I have somewhat always wanted on myself. I love the story on it.

 

Nice coin Bing! The jaw on that profile is something else, as JA already pointed out. Although, I suppose it could be a Taitas was wearing a beard.

 

Compare to one of it's sister coins:

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBV: Head of Tatius facing right, SABIN behind, palm below chin
REV: Two Roman soldiers, each holding a woman in his arms, L.TITVRI in ex.
Struck at Rome, 89 BC
3.8g, 20mm
Cr344/1b, Syd 698a, Tiituria 2

 

So, he does have a beard. It's an odd portrait on a Roman coin - it reminds me of Akkadian frescoes.

 

Perhaps everyone already realizes these points but there are two things necessary to understand these coins. First, the moneyer was descended from a family of Sabine origin so using an art style not exactly standard Roman would be a bit like someone in the US employing a style recalling his Native American, Asian or Hispanic heritage. The portrait on these coins probably spoke more clearly to those of Sabine heritage in that day than it does to us now.

'Rape' as in 'Rape of the Sabines' refers to a fact that early Rome had a great surplus of young men and a shortage of young women. An answer to this problem would be to raid neighboring towns and steal no gold or other treasures but daughters. Livy points out that the women involved were treated with great respect and became the mothers of the Roman people. Latin raptio means abduction rather than sexual violation. The losers here would have been the fathers of the volunteer brides who had no say if their daughters chose to go Roman and who probably got no dowry as might be expected if a proper young man sought their daughters in a standard way.

When it comes to historical coins, these are hard to beat. Of course there is always a problem deciding where history and mythology separate just as we in the US have when dealing with George Washington and his cherry tree. I suspect Rome raided the Sabines for women. Whether they carried the off underarm as shown on the coin is another question.

 

Thank you for that lesson, Doug!

 

Need this example myself. No rush though. Great pickup.

 

same here, cool addition

 

Wowzer!! ... nice RR my good man!! (purdy as a peacock!!)

=> very jealous!! (congrats)

 

Interesting coin.

 

Great look'in RR.. good details, with just a bit of a rub.. i like it..

 

Nothing better than a coin with two dudes fighting over a girl!

 

Anoob, they're not fighting over her, they're getting ready to bury her beneath their shields.

Thanks for all the compliments brothers and sisters

 

That's not what it looks like to me!!!

 

Very well written, bar the following sentence.

The fathers of the brides wouldn't have been given a dowry anyway.

The dowry was given to the young man's family, not her father.

 

That may very well be true WC, but what about the bride price? If I'm not mistaken, it was very common for the suitor to "pay" the father of the future bride.

 

The Romans, along with the Greeks, got rid of this 'primitive practice' by the time that Homer wrote his epics, according to Homer.