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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 1954388, member: 57495&quot;]My final and favorite of this bunch of new pick ups is an anonymous Festival of Isis issue.&nbsp; I had been interested in them for some time and am now extremely pleased to be the owner of one.&nbsp; Despite being rare and somewhat pricey, many of these coins aren&#039;t actually much to look at and in fact wouldn&#039;t seem out of place in an LRB bargain bin.&nbsp; IMHO, mine is a pretty decent example even with the raggedy flan and missing details (some legend, the crown and part of the sistrum). </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]343449[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>FESTIVAL OF ISIS</b></p><p>Anonymous (Julian II?)</p><p>Rome mint, mid 4th Century</p><p>AE. 0.79g, 12mm</p><p>Alföldi, Festival pl. VIII, 11; Vagi 3393.</p><p>O: [ISIS F-A]RIA, draped bust of Isis right, wearing [hem-hem crown] and necklace.</p><p>R: [VOTA P-]VBLICA, Hermanubis standing left, holding sistrum and caduceus.</p><p><br /></p><p>The cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis was popular throughout the Ancient Greek and Roman world, and evidence of temples dedicated to her have been found in Rome, Pompeii, Delos and even London.&nbsp; Isis Pharia (Isis of the Lighthouse) was a patron of navigators and the inventor of the sail.&nbsp; Of her two major festivals, or <i>ploiaphesia</i>, the one on March 5 marked the beginning of the sailing season with the symbolic launch of the <i>Navigium Isidis</i>, the Ship of Isis.&nbsp; It was one of the last great pagan festivals to be celebrated in the Roman Empire, surviving well into the early Christian era. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]343451[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>A model representing the sacred Ship of Isis</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The series of small issues known as Festival of Isis coinage have not been exhaustively studied and remain quite enigmatic.&nbsp; For one, many numismatists consider them tokens or small medallions rather than currency.&nbsp; It&#039;s also not entirely certain whether they were distributed during the springtime Festival of Isis, despite the name they&#039;re usually referred to by, or specifically only at the annual taking of public vows on January 3 (an event which may have been combined with other Festival of Isis that was held in wintertime).&nbsp; The argument for the January 3 date at least is strong because the VOTA PVBLICA legend is present on almost all of these coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>What is known thus far and generally agreed upon is that these issues were official products of the Rome mint, consistently struck from the end of Diocletian&#039;s reign to that of Valentinian II, the majority in brass (orichalcum), and that they were never issued in large numbers.&nbsp; The series can be categorized into two groups - those with imperial busts of the emperors and the anonymous issues which show a bust of Isis, Sarapis or both jugate (these are usually attributed to Julian II).&nbsp; It has also been noted that many of the surviving examples are pierced, suggesting that they may have been worn as talismans or nailed to the frames of buildings. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are many other interesting aspects of this series, including the fact that they were struck at the Rome mint but portrayed non-Roman deities, a feature more commonly associated with earlier provincial coinage.&nbsp; To add to that, the incongruity of pagan gods like Isis, Sarapis, Harpocrates, and Anubis appearing on coins bearing the imperial portraits of Christian emperors such as the sons of Constantine, Magnentius, Valentinian and Valens sheds some light on the fascinating mix of paganism and Christianity that the Roman Empire must have been during this period.</p><p><br /></p><p>Apuleis, writing in the 2nd century, ends his novel <i>The Golden Ass </i>with a procession of the Festival of Isis.&nbsp; His description of the procession reads almost like a catalogue of the reverse images found on some of the coins - sistrums, situlas, the beautifully decorated Ship of Isis, and representations of deities including &quot;Anubis, that dread messenger between the powers above and the powers beneath the earth, with a face one side black the other gold, his jackal&#039;s neck erect, bearing a caduceus in his left hand&quot; (note: as on this coin he is perhaps more properly called Hermanubis, a syncretized Greco-Egyptian deity combining Hermes and Anubis).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]343450[/ATTACH]</p><p><b><i>Procession in Honor of Isis</i></b></p><p><b>An &quot;Orientalist&quot; painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The complete variety of reverses is even more intriguing, and while it has been difficult searching for pictures of many actual coins online, the Tesorillo website has drawings accompanied with the catalogue descriptions:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm</a></p><p><br /></p><p>And for those just wanting to read up further on the subject of the Festival of Isis coinage online, the full section on Tesorillo&#039;s is indispensable : </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/index1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/index1.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.tesorillo.com/isis/index1.htm</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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