Bare-bottomed Venus Victrix

IOM - thanks for adding a word to my vocabulary today!

 

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A type I unfortunately lack

 

Oooops, I almost forgot that I recently added this bodaciously-buttocked-babe to my coin-harem ...

Sabina

 

Sorry to resurrect this nearly two-year-old thread, but I thought it more appropriate than to start a new one since its purpose is primarily to add new information.

I've had the opportunity to review the history of the iconography of Venus Victrix on Roman imperial coins and this particular rendering of Venus appears to go back to Octavian (Augustus):


RIC1, 250a; BMCRR2, 4333; BMCRE1, 599 (British Museum specimen).

We've seen examples from the Flavian period on coins of Titus (@David Atherton 's example above) and Julia Titi (my example in the OP). We've also seen it appear on the anepigraphic reverse type of Sabina, on Stevex6's example immediately above.

@dougsmit asks a very interesting question:

I wonder if the same concerns about modesty may have arisen during the reign of Antoninus Pius because the iconography of Venus Victrix changes for the first time in the imperial series with this issue of Faustina I, which depicts Venus (probably as Victrix) clothed and resting her arm on a large shield:


Faustina I, AD 138-141.
Roman AR denarius, 3.0 g, 17.1 mm.
Rome, AD 147-161.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA, Venus standing facing, head left, holding apple and resting left arm on shield.
Refs: RIC 366a; BMCRE 432-33; Cohen/RSC 73; RCV 4586; CRE 147.

Granted, it's impossible to prove that Venus here is intended to be portrayed as Venus Victrix in particular, but the presence of a shield is very suggestive. Moreover, are we certain the round object Venus holds in her right hand is an apple and not meant to be a helmet? Compare this design to the denarius of Lucilla (below) and to this one on the reverse of a sestertius of Julia Mamaea, each of which is explicitly labeled VENVS VICTRIX:


Julia Mamaea, AD 222-235.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 23.08 g, 30.6 mm, 12 h.
Rome, 12th emission, AD 231.
Obv: IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA, diademed and draped bust, right.
Rev: VENVS VICTRIX S C, Venus standing left, holding helmet and scepter, shield at her feet.
Refs: RIC 705; BMCRE 718; Cohen 78; RCV 8235.


If Antoninus Pius may have had an issue with his late wife appearing on a coin with a naked Venus Victrix, his adopted son and successor, Marcus Aurelius, appears to have had no similar hangup. We see a return to the bare-bottomed Venus Victrix iconography of Octavian, Titus, Julia Titi and Sabina with this issue of Faustina II (RIC 723), explicitly labeled as Venus Victrix, admittedly with less of her buttocks exposed:


Source: Numismatik Naumann Auction 9, lot 537, November 3, 2013.

On the coins of Faustina II's daughter, Lucilla, we see another change in the iconography of Venus Victrix -- to a frontal view in which she appears with her right breast bared and holding a Victoriola. Note she rests her left hand on a large shield, as in the denarius issued by her grandmother shown above:

Lucilla, AD 164-169.
Roman AR denarius, 3.41 g, 17.3 mm, 11 h.
Rome, AD 166-169.
Obv: LVCILLA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Rev: VENVS VICTRIX, Venus standing facing, head left, holding Victory and resting left hand on shield.
Refs: RIC 786; BMCRE 353; Cohen 89; RCV 5492; CRE 268.

 

How's about one from Salonina? Could this be the latest (last) portrayal of Venus-from-behind naked on a coin?




Salonina Antoninianus
(wife of Gallienus)
(256-257 A.D.) Cologne Mint
SALONINA AVG, diademed, draped bust rt. on crescent / VENVS VICTRIX Venus from back, naked to waist leaning on column holding palm & apple.
Göbl 904c; Cunetio hoard 735 (Not in RIC).
(2.59 grams / 21 mm)

 

RIC 16 Titus denarius
IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M
Laureate head of Titus right

TR P VIIII IMP XIIII COS VII PP
Venus standing right her back turned towards spectator, holding helmet and transverse spear and resting on column

Rome 79AD

2.89g

Sear 2507
RIC 16 (R2)


This reverse type is copied from the coinage of Octavian

 

They do make the rockin world go round!


Julia Domna, Augusta
194 - 8 April 217 A.D.
Silver denarius, weight 2.745 g,
maximum diameter 18.4
m, Emesa (Homs, Syria) mint, 193 -
196 A.D.; obverseIVLIA DOMNA AVG,
draped bust right, hair in waved
horizontal ridges, bun at back
of head; reverse VENERI
VICTR, Venus standing right with
back turned facing, nude to below the
buttocks, resting left elbow on waiste
high column, transverse palm frond
in left hand, apple in extended right
hand; RIC IV S632; RSC III 194;
scarce

And another nice as


Oh woops! That's not even Venus...and it's a Denarius...

 

CORRECTION:

After further study, I agree with Strack, Beckmann, and the current curators of the British Museum collection that this coin does not depict Venus Victrix as previously thought, but Aeternitas holding a globe and resting her hand on a circular depiction of the zodiac.

I regret the error.

See this thread for details.

 

A rather generously provided Venus, some of Kim Kardashian's ancestor maybe


Julia Titi, Denarius - Rome mint, c.AD 79-81
IVLIA AVGVSTA T AVG F, Bust of Julia right
VENVS AVG, Venus leaning on a column, holding helmet and sceptre
3.03 gr
Ref : Cohen #12, RCV #2611

Q

 

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