Dear friends of Ancient Mythology! From Nikopolis ad Istrum we know of a series of coins on which Apollo is depicted offering with a patera over an altar. In his lowered left hand he has a branch. This is a standard depiction and Pick (in AMNG) usually writes "Apollo (Bonus Evenus)". We have adopted this designation in Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov, The Coinage of Nicopolis ad Istrum, as well. While looking through my coins, paying attention to details, I stumbled upon the following coin: 1st coin: Moesia inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum, Elagabal , 218-222 AE 27, 13.16g, 27.27mm, 0° struck under governor Novius Rufus Obv.: AVT M AVR - ANTWNINOC (NO ligate!) Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from front, laureate, r. Rev.: VP NOBIOV ROVFOV.NIKOPOLITWN PROC ICTRON Apollo (Bonus Eventus), nude, standing l., holding in his lowered left hand branches of field crops and in right outstretched patera over burning altar decorated with taenia. Ref.: a) not in AMNG b) not in Varbanov c) Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov (2021) No. 8.26.7.10 corr. (same dies, but ligate NO not mentioned) scarce, about VF, dark green patina On closer inspection Apollo is not holding a laurel branch as usual but a bouquet of field fruits. Among other things, a poppy head and 2 large ears of grain are visible. This is completely untypical for Apollo and speaks clearly for Bonus Eventus. Therefore, the depicted deity should correctly be called Bonus Eventus, at least "Bonus Eventus (Apollo?)". In this time, when syncretistic deities were common (see Aequitas/Nemesis etc.), it could also be called Apollo/Bonus Eventus. The first image of Bonus Eventus is found on a Republican denarius of L. Scribonius Libo from 62 BC. 2nd coin L. Scribonius Libo, gens Scribonia AR - Denarius, 3.83g, 19.62mm, 120° Rome, 62 BC Obv.: Head of Bonus Eventus, with broad taenia r. in front BON.EVENT, behind LIBO Rev.: Puteal of Scribonius, decorated with garlands and a lyre on left and right; on the base a hammer. above PVTEAL, below SCRIBON Ref.: Crawford 416/1a; Sydenham 928; Scribonia 8a The puteal was a well enclosure or the site of a lightning strike. This was sacred to Jupiter if the strike occurred during the day, the nocturnal strike to a deity Summanus. The hammer is probably an allusion to Vulcanus as the smith of lightning. The Puteal Scribonianum stood on the Forum and had been consecrated in 204 BC (or 149 BC). L. Scribonius Libo had renovated it. The Romans loved to personify each virtue as a deity, thus holding the basic idea that the virtues were not inventions of man but of higher origin. They were the imprint of a divine being in the human soul. The name Bonus Eventus comes from Latin "evenire" = to come forth, where "evenire" and "eventus" were expressions for the happy emergence and flourishing of crops (Cato). He was a god of the Roman age of agriculture and originally purely agrarian. Varro lists him as one of the 12 gods who are the leaders of the farmers. Sometimes he was identified with Triptolemos. With the decline of the importance of agriculture, his significance expanded already in Republican times to the general conditions of life and he became the god of all happy success (Apuleius). In imperial times, there was a temple to Bonus Eventus from an unknown time on the Campus Martius near the Baths of Agrippa (Ammian). There were also temples to him in the Roman provinces, for example at Mogontiacum, today's Mainz. Pliny describes two famous statues to him on the Capitol, which would have shown a youth with a bowl, ears of grain and poppies in his hand.... One is said to have been a marble statue of Praxiteles, which showed him together with Bona Fortuna. Adolf Furtwängler (1853-1907) concludes that it must have been Agathos Daimon. Winckelmann describes him "with a mirror in his right hand and a wreath of ears of corn in his left." The other was a bronze statue of Euphranor. Both statues were probably Greek statues that had been renamed. The one of Euphranor was perhaps a Triptolemos. Notes: (1) Praxiteles (c. 390 BC - c. 320 BC) is considered one of the most important sculptors of Greek antiquity. He worked in the stylistic epoch of the Late Classical period. He overcame the sublime austerity of Phidias and from him came the youthful ideals of the gods that we all know and love. (2) Euphranor was a Greek artist of the 4th century BC. Many works have been attributed to him, but only the incomplete statue of Apollo Patroos in Athens has survived. He was also a painter and wrote theoretical treatises on symmetry and colour theory. 3rd coin: Septimius Severus, 193-211 AR - Denarius, 3.55g, 18.20mm Emesa, 194-195 Obv.: IMP CAE L SEP SE - V PERT AVG COS II Laureate head r. Rev.: BONI - EVENTVS Bonus Eventus in long girded double chiton, standing l., holding 2 ears of grain in his lowered left hand and a bowl of fruit in his outstretched right hand. Ref.: RIC IV/1, (Emesa) 369; C. 68; BMCR 343 var. (different legend break) Rare, VF This coin had caused me problems because Bonus Eventus is depicted here as a female deity. But at that time it was not common for deities to change their gender as they wished, as is common today in the queer community. What is striking is that the deity is depicted as it is customary for Fides. We find this representation on coins of the Flavians and the adopted emperors. With the legend FIDES they are found on Commodus, Caracalla and even on Severus (here without the legend). And that the legend does not always designate the deity depicted can be seen on coins of Gallienus or Claudius Gothicus, on which despite the legend FIDES AVG Hermes is depicted. Thus the reverse on coin #3 also depicts Fides and not Bonus Eventus! Fides means "trust, faithfulness, belief". She is depicted as a female figure with a bowl or basket of fruit in one hand and ears of grain in the other. Fides is a prerequisite of the Bonus Eventus. Without trust and faithfulness there can be no good fortune. Thus the two deities are closely linked. Art History: I found the image of a statuette of Bonus Eventus at Bertolami Fine Arts. At the 32nd auction (lot 58) a bronze statuette from the 1st-2nd century AD was sold. It depicts a naked youth with a chlamys over his left shoulder, standing on a pedestal and holding a patera. On his left hand he had ears of grain and poppy heads, which are no longer present. This statuette certainly came from a private Roman house. Agathodaimon Agathodaimon, from Greek ἀγαθός = "good, noble" and δαίμων = "demon, spirit" is often referred to as the Greek counterpart of the Roman Bonus Eventus. But this is not correct. Although he also protected agriculture and viticulture, he was more related to the Roman genii. Pausanias even counted his name only as an epithet of Zeus. He was popular in Greek folk religion. Thus it was customary at a symposion or banquet to drink or spill a few drops of unmixed wine in his honour. In Aristophanes' comedy "Peace" (421 BC), the god of war Polemos had imprisoned Eirene, the goddess of peace, in a cave. When Hermes came to help her, he said: "Now, O Greeks, is the moment when, freed from strife and fighting, we should rescue sweet Eirene and pull her out of this pit.... This is the moment to empty a cup in honour of Agathos Daimon." On the road from Megalopolis to Mainalos in Arcadia there was a temple to him (Pausanias). Agathos Daimon was the companion of Tyche Agatha (Latin Fortuna Bona). "Tyche we know at Lebadeia as the wife of the Agathos Daimon, the Good or Rich Spirit". In the syncretic period of late antiquity, he was associated with the Egyptian Agathodaimon. The latter was regarded as the patron god for a happy future and was worshipped in the form of a serpent. Thus one sometimes finds the name "Agathodaimon" in error in the description of the Glycon snake on northern Greek coins. Around 1760, a headless marble statue of an Apollo (130-138 AD) was found in the Tiber River in Rome, which was completed with a head of Antinous found nearby. This statue was acquired by Giovanni Ludovico Bianconi in 1760. It was formerly exhibited in the Neues Palais in Potsdam and is now in the Altes Museum on the Museum Island in Berlin... From the snake coiling around the tree trunk, one can see the proximity to the Egyptian Agathodaimon. Sources: (1) Varro, De re rustica (2) Pliny, Historia Naturae (3) Cato, De agri cultura (4) Apuleius, Metamorphoses (5) Ammian, Res gestae (6) Pausanias, Perigeisis (7) Aeschylus, Eirene Literature: (1) Johann Joachim Winckelmann, History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764 (2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexíkon, Leipzig 1770 (3) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Extensive Lexicon of Greek and Roman Mythology (4) Seth W. Stevenson, Dictionary of Roman Coins (5) The Kleiner Pauly (6) Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov, The Coinage of Nicopolis (2021), Blagoevgrad Best regards Jochen
Thank you Jochen! Here is another Scribonius example: Harland speculates about what great events this coin represents, and suggests a jubilee; that debts are forgiven, as the level of debt was dysfunctional to society at the time. (Sounds familiar). Also; here is another female deity with a plate of fruit. This time Pietas: Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161).Rome, December AD 150–December AD 151. Obverse: IMP CAES T AEL ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P, laureate head of Antoninus Pius right / Reverse: PIETAS in exergue, TR POT XIIII COS IIII around, Pietas standing right before altar, holding dish of fruits and hind. Reference: BMCRE 735. RIC 201. RSC 616. Weight: 3.51g Diameter: 19mm
Great write-up! I have only one coin believed by some authorities to depict Bonus Eventus: Roman Republic, Q. Cassius Longinus, AR Denarius, 55 BCE [Crawford] or 53 BCE [Harlan], Rome Mint. Obv. Young male head of Genius Populi Romani [Crawford & RCV] or Bonus Eventus [RSC & RRM II] right, with flowing hair, scepter behind, border of dots / Rev. Eagle, with wings spread, standing right on thunderbolt, lituus [curved augural staff used in reading auspices] to left and capis [jug used in same rituals] to right, border of dots; Q • CASSIVS in exergue. Crawford 428/3, RSC I Cassia 7 (ill.), Sydenham 916, Sear RCV I 391 (ill.), Harlan, RRM II Ch. 23 at pp. 180-187, BMCRR Rome 3868. 19 mm., 3.77 g., 6 h.* * Harlan argues that the auspicial symbols on the reverse signal Bonus Eventus rather than Apollo or Genius Populi Romani. According to Crawford (Vol. I at p. 452), the eagle, lituus, and capis together symbolized imperium. He suggests that they refer to the Lex Cassia of 104 BCE, introduced by L. Cassius Longinus, under which individuals who had been deprived of imperium by popular vote, or had been convicted of a crime in a popular assembly, were excluded from the Senate. This coin is also discussed in Roberta Stewart, The Jug and Lituus on Roman Republican Coin Types: Ritual Symbols and Political Power, in Phoenix Vol. 51, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 170-189 at pp. 181-182 (DOI: 10.2307/1088493, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088493). The author notes that the eagle and thunderbolt were “auspicial signs associated with Jupiter, the god of the auspices,” and that both moneyers in 55 BCE were adherents of Pompey, “whose position in 56-55 was problematical.” Thus, the coin’s allusion to these traditional symbols of political power -- reading auspices was a predicate to the conduct of public business -- “identif[ied] Pompey’s desire for political and military prestige with the political and religious values of Rome.”
Here is a similar Philippopolis reverse to your coin from Nicopolis, Jochen. Bonus Eventus/Apollo seems to be holding something other than branches. and this one from Anchialus...
Nice ones! Here's mine IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M laureate head right BONVS EVENTVS AVGVSTI Bonus Eventus standing left, nude, patera in right, grain and poppy downward in left Rome mint, 79 - 80 A.D. 3.034g die axis 180o RIC II 89 (C), RSC II 25, BMCRE II 106 Although rated as common, it's rarely found in trade. Ex-Forum
Thank you for that terrific write-up on Bonus Eventus, @Jochen1 Here's one that hasn't been shared yet - Gallienus. I wonder if this is about the latest appearance of this deity on a coin? Gallienus Antoninianus (264-265 A.D.) Mediolanum Mint GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head right / BON EVEN AVG, Bonus Eventus standing facing, head left, by altar, holding patera and ears of corn, [MT in exergue]. RIC 470k (var. legend? See note) Göbl 1391a. (3.11 grams / 20 x 18 mm) eBay June 2018 Attribution Note: OCRE fails to provide reverse legends; gallienus.net notes BON EVEN as a variation: "RIC 470 lists only BON EVENT or BONVS EVENTVS AVG as reverse legend"
Another Fides but with the legend BONI EVENTVS. Julia Domna, AD 193-211. Roman AR Denarius, 2.52 g, 16.2 mm, 1 h. Uncertain eastern mint (Cappadocia?) formerly attributed to Emesa, AD 193-196. Obv: IVLIA DOMNA AVG, bare-headed and draped bust right. Rev: BONI EVENTVS, Fides (?) standing left, holding basket of fruit and corn ears. Refs: RIC 616; BMC --; Cohen 10; RCV --; CRE 328.
I would not call the Septimius versions 'rare' unless you consider any Eastern coin 'rare'. The Julia version comes in several early and late styles from 'Emesa' (a bit more scarce to very rare depending on which style) and also from Alexandria (not common by any means). Ordinary early 'Emesa' Very Rare with early-early style and IICOS reverse Alexandria A sampling of Septimius versions of 'Emesa': More rare IICO obverse and reverse ending in C COS I COS II This is also one of the more common Alexandria types but all a bit scarce from there. We might mention that the type was used by Pescennius Niger but my only one used a spelling EVINTV.
BB #230 Silver coin (AR Denarius) minted at Rome during the reign of TITUS in 79 A.D. Obv. IMP.TITVS.CAES.VESPASIAN.AVG.P.M.: laur. hd. r. Rev. BONVS.EVENTVS.AVGVSTI.: Bonus Eventus stg. l., holding patera and grain stalks. RSCII #25 pg.54. RICII #31 pg.120. BMC #106. DVM #8. Pleasing F, nice smooth medium gray.
Following on slightly from @dougsmit The type also occurs with Fides facing right in Alexandria under both Septimius and Domna but these are rare (only 1 or two example know for each). I used to own this one. At "Emesa" - "Eastern COS II" mint the type makes an appearance throughout the production at the mint. The first "AVG" issue contains the standard legend And the unusual BONI EVENTVS II COS. This example from a different reverse die to the II COS - Domna shown by Doug above Here is a double die match to the II CO - EVENTVC shown by Doug This is reverse die linked to the equally scarce . CO below (helping with placing these dies as contemporary at the same mint) This same obverse die also occurring with EVENTVS This coin being reverse die linked to the AVG II C example below The mint workers struggled a bit with BONI EVENTVS and BONA SPES and occasionally mixed the legends and types. Here are examples of each error. There are shortened versions of the reverse legend too - BONI EVENTV
Since the Titus Bonus Eventus type has already been posted, here is a rare Vespasian 'Civil War' denarius with a similar design. Vespasian AR Denarius, 3.22g Uncertain mint, 69-71 AD Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r. Rev: PACIS EVENTVM; Bonus Eventus stg. l., with patera and poppy and corn ears RIC 1375 (R2). BMC 422. RSC 295a. BNC -. Ex Lucernae, eBay, August 2011.
There are so "short obverse legend" COS II examples too IMP CA L SEP SEV - PER AVG COS II - BONI EVENTVS IMP CA L SE SEV PEVR (sic) AVG COS I-I - BONI ENTVS (sic) The type also occurs at the "Laodicea-ad-Mare" mint. Laodicea-ad-Mare should be taken with a pinch of salt for the early issues and some have reallocated these to other mints. I refer to them as "Eastern IMP II" and "Eastern early IMP VIII" IMP II - EVENTVS IMP II - EVENTV IMP VIII - EVENTVS Eventually becoming BON EVENT The Laodicea mint opened some time later and was more Romanised. The type was continued to be used.
Dear @Jochen1, a pleasure as always to enjoy your post! thank you. Here are two of my coins of Bonus Eventus and Fides. The Pietas of @svessien is enviable....
