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<p>[QUOTE="savitale, post: 8468197, member: 95284"]Here is another addition to my Roman Emperor collection, Claudius.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1500058[/ATTACH] </p><p>Leu Numismatik, Auction 8, Lot 252 10/23/21 </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Claudius, 41-54</b>. Cistophorus (Silver, 27 mm, 11.08 g, 6 h), Ephesus, circa 41-42. TI•CLAVD CAES•AVG Bare head of Claudius to left. Rev. DIAN - EPHE Tetrastyle temple on podium of four steps, enclosing cult statue of Diana of Ephesus with polos on head and fillets hanging from wrists; pediment decorated with two figures flanking large disk set on central table, and two tables and recumbant figures in angles. BMC 229. Cohen 30. RIC 118. RPC I 2222. A lovely example with very attractive toning and a bold portrait. Minor flan crack, otherwise, about extremely fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>Claudius (10 BCE – 54 CE) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from 41 to 54 CE. He survived the political turmoil of the period which took the lives of many other members of the Roman elite, possibly in part because his physical disabilities made him appear unthreatening. Claudius did not seem to be destined for high-ranking office. His father (Nero Claudius Drusus) died when Claudius was one year old and he was raised by his mother and then by his grandmother, both of them apparently disaffected by his illness (which may have been cerebral palsy). Claudius was tutored by Livy and chose to live a scholarly life as an historian until his nephew Caligula appointed him co-consul in 37. Being the only remaining adult male of the imperial family upon the assassination of Caligula in 41, the Praetorian Guard declared Claudius emperor after finding him hiding behind a curtain.</p><p><br /></p><p>As emperor Claudius was able enough, repairing some of the financial damage done by Caligula. He expanded the empire considerably, annexing Thrace, Noricum (modern Austria), Lycia, Judea, and Britannia. He built aqueducts, roads, and canals, some of which are still visible today. Claudius enjoyed games and offered them frequently. He died in 54 of uncertain cause, though most historians suggest he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina to make way for her son Nero.</p><p><br /></p><p>The more interesting side of this coin, however, is the reverse. It depicts the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, also known as the Artemision, one of the Seven Wonders of the World described by ancient Greek travel-writers. I found this cool graphic of the Seven Wonders on Wikipedia.</p><p><br /></p><p> [ATTACH=full]1500059[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Pliny writes that the Temple was 425 feet in length, 225 feet wide, with 127 columns rising 60 feet high. (Pliny The Elder, Natural History 36.21) The coin shows the cult statue of Ephesian Artemis. This form of the goddess bears little physical resemblance to the Greek goddess and doubtless derives from Egyptian or Near-Eastern roots. Occupation of the site of the Temple of Artemis has been shown archaeologically back to the bronze age, long before the arrival of Ionian Greeks. Almost certainly this pre-Hellenic goddess, sometimes called The Lady of Ephesus after a 3rd c. BCE inscription, was simply re-assigned by Greek settlers as Artemis, a familiar member of the Greek Pantheon.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ephesian Artemis is immediately recognizable by the bulbous objects covering the upper part of the body (not fully struck up on this coin, but still recognizable). What the objects represent is not known with certainty; some have suggested they are many breasts symbolizing fertility. This is quite at odds, however, with the Greek Artemis, an eternally maiden goddess. As surviving statuary seems to place these objects on the outside of clothes they are probably some form of ornament, hypothesized to be amber beads, gourds, or even bulls’ testicles.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the coin we see what appear to be two objects hanging from the arms of the cult statue. It is not clear what these objects are. They have been called staffs, intertwined serpents, fillets (ornamental ribbons of wool), and other things. After much searching the only piece of ancient iconography I could find to support any of those theories is this marble relief from a 2016 Christies auction showing the statue holding what they call “knotted woolen ribbons”.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1500060[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately all that remains at the site of Temple of Artemis today are fragments of the foundation and a few scattered column drums, a few of which have been stacked on top of one another in modern times to give a miserable representation of a Greek column. But at least we have the depictions of this ancient wonder on coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="savitale, post: 8468197, member: 95284"]Here is another addition to my Roman Emperor collection, Claudius. [ATTACH=full]1500058[/ATTACH] Leu Numismatik, Auction 8, Lot 252 10/23/21 [B]Claudius, 41-54[/B]. Cistophorus (Silver, 27 mm, 11.08 g, 6 h), Ephesus, circa 41-42. TI•CLAVD CAES•AVG Bare head of Claudius to left. Rev. DIAN - EPHE Tetrastyle temple on podium of four steps, enclosing cult statue of Diana of Ephesus with polos on head and fillets hanging from wrists; pediment decorated with two figures flanking large disk set on central table, and two tables and recumbant figures in angles. BMC 229. Cohen 30. RIC 118. RPC I 2222. A lovely example with very attractive toning and a bold portrait. Minor flan crack, otherwise, about extremely fine. Claudius (10 BCE – 54 CE) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from 41 to 54 CE. He survived the political turmoil of the period which took the lives of many other members of the Roman elite, possibly in part because his physical disabilities made him appear unthreatening. Claudius did not seem to be destined for high-ranking office. His father (Nero Claudius Drusus) died when Claudius was one year old and he was raised by his mother and then by his grandmother, both of them apparently disaffected by his illness (which may have been cerebral palsy). Claudius was tutored by Livy and chose to live a scholarly life as an historian until his nephew Caligula appointed him co-consul in 37. Being the only remaining adult male of the imperial family upon the assassination of Caligula in 41, the Praetorian Guard declared Claudius emperor after finding him hiding behind a curtain. As emperor Claudius was able enough, repairing some of the financial damage done by Caligula. He expanded the empire considerably, annexing Thrace, Noricum (modern Austria), Lycia, Judea, and Britannia. He built aqueducts, roads, and canals, some of which are still visible today. Claudius enjoyed games and offered them frequently. He died in 54 of uncertain cause, though most historians suggest he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina to make way for her son Nero. The more interesting side of this coin, however, is the reverse. It depicts the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, also known as the Artemision, one of the Seven Wonders of the World described by ancient Greek travel-writers. I found this cool graphic of the Seven Wonders on Wikipedia. [ATTACH=full]1500059[/ATTACH] Pliny writes that the Temple was 425 feet in length, 225 feet wide, with 127 columns rising 60 feet high. (Pliny The Elder, Natural History 36.21) The coin shows the cult statue of Ephesian Artemis. This form of the goddess bears little physical resemblance to the Greek goddess and doubtless derives from Egyptian or Near-Eastern roots. Occupation of the site of the Temple of Artemis has been shown archaeologically back to the bronze age, long before the arrival of Ionian Greeks. Almost certainly this pre-Hellenic goddess, sometimes called The Lady of Ephesus after a 3rd c. BCE inscription, was simply re-assigned by Greek settlers as Artemis, a familiar member of the Greek Pantheon. Ephesian Artemis is immediately recognizable by the bulbous objects covering the upper part of the body (not fully struck up on this coin, but still recognizable). What the objects represent is not known with certainty; some have suggested they are many breasts symbolizing fertility. This is quite at odds, however, with the Greek Artemis, an eternally maiden goddess. As surviving statuary seems to place these objects on the outside of clothes they are probably some form of ornament, hypothesized to be amber beads, gourds, or even bulls’ testicles. On the coin we see what appear to be two objects hanging from the arms of the cult statue. It is not clear what these objects are. They have been called staffs, intertwined serpents, fillets (ornamental ribbons of wool), and other things. After much searching the only piece of ancient iconography I could find to support any of those theories is this marble relief from a 2016 Christies auction showing the statue holding what they call “knotted woolen ribbons”. [ATTACH=full]1500060[/ATTACH] Unfortunately all that remains at the site of Temple of Artemis today are fragments of the foundation and a few scattered column drums, a few of which have been stacked on top of one another in modern times to give a miserable representation of a Greek column. But at least we have the depictions of this ancient wonder on coins.[/QUOTE]
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