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Message:: [QUOTE="Heliodromus, post: 8137620, member: 120820"]The Romans seem to have been very fond of word/letter play, which we see in a variety of palindromes, acrostics and ligatures of overlaid letters seen on coins, jewelry, etc. It'd be interesting to know if this "eros" ligature is seen anywhere else in non-numismatic context, or only here as an issue mark on these coins? It seems a bit too clever/creative to have been made up at the mint as an issue mark. The basic explanation is that this greek ligature can be expanded as "eros" (ἔρως), meaning "love", which in Latin would be "amor". We then have the palindrome roma <=> amor. The roma-amor palindrome seems intended to evoke/mirror the back-to-back temple(s) of romae aternae and venus felix in the center of Rome, where venus felix is venus in her aspect of love, often depicted accompanied by cupid, modeled after aphrodite. Thanks to mauseus on FORVM who originally drew my attention the temple link in an old thread there I'd started on this subject. The "eros" issue mark is also seen on the vota types from the same issue as [USER=84905]@Tejas[/USER] Romae Aeterae type, as well as the following one, but given the allusion to Romae Aeternae was perhaps chosen with this in mind. [ATTACH=full]1418289[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]