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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 5700727, member: 83956&quot;]So I&#039;m sporadically working on a project that involves these reverse types. Like many of my projects, it may never see the light of day. But I suggest an important distinction between propugnator and conservator, related to the posture of Mars.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Propugnator</i> is a somewhat bellicose term; <i>pugnator</i> denotes a combatant; the <i>pro</i>- prefix means that the fighter is going <i>forth</i> to fight, which is consistent with the reverse image of Mars advancing, shield up and spear in hand, ready for battle.<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftn1" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftn1">[1]</a> While a <i>propugnator</i> may indeed fight to defend Rome, the common translation of “Father Mars the Defender” may obscure the fundamentally aggressive posture of coin and legend. “Father Mars the Fighter” might be a better gloss of <i>Pater Mars Propugnator</i>, and it contrasts with <i>Pater Mars Conservator</i>. The word <i>conservator</i> generally means <i>keeper</i>, <i>preserver</i>, <i>defender</i>, and even <i>savior</i> in later Latin; the MARTI PATRI CONSERVATORI (To Father Mars the Preserver) coin shows Mars at rest, facing right, hand on shield, with spear shaft planted firmly on the ground. Here a more staid god stands as Constantine’s protective deity.<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftn2" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftn2">[2]</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftnref1" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Certain aurei from the Beaurains hoard (RIC VI Trier 59-63) show only a bust of Mars on the reverse with the bellicose MARTI PROPVGNATORI legend.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftnref2" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/#_ftnref2">[2]</a> The <i>Dictionary of Roman Coins</i> comments (on the suggestion of Lorenz Beger) that the MARTI PATRI CONSERVATORI coin actually depicts Constantine, not Mars, on its reverse. But few modern numismatists subscribe to this view, and the double-bust type struck later at Trier clearly reinforces the custom of depicting emperor and god separately; see Stevenson (1982): 540.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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