Featured Dea Caelestis - the ancient City Goddess of Carthage

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Jochen1, Jan 20, 2020.

  1. Jochen1

    Jochen1 Well-Known Member

    Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

    We have seen interesting mythological depictions on Imperial coins too (but not in such wide range of variation as in Provincial coins!). Here I want to present an Imperial coin which holds mysteries until now. It is a denar of Septimius Severus though there is the same motive for Caracalla too.

    The coin:
    Septimius Severus, AD 193-211
    AR - Denar, 2.97g, 18.13mm
    Rome, AD 204
    obv. SEPTIMIVS - PIVS AVG
    Laureate bust r., beard plaited, braid across cheek (so-called Serapis type)
    rev. INDVLGENTIA AVGG
    Dea Celestis, turreted, head r., riding on lion r., holding sceptre and thunderbolt. Below water flowing r., arising from rock on l. side.
    in ex. IN CARTH
    Ref.: RIC IV/1, 266; C.222; BMC 335
    about EF
    septimius_severus_266.jpg
    Note:
    This coin is known in three different variants:
    a) Goddess holding sceptre and thunderbolt, head facing
    b) Goddess holding sceptre and thunderbolt, head r.
    c) Goddess holding sceptre and drum
    Type a) and b) is common, type c) is rare.

    Already the cause for issueing this coin is not certainly known. Apparently Septimius, who as is generally known was coming from Leptis Magna in Northern Africa, has undertaken a journey to Carthage and Leptis. INDVLGENTIA is translated to 'clemency, mildness, grace'. In connection with the water flowing from the rock it could be an allusion to an aquaeduct which the emperor has built, enhanced or repaired. That would be expressed by 'grace'. Or he has lowered or cancelled any water rates. That would be expressed by 'clemency'. At any case after a first edition without IN CARTH in ex. this was added to the rev. Perhaps the depiction without IN CARTH has made no sense to the Romans. Another possibility worth to be discussed could be that the flowing water was an attribute of Dea Caelestis herself. And so we come to the pictured deity. And there we have much confusion as well. Naturally the religion of the Romans in these times was already syncretistic and many different deities were mixed up to form new deities. But this is not true for Dea Caelestis. Here we are still able to differentiate.

    At first she must be distinguished from the goddess Dea Syria. Dea Syria belongs to the ambit of Kybele-Rhea and has nothing to deal with our goddess. Dea Caelestis is nothing else than the ancient city-goddess of Carthage. Her old name was Tanut or more correctly Tinit. The Carthagean like the Phoenician font does not know vowels. The name of the goddesss was written TNT. The connecting vowels now are known from newly found Greek inscriptions.

    Dea Caelestis or Virgo Caelestis as the city goddess of Carthage was called by the Romans, came to Rome referring to the official version after the fall of Carthage by evocatio. But before Septimius she is not known outside of Africa. So this version can't be true. Her Roman temple stood inside the Pomerium, the sacred district of Rome, on the Northern part of the Palatine. Her cult was on top of all other foreign cults. Here we find orgiastic activities as they were usual for Tinit. Naturally it came to a mixture with similar deities, e.g.. with Kybele who was depicted with lions and drums too. BTW Caelestis should not be confused with the epitheton 'caelestis' which often is added to deities.

    Tinit beside Baal Hammon was the main goddess of Carthage. Probably she came from Libya because her name has Berber reminiscences and in Phoenicia were found no confirmations. By political-religious reforms during the 4th century BC she came on the top of the Carthagean pantheon. Partly uranic, partly chthonic, she was Heavens Goddess, Moon and Fertility Goddess with the symbols crescent, palm, dove, pomegranate etc. She was associated with Hera and Demeter, was called 'Mother', but was Death Goddess too with Hermes Psychopompos. It is said that children were sacrificed to her. With the Punic expansion her cult spread to Sicily, Sardinia, Malta and Spain. To the Roman Imperial cult she was introduced not before Elagabal.

    Note:
    Evocatio: After having defeated an enemy the Romans usually asked the deities of the conquered city to move over to the victorious Rome where in a ceremonial procession they were assigned a sacred location. Thereby the power of the adversary deities was believed to be added to the Roman power.

    I have added the picture of Tanit on a stele from the Tophet in Carthage. Her symbol was the triangle with a bar on top (Wikipedia).
    Karthago_Tophet.JPG

    Tophet: Sacred place of the Phoenicians, where animals and small children were sacrificed to Tanit and Baal Hammon. The sacrifice of small children may also have been Roman atrocity propanda.

    Sources:
    (1) Der kleine Pauly
    (2) Wikipedia

    Best regards
    Jochen
     
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  3. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Interesting coin and fascinating write-up @Jochen1 - thank you.
     
  4. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    rm6630bb0183.jpg

    rj4640bb0607.jpg
     
    Ryro, Jochen1, Marsyas Mike and 6 others like this.
  5. Bing

    Bing Illegitimi non carborundum Supporter

  6. Orielensis

    Orielensis Well-Known Member

    Interesting write-up on a great type – thanks!

    As far as I see, the occasion on which this type was issued is still debated. As Jochen mentioned above, Babelon 1903 assumed that the spring below the Dea caelestis refers to the famous Zaghouan Aqueduct. He thus suggested that the "indulgentia" were the abolition of some tax imposed on Carthage for this aqueduct.

    Yet, the spring could simply be an attribute of the Dea caelestis, who also was a rain goddess. Already Eckhel thought this to be the more sensible interpretation: "Aut, quod praestare existimo, haec aquae fluentes ad typum principem deae Coelestis pertinent. Fuit haec, teste iterum Tertulliano, pluviarum pollicitatrix, quas facile indicant aquae ex rupe profluentes, quae coelestibus pluviis nutriuntur" (Eckhel, Doctrina Numorum Veterum 7, Vienna 1797, p. 184).

    Hasebroek 1921 therefore abandoned the aqueduct idea and instead proposed that the type celebrates Carthage having been granted the ius Italicum by Septimius Severus in 203/204. Most modern scholarship I know follows his interpretation.

    Also, this is a good opportunity to show my own example, which I received last year from an incredibly generous and thoughtful Secret Saturn. I truly love this coin – thanks again, whoever you are!

    Rom – Septimius Severus, denar, Dea Caelestis.png
    Septimius Severus, Roman Empire, AR denarius, 202–210 AD, Rome mint. Obv: SEVERVS PIVS AVG; head of Septimius Severus, laureate, r. Rev: INDVLGENTIA AVGG IN CARTH; Dea Caelestis, draped, riding r. on lion, holding thunderbolt in r. hand and sceptre in l. hand; below, water gushing from rock. 19mm, 3.32g. Ref: RIC IV Septimius Severus 266. Ex Marc Breitsprecher; ex Secret Saturn 2019.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2020
    benhur767, DonnaML, Ryro and 10 others like this.
  7. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Tanit
    [​IMG]
    Carthage Third Punic War Serrate Double Shekel 149-146 BCE 12.8g 26mm Wreathed Tanit - Horse r pellet below raised l leg SNG COP 403 scratches
    (Last coinage of the Punic Carthage Empire before Rome rendered them Extinct...)
     
    DonnaML, Ryro, Jochen1 and 5 others like this.
  8. Blake Davis

    Blake Davis Well-Known Member

     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2020
  9. Blake Davis

    Blake Davis Well-Known Member

    Terrific example!
     
    Orielensis likes this.
  10. JulianIX

    JulianIX Member

  11. Blake Davis

    Blake Davis Well-Known Member

    Beautiful coin! I remember seeing this when I first started collecting ancients and being amazed by the design.
     
    Orielensis likes this.
  12. curtislclay

    curtislclay Well-Known Member

    For a detailed treatment of this reverse type see my thread INDVLGENTIA AVGG IN CARTH, on Forum Ancient Coins, Reading for the Advanced Collector, 2007.
     
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