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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 7625955, member: 75937&quot;][USER=80952]@ambr0zie[/USER] has shown a few coins from the various structures at the funereal complexes of the Antonine dynasty. Here are a couple more. These depict the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustrinum" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustrinum" rel="nofollow"><i>ustrina</i></a> of Faustina I, who died in AD 140, and her husband, Antoninus Pius, who died in AD 161. In fact, this coin of Faustina gives us the earliest artistic representation of an imperial <i>ustrinum</i> on Roman coinage.[1,2]</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/faustina-sr-consecratio-funeral-pyre-dupondius-jpg.1045649/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Faustina Senior, AD 138-141.</p><p>Roman orichalcum dupondius, 16.19 g, 26.1 mm, 10 h.</p><p>Rome, AD 140-141.</p><p>Obv: DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.</p><p>Rev: CONSECRATIO S C, Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga right.</p><p>Refs: RIC 1189; BMCRE p. 236 *; Cohen 187; RCV --; Strack 1238.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-consecratio-denarius-jpg.1038722/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161.</p><p>Roman AR denarius, 3.26g, 17.2 mm, 5 h.</p><p>Rome, AD 161.</p><p>Obv: DIVVS ANTONINVS, head of Antoninus Pius, bare, right, with drapery on left shoulder.</p><p>Rev: CONSECRATIO, <i>ustrinum</i> of four tiers decorated with garlands and statues and surmounted by a quadriga.</p><p>Refs: RIC 438; BMCRE 60-64; RSC 164a; RCV 5193; MIR 24.</p><p>Notes: Also struck with a right-facing bare head (no drapery) portrait.</p><p><br /></p><p>Marvin Tameanko, retired architect and specialist in ancient architectural coins, has written an informative article about the funerary complexes of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius as illustrated on coins.[3] Tameanko explains that the square altar enclosure (shrine) as illustrated on [USER=80952]@ambr0zie[/USER]&#039;s DIVO PIO coin was a separate building from Pius&#039; multi-tiered <i>ustrinum</i> as illustrated on my coin. More importantly, he explains that &quot;contrary to popular belief, the <i>ustrinum</i> was not a crematorium, but rather a monument that marked the site of the wooden funeral pyre, called a <i>rogus</i> in Latin, that was used to cremate the corpse.&quot; Tameanko notes the <i>ustrinum</i> of Antoninus was a &quot;wedding-cake-shaped building, decorated with sculpture and statues,&quot; which &quot;may have also been the depository for the ashes from the cremation along with dedication inscriptions and statues of family and ancestors, and possibly it functioned as a mausoleum for the Antonines and their associates&quot; (p.10).</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>ustrinum</i> itself has disappeared, but its foundations were found in 1703 near the modern-day Piazza Montecitorio. Tameanko provides a map of the funereal complex, showing the locations of the <i>ustrinum</i>, a monumental column, and the shrine illustrated on coins issued for Antoninus Pius. The map also notes the locations of a nearby <i>ustrinum</i>, temple, and column commissioned by Commodus for his father, Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius&#039; column still stands today in the Piazza Colonna off the modern-day Via del Corso, the ancient Via Flaminia (pp. 8, 10).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1312059[/ATTACH]</p><p>Zach &quot;The Beast&quot; Beasley emphasizes, &quot;The building on the coins is not a wooden rogus, but an ustrinum. Numismatists are too tradition bound with terminology, so they still perpetuate the terms, &#039;funeral pyre&#039; and &#039;lit or large altars&#039; when they should be saying, ustrinum and shrines.&quot;[4]</p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Sear, David R. <i>Roman Coins and Their Values II: The accession of Nerva to the overthrow of the Severan dynasty AD 96 - AD 235</i>, London, Spink, 2002, p. 273.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Beckmann, Martin. <i>Diva Faustina: Coinage and Cult in Rome and the Provinces.</i> American Numismatic Society, 2012, pp. 20-24.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Tameanko, Marvin. &quot;The Funerary Architecture of Antoninus Pius.&quot; <a href="https://community.vcoins.com/thecelator/The-Celator-Vol.23-No.05-May-2009.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://community.vcoins.com/thecelator/The-Celator-Vol.23-No.05-May-2009.pdf" rel="nofollow"><i>The Celator</i>, May 2009</a>, pp. 6–18.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Beasley, Zach. &quot;Architecture - &#039;Funeral Pyre&#039; (or Perhaps Ustrinum).&quot; <i>Beast Coins</i>, beastcoins.com/Topical/Architecture/FuneralPyres/FuneralPyre.htm.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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