Eh, what's that in your pediment?

Maxentius's folles with Roma in a temple, commemorating his resoration of the Temple of Venus and Roma in AD 307, are by far the most common of his coins. In contrast to the ones which show the emperor and a captive together with Roma, those with the seated goddess alone could be said to be a little dull. On my example, thanks to a weak strike, even Roma is largely AWOL, leaving the only feature of interest the temple itself, which in this case has all kinds of fun stuff going on.

The majority of Maxentius's Roma temple coins have either a plain pediment (the triangular area below the temple roof), or one with a wreath. RIC 208 is a variety that has "pediment sometimes sculptured", with two cited examples described as having the Dioscuri flanked by altars in the pediment. My coin shows pediment figures undescribed in RIC, but the two central figures are clearly Jupiter, holding a scepter and thunderbolt, and Hercules, holding a club. The small figure on the left is not as well detailed, but the pose is recognizably that of a river-god. The one on the right is tougher to get a fix on, but Victor Failmezger's book covering coins of the tetrarchy apparently has a similar coin, and he describes the right figure as Sol wearing a radiate crown. I don't have the book, but the picture of the plate coin I've seen online shows a clearer Sol than mine, holding a globe in his left hand. That coin, however, has different acroteria (the decorative ornamentation at the corners of the roof). RIC 208 has Victories as acroteria, but whatever mine are - two guys with skipping ropes? - they sure don't bear any resemblance to Victory.

Pile-on invite - any of your temple coins with interesting pediment figures!


MAXENTIUS
AE Follis
6.27g, 27.4mm
Rome mint, AD 308-310
RIC VI Rome 208 var.
O: IMP C MAXENTIVS PF AVG, laureate head right.
R: CONSERV - VRB SVAE, Roma seated facing, head left, within hexastyle temple, holding globe and scepter; shield at base of scepter; in temple pediment from left to right, a river-god, Jupiter, Hercules, and Sol; tall standing figures as acroteria; RBP in exergue.

 

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Acroteric jump ropers? How unusual! And dangerous-- I try to stay at least a couple of feet back from the edge of ancient temples roofs when skipping rope.



Interesting pediments. Hmm. I have one, the result of an amnestic Zumbly-stalking event. (I didn't realize until after I won that I liked it because Zumbly had created a nice post about the type in the recent past ).


Marcus Aurelius
Sestertius; 31 mm, 24 gm; struck AD 173, Rome mint
Obv: laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: Mercury standing left on pedestal, holding caduceus and purse (it looks more like a patera to me); within temple with figural columns (telamones); on semicircular pediment, tortoise (unfortunately worn on this coin), cockerel, ram, caduceus, winged helmet, and purse; S-C across fields; RELIG AVG in exergue
Ref: RIC III 1074; MIR 18, 258-6/37; Banti 260

 

Actually that's nice, sever portrait of the fella, YOC. Here is my very poor example.


MAXENTIUS
Follis
OBVERSE: IMP C MAXENTIVS P F AVG, laureate head right
REVERSE: CONSERV-VRB SVAE, Roma, seated facing in hexastyle temple, head left, shield at side, holding globe and sceptre. Victories as acroteria, wreath in pediment. A Omega T in Ex.
Struck at Rome 308-310 AD
7.6g, 25mm
RIC 210

 

Lol. I think your pic confirms it. I shall have to adjust my description .

 

Sadly, I do not collect temple coins, so have none with interesting pediment figures. But I thought your thread was interesting, so I will contribute this bronze coin, my only temple coin:


Poppaea became the second wife of Nero in AD 62, and Claudia was the daughter of Poppaea and Nero.

Poppaea and Claudia
65 AD
AE18 - 4.35 gm
Obv: DIVA POPPAEA AVG, distyle temple containing statue of Poppaea seated left Rev: DIVA CLAVD NER F, hexastyle temple with domed roof containing statue of Claudia standing left
Ref: SR2058, RPC 4846

 

This one is on my list. You have a super nice example!

 

Thanks! This is one of my favorite coins. It was on my wish list for quite a while, probably took me about 5 years to find a nice example I could afford....but patience does have its rewards!

 

Actually, now that you mention it, i need a coin of his son Romulus.
So many coins, so little time!

 

Wonderful posts!!! From 'acroteric rope jumpers' to a bronze of Poppaea....

My temple example of Maxentius appears to depict the weekend when everyone was out of town---not a soul on it.....but it does look like someone is inside using the privy

 

Perhaps the reverse is the temple of Commodus (groan )

 

So common I chose the Victory reverse, go figure.


Maxentius (306 - 312 A.D.)
Æ Follis
O: IMP C MAXENTIVS P F AVG, laureate bust right.
R: VICTORIA AETERNA AVG N, Victory advancing left with wreath & palm.
In ex. MOSTT
6.70g
Ostia mint
RIC 54


Petillius Capitolinus (43 B.C.)
AR Denarius
O: CAPITOLINVS, Bare head of bearded Jupiter right.
R: PETILLIVS, The Capitoline Temple of Jupiter: richly decorated hexastyle façade with ornamented pediment and garlands hanging within three openings; [PE]TILLIVS in exergue.
Rome
3.5g
20mm
Crawford 487/1, Sydenham 1149


FAUSTINA Sr. (138-141 AD)
Silver Denarius
DIVA FAVSTINA
Draped bust right.
AED DIV FAVSTINAE
Hexastyle temple of diva faustina, containing seated statue of the deity, trellis-work fencing in foreground at foot of steps.
RIC 343
17mm
3.2g

 

Uncertain seated figure with raised arms, flanked by seated sphinxes or something...

 

I'm just enjoying seeing all these temple coins. Please keep 'em coming!

Here's a larger picture of just the roof of the temple on my coin.

 

I believe these are what you meant from the Failmezger book. 127iM3 appeared on the disk distributed with the book in enlarged size. I shows 'tetrarchy gods in pediment with Victories'. Click to enlarge.


127jM3 was a lesser coin only shown in reduced size and was labelled 'Dioscuri in pediment with Victories'.


Neither were great coins but it was what we had to work with. Victories were, in particular, weak. We included very few coins from out of town simply because mailing things would have upped the cost of the book a lot.

I remain fond of 126gM3 (below) which was a coin from my collection (coded D on the disk - owners of the disk will see several similarly coded to owners) used because it was better than Victor's of the type. Type 126 temples had four columns while 127 had six. 126gM3 was 'wolf/twins pediment, Victories'


I might add that 700 photos taken for this book were done while on my back with one leg elevated over my heart level following vascular surgery. The photos may not be the best but I claim the award for best excuse for numismatic mediocrity. Since I was not paid for them, the images were good enough. They were taken with a (primitive by today's standards) Nikon Coolpix 990 linked to a TV so I did not have to look through the camera. I did the photos as a favor to Victor partly because he agreed to issue the images on CD with the book and the first bunch had a CD in a sleeve inside the back cover. Later, batches were sent out minus the disks or dealers who bought them decided to throw them out. The idea of providing the images on disk did not seem worth doing to most people in 2003.

 

my only temple with any type of pediment is this, with....triple dots (busts?). engraver phoned the pediment work in for sure!

 

My temples don't have pediments? :-(

 

My Maxentius only has a wreath within the pediment

 

Awesome OP-example, Z-Bro (congrats on adding that jump-rope winner!!)

Oh, and fantastic miscellaneous posts by the usual coin-suspects (great coins)

... I have a cool example as well

Maxentius

 

Doug, taking 700 coin pictures while bedridden sounds either heroic or masochistic, I can't decide which one .

The 127iM3 is indeed the one I was referring to. The truncated Sol shown in profile is really great on that coin. It has its flaws, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a nicer one. I think the other interesting thing about that example is that Roma holds victory on a globe rather than just a globe. That isn't common either.

Nice Maxtemple coins, everyone!

 

Jeez, When Doug's 'worse' photos are far superior to my best, I realize I have a LOOOONG way to go..LOL

Wonderful posts everyone!!!