I turned 65 a few months ago, and realized that sooner or later I would have to consider retirement and, as a result, would finally have plenty of time to pursue several things I have wanted to do, but had never had adequate time. Since becoming enraptured by ancient coins and ancient history I had always wanted to learn ancient Greek - I am Greek on my father's side from the small town of Itaa, the elders on my family on that side did speak modern Greek, but as was typical of the time, where it was not passed to the younger generation, since assimilation was the rule - that is the reason my name is Davis, not Dedoussis. and why my first name is Blake, not something more ethnic. To get to the point: when I do retire, it is my intention to see if it is possible for someone in his late 60's to learn ancient Greek and maybe take a few courses in Latin as well. With all due respect to the translators of Greek and Latin, it is not hard to notice that there is something definitely lacking in what I am reading, especially the poetry. Shelly called it the "gray veil" of translation - that is, with respect to ancient Greek, a huge understatement. Plus I would love to learn why they call Livy's latin "milky." Now that this utterly irrelevant introduction is done, let me launch into the purpose of this article. After many years of collecting sestertii of all types in an effort to achieve my goal of one example of every person that struck one in every style that person struck, it became clear that it would take much much more resources than I could ever hope to have to achieve to even come close to my goal. After months considering the matter, my goal was modified to sestertii of Septimius Severus and family. I confess to being influenced by the wonderful articles of Doug Smith on many topics in ancient coins, but focusing on Septimius Severus. All in all, the sestertii of Septimius and family just seemed the right combination of cost, rarity, beauty and more. I excluded the sestertii of Severus Alexander since it would be just be...too much. plus there is a crudity of SA's sestertii that doesn't appeal to me. So...I collect, among other things, the sestertii of Caracalla, and in doing so found something very unusual. Roman Imperial Coins lists sestertii with the inscription "PRINCIPI IVVENTUTIS" "Caracalla left holding holding baton and spear" with having two obverse inscriptions. The much (much) more common type has the obverse inscription "M AVR ANTONINUS CAES PONTIF" shown by this example, which is a very common obverse die for the type. RIC 398(a) However, the IVVENTVTIS PRINCIPI type also has a different, earlier obverse inscription: M AVR ANTONINUS CAES - RIC 398(B) You would have noticed by now that the above example does not show the complete inscriptions. However, I have an example with a die match of the obverse, which shows what the obverse inscription is, as follows: This example is among the first sestertii I purchased - at a coin show in Parsippany, New Jersey from an elderly dealer from Italy, and the only dealer selling ancient coins at this monthly show. It also has a pretty green patina that unfortunately does not show up on this coin. This obverse die with the SECURITAS reverse is rather common, and I have seen a number of examples over the years of this same die obverse and reverse die configuration. However, I have never seen this obverse die with the PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS reverse until seeing and purchasing the above coin on ebay a month or so ago - yes ebay can still provide some surprises. I have spent quite a bit of time searching and aside from an example on BMC, which is of the same die configuration, have been unable to find any similar examples. Since I am doing this after working like a demon for some weeks and not much sleep I hope I have it right! BD
You are a person who does not shy away from difficult tasks -- I don't know what's easier, collecting Caracalla Sestertii or learning ancient Greek as fully grown adult! I admire the willingness to confront a challenge. I'd love to have a better grasp of ancient languages. As far as modern languages go... Having studied Spanish and French for about 10 years or so (not ever really becoming a fully comfortable speaker) is very helpful in widening the range of numismatic literature available to me. I've even surprised myself with how much German I've been able to pick up by brute forcing my way through auction catalogs and the occasional article or die study. So I can definitely see learning to be a Latin or Greek reader with some dedication (and with a dictionary or Google translate handy). I don't want to go without posting something, so let me try to hit a few themes: Some favorite recently acquired 3rd century Sestertii (sorry, not Severan!): Some favorite Caracalla AR from my "Barbarians, Captives, and Enemies" on Roman Coins Collection:
Well I did this when I was really tired so in addition to not proofreading it properly I think the inscriptions are not quite correct. - oh well I will let try to correct it to the extent I can tomorrow
Wonderful post. Short answer. You can do it. I was blessed by receiving a Classical education back in the day when Latin was a requirement for everyone at my secondary school and later at the University. Also I chose to study ancient (Attic) Greek and later on my own before going to Greece, modern demotic Greek. By the way, that turned into a comedy of errors when I got to Greece. I probably sounded like someone who had studied Chaucer and Shakespeare in school and then went to the marketplace and tried it out on the vendors. I also studied Italian and that worked a bit better as my earlier Latin classes had used the Italianate or ecclesiastical pronunciation. I still study both Latin and Greek on a regular schedule, first thing in the morning. I have a parallel paged copy of the New Testament with Koine Greek on the one side and Vulgate Latin on the other. I read a small portion every day. I cannot be too emphatic in urging collectors of ancient coins to pick up some ancient languages as this will literally light up your coins. Sorry, I cannot comment on the Caracalla portion of you posting though as it turns out I am reading what is the only current biography of the man in English but I am more interested in other areas of ancient coins. May Fortuna and Tyche guide your linguistic studies if you proceed with them. Oh, one thought on the Caracalla sesterces. I have found his larger brass somewhat pricey. You might want to try obtaining some of the Roman Provincial brass of the man. The larger ones are about the same size and weight of the sestertius but a lot cheaper and you can use your Greek to translate the inscriptions. Xaipe kai Vale.
Thank you - beautiful examples by the way. The Caracalla denarius has my favorite obverse bust type - I was fortunately able to buy a sestertius with the same bust but its condition is a bit lacking.
Thank you for your post and your encouragement. I have always wondered at the differences between ancient Greek and what my father and his side of the family spoke - I had elsewhere read about "classisizing" (sp?) historians who wrote in the Greek of Thucydides so there was clearly a huge difference between the old Attic Greek of the fifth century and even the mid Byzantine era. Add in another 1400 years to what is spoken today so it is no surprise that your Greek was barely comprehensible! As for the brass I am pretty well stuck with my interest even as it gets to the point where it is getting more and more difficult to find affordable examples. I was very lucky to find this coin, which was indeed affordable and made for what I hope is an interesting and accurate post. It would be great if there was a way to make edits since I see some typos but unfortunately I know of no way to do that.
They generally knew what I was trying to say but found it amusing. The two forms og Greek used today, the purified Kathervousi (sp?) and the demotic. The latter is simpler, fewer cases, tenses and more use of prepositions. The former is more formal and likely to be used in printed matter. Unfortunately this became involved in politics over whether or not the monarchy should be restored and one side argued for the pure Greek, the other for the more common. I forget which was which. You can edit. Make sure you are logged in and then when you finish hit send and look to the side or bottom for the word edit. Hit it in and write your correction your correction in the box provided and hit send or enter. You can only edit a text you wrote for about two hours or so and then it's locked.
Blake, Congratulations on your new acquisition! In my thesis I recorded only four such sestertii: BMC pl. 24.6, ANS, Ancient Gens sale, and Rome ex Gnecchi Coll.
Thanks Curtis - I was very much hoping that this note would get your attention. From your other posts it is my understanding that this type is the earliest Caracalla's inscriptions. After searching for an example for a long time I was thrilled when the coin appeared on ebay - rare sestertii of Septimius and family are not easy to find, especially ones I can afford! However, I did manage to find another (very worn) Septimius Severus IMP X Salus sestertius on Spanish ebay, which I will post when received.
I would love to read your Thesis and your die studies of Severan sestertii - I would try to update the die study if you had not done so already - a daunting task no doubt but I am certain I would love doing it. Blake
