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Message:: [QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 7866902, member: 75937"]TGIFF! And I got ... <img src="https://reactiongifs.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/V5QYJ.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> Martin Beckmann's die-linkage study of the aurei of Faustina the Younger[1] has provided us with substantial clarity regarding the relative – and in this case the absolute – chronology of many coins issued for this popular empress. The sequence of die links documenting Faustina's earliest coinage ends with several examples of the VENVS reverse type depicting the goddess holding an apple and rudder, as on this denarius below. [ATTACH=full]1355277[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Faustina II, AD 147-175/6. Roman AR denarius, 2.64 g, 17.4 mm, 7 h. Rome, AD 147-149. Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, bust of Faustina II, draped, right, with band of pearls round head. Rev: VENVS, Venus, standing left, holding apple in right hand and rudder around which is twined a dolphin in left hand. Refs: RIC 517c; BMCRE 1067-73; RSC 266a; Strack 495; RCV 4708; CRE 233.</blockquote> This reverse type links together the first (chain 1) and second (chain 2) phases of Faustina's aureus production. Although chain 2 uses the VENVS reverse type with which chain 1 ends, it uses a different obverse portrait, with a different hairstyle. [ATTACH=full]1355278[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Aureus (RIC 517a, BMC 1065), <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12588" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12588" rel="nofollow">British Museum collection</a>.</blockquote> Chain 2 contains only 14 total dies. It documents the introduction of two new reverse types. The first is IVNO seated left, cradling a scepter in her left arm and with two children, a larger one standing before her and a smaller child seated on her lap. Both are fully clothed, suggesting they were female (male children may – not always – be depicted nude on coins). A second reverse type appears shortly thereafter but remains in use simultaneously with the first. This second type depicts Concordia standing facing, head either right or left, raising her drapery with both arms, but also cradling an out-turned cornucopiae in her left arm.[2] The dative obverse inscription, FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FIL, remains in use. [ATTACH=full]1355279[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Section of chain 2 demonstrating the transition from the VENVS reverse type to the appearance of the IVNO seated and CONCORDIA standing (head left and right) reverse types (Beckmann, p. 36).</blockquote> [ATTACH=full]1355280[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Aureus (RIC 504, BMC 1043], <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12585" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12585" rel="nofollow">British Museum collection</a>.</blockquote> Similar iconography is seen on this exceedingly rare sestertius known only from the three museum specimens cited by Strack and a single coin sold at auction (this coin). I have <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-the-first-%C3%86-issues-for-the-empress.383947/#post-7857398" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-%E2%80%93-the-first-%C3%86-issues-for-the-empress.383947/#post-7857398">discussed this coin previously</a> here at CT. [ATTACH=full]1355281[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Sestertius (RIC 1382; BMCRE 2142n; Cohen 188; Strack 1303). Bertolami E-Auction 59, lot <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5004444" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5004444" rel="nofollow">739</a>, 20 May, 2018.</blockquote> [ATTACH=full]1355282[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Aureus (RIC 500a, BMC 1041), <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1856-1101-82" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1856-1101-82" rel="nofollow">British Museum collection</a>.</blockquote> Note the IVNO and PVDICITA coins depict two children. One is older and able to stand; the other is younger and merely sits on the goddess' lap. Beckmann explains the significance of the iconography, "… to any contemporary observing the coin near the time it was produced, the two children of Faustina and Marcus come to mind."[3] But which two children are these and when were the coins issued? Further study reveals that the coins were issued in AD 149 and with the likely purpose of commemorating the birth of Faustina's second child, her daughter Lucilla. Dating the Issue Iconographic elements of Faustina's IVNO and CONCORDIA coins find parallels in the coinage of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Beckmann explains, "This is a particularly important observation since the date of these coins can be determined by the iteration of the tribunician power of both the emperor and his designated successor (TRP XII and III respectively)."[4] Two reverse types on coins of Marcus Aurelius as Caesar dated TRP III (December 148 to December 149) depict two children. Bronze coins depict Pietas standing, holding an infant in her left arm while she stretches her right arm over a young girl standing beside her. [ATTACH=full]1355283[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Sestertius of Marcus Aurelius (RIC 1274a), ANS collection (<a href="http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.49044" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.49044" rel="nofollow">ANS 1944.100.49044</a>).</blockquote> The second coin type, appearing on silver and gold issues of Marcus Caesar, depicts Concordia flanked by two girls, one larger than the other. Beckmann concludes the iconography must represent "children, and that one is older than the other."[5] [ATTACH=full]1355284[/ATTACH]<blockquote>Aureus of Marcus Aurelius (RIC 441, BMC 680), <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12557" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12557" rel="nofollow">British Museum collection</a>.</blockquote> Beckmann continues: <blockquote>These images strongly echo two of Faustina's own coin types. Her seated Juno cradles a small child in her lap while a larger child stands to the left; Marcus's Pietas holds a small child in her arm while a larger one stands on the ground. The figure of Faustina's Concordia … is an almost exact replica of the same figure on Marcus's … though without children, but with the addition of a cornucopia. It is possible that this Concordia type of Marcus Caesar was created by deliberately combining iconography drawn from two types of Faustina (Juno and Concordia), which die links show were introduced at exactly the same time. This suggests very strongly that these reverse types should be considered as contemporary, thus dating Faustina's coins with two children to ca. 149.</blockquote> On sestertii of Antoninus Pius dated the same year (TRP XII = December 10, AD 148 to December 9, AD 149) two children's busts are shown in crossed cornuacopiae. I have discussed this issue previously <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-ii-with-one-child-with-2-3-4-6-children-plus-other-empresses-with-children.384702/page-2#post-7819856" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-ii-with-one-child-with-2-3-4-6-children-plus-other-empresses-with-children.384702/page-2#post-7819856">here</a> at CT. [ATTACH=full]1355285[/ATTACH]<blockquote> Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161. Roman orichalcum sestertius; 22.64 gm, 31.5 mm, 12 h Rome, AD 149. Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XII, laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder Rev: TEMPORVM FELICITAS, COS IIII in exergue, S C across field, crossed cornuacopiae from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by confronted busts of two children. Refs: RIC 857; BMCRE 1827-29; Cohen 813; RCV 4236; Strack 1026; Banti 411.</blockquote> Careful examination of better struck examples and of the corresponding aurei (see my post <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-ii-with-one-child-with-2-3-4-6-children-plus-other-empresses-with-children.384702/page-2#post-7819856" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-ii-with-one-child-with-2-3-4-6-children-plus-other-empresses-with-children.384702/page-2#post-7819856">here</a>) demonstrates that the children depicted on the coin are girls: each wears a stephane. You can see a hint of the stephane on the girl on the right on my sestertius. The girl on the left is a newborn, whereas the one on the right is older. Identifying the Two Daughters The coins therefore depict the birth of a single female child in AD 149. Assuming the two girls on these coins of AD 149 represent Faustina and Marcus's actual daughters and not attributes of the personifications of Juno, Pudicitia, Pietas, and Concordia, we are faced with the problem of identifying them. The identity of the older girl is clear. She is Domitia Faustina, the firstborn child of the imperial couple, born on 30 November AD 147. I have discussed the circumstances surrounding her birth and the coins issued in commemoration of the event <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-–-the-first-Æ-issues-for-the-empress.383947/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-–-the-first-Æ-issues-for-the-empress.383947/">previously</a>. The identity of the second child is not as clear, though numismatists have long postulated she is Lucilla. Mattingly states of the two children on the coin of Antoninus Pius, "it seems certain Lucilla was one of the two."[6] Birley[7] and Fittschen[8] have suggested purely on the basis of the crossed cornuacopiae coins of Antoninus Pius that Faustina delivered twin boys in AD 149, but this notion is without merit because the children on the coin are female and of different ages and no ancient source attests to the delivery of male twins apart from Commodus and his brother in AD 161. What I believe to be the correct chronology of Faustina's children has been deduced from ancient and numismatic sources by Ameling[9] and Levick.[10] Ameling's argument against the birth of twins in AD 149 and in favor of Lucilla being born in that year is convincing, and I believe Faustina had only 11, not 13 children. Ameling's reasoning is as follows: An inscription preserving a list of holidays in the city of Gortyna in Crete gives Lucilla's birthday as 7 March.[11] With her birthday as March 7, we know she could not be the firstborn child, whose birthday was 30 November (per the Fasti Ostienses). Lucilla married Lucius Verus, which meant that she was the oldest living daughter at the time; Faustina III outlived Pius, meaning that she was still alive when Lucilla and Verus married, making her younger than Lucilla or she would have been the one to marry Verus. Domitia Faustina died before Pius,[12] so she must have died before Lucilla married Verus, or she herself – as oldest daughter – would have married him. Moreover, we know from the Fasti Ostienses that a son was born in AD 152 and from a contemporary inscription excavated in Smyrna that a son was born in AD 157/8. That simply leaves no room for a son born between Domitia Faustina and Lucilla.[13] The conclusion is inescapable that the coins discussed above depicting two female children were issued in AD 149 and depict Domitia Faustina and her baby sister Lucilla. More follows …[/QUOTE]

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