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<p>[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 7360400, member: 75937"]That is a great question and it's one I have been working on answering. The brief answer is that there most certainly were other coins honoring the births of children before Fadilla and after Commodus and his twin brother.</p><p><br /></p><p>Identifying the other children honored on Antonine coinage is a little more challenging. The most famous and most readily dated of these coins is the TEMPORVM FELICITAS, COS IIII issue of AD 149 for Antoninus Pius with the crossed cornuacopiae. Here's the humble specimen in my collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1282857[/ATTACH]</p><p> </p><p>Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161.</p><p>Roman orichalcum sestertius; 22.64 gm, 31.5 mm, 12 h.</p><p>Rome, AD 149.</p><p>Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XII, laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder.</p><p>Rev: TEMPORVM FELICITAS, COS IIII in exergue, S C across field, crossed cornucopiae from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by confronted busts of two children.</p><p>Refs: RIC 857; BMCRE 1827-29; Cohen 813; RCV 4236; Strack 1026; Banti 411.</p><p><br /></p><p>This sestertius of Antoninus Pius can be dated to his 12th tribunician year, which lasted from Feb 25, AD 149 to Feb 24, AD 150. The type is widely accepted to commemorate the birth of a male heir to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II. It bears the inscription TEMPORVM FELICITAS ("happiness of these times"), because this birth meant that dynastic continuity was guaranteed. One of the two children depicted on the coin is widely believed to have been this male heir. HOWEVER, I want to caution the reader that we don't know the identities of these children with certainty, that plenty of coins (i.e. Faustina's IVNONI LVCINAE coins (above) and the FECVND AVGVSTI coins (<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-life-and-tragic-death-of-cornificia.365819/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-life-and-tragic-death-of-cornificia.365819/">discussed elsewhere</a>) depict three and four girls, respectively, without a single male heir featured. The assumption that it must be a "male heir" needs to be evaluated critically.</p><p><br /></p><p>The child(ren) depicted on this sestertius were/was not the couple's first; it is generally agreed that Faustina II bore a girl, Domitia Faustina, in AD 147, the occasion on which Faustina received the title of Augusta. This girl died at the age of two or three, but after this sestertius was issued.</p><p><br /></p><p>So who are these kids? There is disagreement between authors as to who they might be.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mattingly and Sydenham write in RIC III, "The bust of twins in cornuacopiae, with the legend 'Temporum Felicitas,' appears to record the birth of twin children to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II."[1] They identify these children as "two little boys" in the catalog listing of the coin.[2] The authors do not speculate as to the names of the children.</p><p><br /></p><p>Strack[3] appears to be the source of the common belief in the numismatic community[4] that the infants represent T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in that year. The historian Birley would seem to agree; he states that the infants were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian, where their epitaphs survive, and notes they were called Titus Aurelius Antoninus and Tiberius Aelius Aurelius.[5]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Mattingly, writing in BMCRE without Sydenham, states of the two children on the coin, "it seems certain Lucilla was one of the two."[6, 7] David Vagi[8] identifies the male child -- and thus the heir -- as Aurelius Antoninus and being the twin, not of Aelius Aurelius, but of Lucilla. Sear concurs, stating, "Twins were born to the Caesar Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior in AD 149, one of them the future empress Lucilla, and this type may commemorate the event."[9]</p><p><br /></p><p>Indeed, the child on the right appears to be depicted as a girl, for on some issues of this reverse type, she wears a diadem. See, for example, these specimens in the collection of the British Museum:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-temporvm-felicitas-aureus-bmc-679-jpg.760773/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>BMCRE 4, p. 97, 679[10]</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-temporvm-felicitas-sestertius-bmc-1828-jpg.760774/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>BMCRE 4, p.298, 1828[11]</p><p><br /></p><p>And the coin sold in the aforementioned CNG Triton VIII sale[4]:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-grandchildren-cng-jpg.760786/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>Not only does the child above the cornucopiae on the right wear a diadem, but the child also looks to be about two years old, whereas the child on the left appears to be a newborn.</p><p><br /></p><p>One would think there would be widespread consensus on which children were born to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina in AD 149, but answering this question turns out to be surprisingly difficult because no ancient author tells us how many children Marcus and Faustina had, when they were born, what their names were, and how long they lived. There are a few names and dates in these written sources, and some more in surviving inscriptions such as the Ostian Fasti and epitaphs of deceased children from Hadrian's Tomb. <i>Pace</i> Birley, but the epitaphs in Hadrian's tomb do not list birth years for the children buried therein.</p><p><br /></p><p>Our very own [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER], offered a different interpretation of the crossed cornucopias type. He believes it "commemorated the birth of a second child to Marcus and Faustina, a boy, during Antoninus' 12th tribunician year" (Feb. 25, AD 149 to Feb. 24, AD 150. He rightly notes "there is no need to assume that the crossed cornucopias type must refer to the birth of twins," and postulates "the child on the right is instead the first child of Marcus and Faustina, the girl born on 30 Nov. 147, who is accordingly sometimes shown with longer hair in the coin type; the baby on the left is the second child, a boy, born according to the coin type in 149-50. Because this baby was a boy and potential successor, his birth was commemorated on Antoninus' coinage, which had in contrast taken no notice of the birth of his older sister two years earlier."[12]</p><p><br /></p><p>Clay then provides numismatic evidence, based upon the dates of Marcus Aurelius' tribunician authority, that Lucilla was born in Antoninus' 14th tribunician year, which began on Feb 25, AD 151. Because we know from ancient sources that Lucilla was born on March 7 (but not which year), Clay deduces she would have been born on March 7, AD 151, and hence cannot be depicted on the coins under discussion.[13]</p><p><br /></p><p>I think the most thorough and objective study of the ancient sources is that of Levick, cited in the OP.[14] She -- <i>pace</i> Curtis Clay -- concludes Annia Galeria Aurelia Lucilla, better known as simply Lucilla, was born in AD 149 or 150. If we accept Levick's chronology of the various births to Faustina and look at the notions of "it must be a male heir" and of twins born in AD 149 with extreme skepticism (Birley accepts the twins theory[15] whereas Ameling rejects it[16]), we may conclude that the crossed cornuacopiae type of AD 149/50 depicts Domitia Faustina and Lucilla. </p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>Notes:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Mattingly, Harold and Edward A. Sydenham. <i>The Roman Imperial Coinage</i>. III, Spink, 1930, p. 10.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Ibid., p. 133.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Strack, Paul L. <i>Untersuchungen Zur Romischen Reichspragung Des Zweiten Jahrhunderts</i>. Kohlhammer, 1937, pp. 113-18.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. See, for example, the notes in the listings for this coin in Numismatik Naumann's <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3828357" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3828357" rel="nofollow">Auction 53, May 7, 2017</a> or CNG <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=206870" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=206870" rel="nofollow">Triton VIII, Jan. 11, 2005</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Birley, Anthony R. <i>Marcus Aurelius: A Biography</i>. New York: Routledge, 1966, rev. 1987, pp. 206–07.</p><p><br /></p><p>6. Mattingly, Harold. <i>Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum: Antoninus Pius to Commodus</i>. Vol. 4, British Museum, 1940, p. lxvii, n.4.</p><p><br /></p><p>7. Note, however, that the <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198466&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198466&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1" rel="nofollow">BMC listing of this coin online</a> states each of the infants is a "little boy."</p><p><br /></p><p>8. Vagi, David L. <i>Coinage and History of the Roman Empire</i>. Vol. 1, Coinworld, 1999, p. 246.</p><p><br /></p><p>9. Sear, David R. <i>Roman Coins and Their Values</i>. II, Spink, 2002, p. 229.</p><p><br /></p><p>10. Which may be viewed at the British Museum's online collection <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1215118&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1215118&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>11. Which may be viewed at the British Museum's online collection <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198465&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS+sestertius&page=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198465&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS+sestertius&page=1" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>12. Clay, Curtis L. Reply #1 to “Twins of Marcus Aurelius.” <i>Forum Ancient Coins</i>, 17 Aug. 2014, 04:25:05 pm, <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97313.0" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97313.0" rel="nofollow">www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97313.0</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>13. Ibid, replies #4, 5 and 8.</p><p><br /></p><p>14. Levick, Barbara. <i>Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age</i>. Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 115-18.</p><p><br /></p><p>15. Birley, Anthony R. <i>Marcus Aurelius: a Biography</i>. Routledge, 1993, p. 247.</p><p><br /></p><p>16. Ameling, Walter. Die Kinder des Marc Aurel und die Bildnistypen der Faustina Minor. <i>Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik</i> 90 (1992):147-166, specifically, p. 161. Available online at <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20187629?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20187629?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/20187629?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 7360400, member: 75937"]That is a great question and it's one I have been working on answering. The brief answer is that there most certainly were other coins honoring the births of children before Fadilla and after Commodus and his twin brother. Identifying the other children honored on Antonine coinage is a little more challenging. The most famous and most readily dated of these coins is the TEMPORVM FELICITAS, COS IIII issue of AD 149 for Antoninus Pius with the crossed cornuacopiae. Here's the humble specimen in my collection. [ATTACH=full]1282857[/ATTACH] 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 cornucopiae 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. This sestertius of Antoninus Pius can be dated to his 12th tribunician year, which lasted from Feb 25, AD 149 to Feb 24, AD 150. The type is widely accepted to commemorate the birth of a male heir to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II. It bears the inscription TEMPORVM FELICITAS ("happiness of these times"), because this birth meant that dynastic continuity was guaranteed. One of the two children depicted on the coin is widely believed to have been this male heir. HOWEVER, I want to caution the reader that we don't know the identities of these children with certainty, that plenty of coins (i.e. Faustina's IVNONI LVCINAE coins (above) and the FECVND AVGVSTI coins ([URL='https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-life-and-tragic-death-of-cornificia.365819/']discussed elsewhere[/URL]) depict three and four girls, respectively, without a single male heir featured. The assumption that it must be a "male heir" needs to be evaluated critically. The child(ren) depicted on this sestertius were/was not the couple's first; it is generally agreed that Faustina II bore a girl, Domitia Faustina, in AD 147, the occasion on which Faustina received the title of Augusta. This girl died at the age of two or three, but after this sestertius was issued. So who are these kids? There is disagreement between authors as to who they might be. Mattingly and Sydenham write in RIC III, "The bust of twins in cornuacopiae, with the legend 'Temporum Felicitas,' appears to record the birth of twin children to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II."[1] They identify these children as "two little boys" in the catalog listing of the coin.[2] The authors do not speculate as to the names of the children. Strack[3] appears to be the source of the common belief in the numismatic community[4] that the infants represent T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in that year. The historian Birley would seem to agree; he states that the infants were buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian, where their epitaphs survive, and notes they were called Titus Aurelius Antoninus and Tiberius Aelius Aurelius.[5] However, Mattingly, writing in BMCRE without Sydenham, states of the two children on the coin, "it seems certain Lucilla was one of the two."[6, 7] David Vagi[8] identifies the male child -- and thus the heir -- as Aurelius Antoninus and being the twin, not of Aelius Aurelius, but of Lucilla. Sear concurs, stating, "Twins were born to the Caesar Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior in AD 149, one of them the future empress Lucilla, and this type may commemorate the event."[9] Indeed, the child on the right appears to be depicted as a girl, for on some issues of this reverse type, she wears a diadem. See, for example, these specimens in the collection of the British Museum: [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-temporvm-felicitas-aureus-bmc-679-jpg.760773/[/IMG] BMCRE 4, p. 97, 679[10] [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-temporvm-felicitas-sestertius-bmc-1828-jpg.760774/[/IMG] BMCRE 4, p.298, 1828[11] And the coin sold in the aforementioned CNG Triton VIII sale[4]: [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/antoninus-pius-grandchildren-cng-jpg.760786/[/IMG] Not only does the child above the cornucopiae on the right wear a diadem, but the child also looks to be about two years old, whereas the child on the left appears to be a newborn. One would think there would be widespread consensus on which children were born to Marcus Aurelius and Faustina in AD 149, but answering this question turns out to be surprisingly difficult because no ancient author tells us how many children Marcus and Faustina had, when they were born, what their names were, and how long they lived. There are a few names and dates in these written sources, and some more in surviving inscriptions such as the Ostian Fasti and epitaphs of deceased children from Hadrian's Tomb. [I]Pace[/I] Birley, but the epitaphs in Hadrian's tomb do not list birth years for the children buried therein. Our very own [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER], offered a different interpretation of the crossed cornucopias type. He believes it "commemorated the birth of a second child to Marcus and Faustina, a boy, during Antoninus' 12th tribunician year" (Feb. 25, AD 149 to Feb. 24, AD 150. He rightly notes "there is no need to assume that the crossed cornucopias type must refer to the birth of twins," and postulates "the child on the right is instead the first child of Marcus and Faustina, the girl born on 30 Nov. 147, who is accordingly sometimes shown with longer hair in the coin type; the baby on the left is the second child, a boy, born according to the coin type in 149-50. Because this baby was a boy and potential successor, his birth was commemorated on Antoninus' coinage, which had in contrast taken no notice of the birth of his older sister two years earlier."[12] Clay then provides numismatic evidence, based upon the dates of Marcus Aurelius' tribunician authority, that Lucilla was born in Antoninus' 14th tribunician year, which began on Feb 25, AD 151. Because we know from ancient sources that Lucilla was born on March 7 (but not which year), Clay deduces she would have been born on March 7, AD 151, and hence cannot be depicted on the coins under discussion.[13] I think the most thorough and objective study of the ancient sources is that of Levick, cited in the OP.[14] She -- [I]pace[/I] Curtis Clay -- concludes Annia Galeria Aurelia Lucilla, better known as simply Lucilla, was born in AD 149 or 150. If we accept Levick's chronology of the various births to Faustina and look at the notions of "it must be a male heir" and of twins born in AD 149 with extreme skepticism (Birley accepts the twins theory[15] whereas Ameling rejects it[16]), we may conclude that the crossed cornuacopiae type of AD 149/50 depicts Domitia Faustina and Lucilla. ~~~ Notes: 1. Mattingly, Harold and Edward A. Sydenham. [I]The Roman Imperial Coinage[/I]. III, Spink, 1930, p. 10. 2. Ibid., p. 133. 3. Strack, Paul L. [I]Untersuchungen Zur Romischen Reichspragung Des Zweiten Jahrhunderts[/I]. Kohlhammer, 1937, pp. 113-18. 4. See, for example, the notes in the listings for this coin in Numismatik Naumann's [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3828357']Auction 53, May 7, 2017[/URL] or CNG [URL='https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=206870']Triton VIII, Jan. 11, 2005[/URL]. 5. Birley, Anthony R. [I]Marcus Aurelius: A Biography[/I]. New York: Routledge, 1966, rev. 1987, pp. 206–07. 6. Mattingly, Harold. [I]Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum: Antoninus Pius to Commodus[/I]. Vol. 4, British Museum, 1940, p. lxvii, n.4. 7. Note, however, that the [URL='http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198466&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1']BMC listing of this coin online[/URL] states each of the infants is a "little boy." 8. Vagi, David L. [I]Coinage and History of the Roman Empire[/I]. Vol. 1, Coinworld, 1999, p. 246. 9. Sear, David R. [I]Roman Coins and Their Values[/I]. II, Spink, 2002, p. 229. 10. Which may be viewed at the British Museum's online collection [URL='http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1215118&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS&page=1']here[/URL]. 11. Which may be viewed at the British Museum's online collection [URL='http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1198465&partId=1&searchText=Pius+TEMPORVM+FELICITAS+sestertius&page=1']here[/URL]. 12. Clay, Curtis L. Reply #1 to “Twins of Marcus Aurelius.” [I]Forum Ancient Coins[/I], 17 Aug. 2014, 04:25:05 pm, [URL='http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97313.0']www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97313.0[/URL]. 13. Ibid, replies #4, 5 and 8. 14. Levick, Barbara. [I]Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age[/I]. Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 115-18. 15. Birley, Anthony R. [I]Marcus Aurelius: a Biography[/I]. Routledge, 1993, p. 247. 16. Ameling, Walter. Die Kinder des Marc Aurel und die Bildnistypen der Faustina Minor. [I]Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik[/I] 90 (1992):147-166, specifically, p. 161. Available online at [URL]https://www.jstor.org/stable/20187629?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents[/URL][/QUOTE]
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