Faustina Friday FECVNDITAS, LAETITIA, and the Birth of Marcus Annius Verus

Last week's installment of Faustina Friday concerned the birth of the twins Titus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Commodus Antoninus on 31 August, AD 161. This week's installment concerns the birth of Faustina's next child, a boy named Marcus Annius Verus, born in 162 and named after his great-grandfather, Marcus Annius Verus, the father of Faustina I. Little is known about the boy, but he was still alive after his sister Lucilla's marriage to Lucius Verus in 164.[1] He held the rank of Caesar when he died at the age of seven as a result of an operation for a tumor below the ear, just before Marcus set off for the German war in 169.[2] This implies a birth year of 162.

Two reverse types were issued to commemorate the birth of Marcus Annius Verus: the FECVNDITAS type depicting Fecunditas standing right,[3] holding a long vertical scepter and infant, and the LAETITIA type, depicting Laetitia standing left or right, holding wreath and scepter.

The FECVNDITAS type obviously refers to the birth of a child. It was not issued in gold, but only in silver and bronze. On the denarii, the empress may be bare-headed (BMCRE 91), or she may wear strands of pearls (see below) or the stephane (BMCRE 95). These denarii are among the most common of those issued by Marcus Aurelius for Faustina. In fact, in the Reka Devnia hoard, it was the single most common reverse type for Faustina (263 denarii), comprising 19% of the denarii issued under Marcus Aurelius in the hoard.[4]

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 3.20 g, 17.4 mm, 11 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina, right, wearing double strand of pearls.
Rev: FECVNDITAS SC, (Faustina as) Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter and infant.
Refs: RIC 677; BMCRE 92-94; Cohen 99; RCV 5252; CRE 176.​

On the sestertii, the empress may appear bare-headed (RIC1638; BMCRE—; Cohen100; see A.N.S. 1974.26.1149) or with a strand of pearls (see below).

Faustina II, 147-175.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 21.28 g, 31.9 mm, 5 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina, right, wearing strand of pearls.
Rev: FECVNDITAS SC, (Faustina as) Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter and infant.
Refs: RIC 1638; BMCRE 905; Cohen 101; RCV 5274.​

On the middle bronze, the empress may appear bare-headed (RIC 1639; BMCRE—; Cohen 101; see Münz Zentrum Rheinland Auction 179, 11 January 2017, lot 422), wearing a double strand of pearls (see below), or a stephane (RIC 1639; BMCRE 980n; Cohen 101; see Münzkabinett der Universität Göttingen AN-0315).

Faustina II, 147-175.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 15.32 g, 25.8 mm, 6 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina, right, wearing strand of pearls.
Rev: FECVNDITAS SC, (Faustina as) Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter and infant.
Refs: RIC 1639; BMCRE 980-81; Cohen101; RCV 5295; MIR 9-7/10a, b.​

The second reverse type issued for the birth of M. Annius Verus is the Laetitia type. The Latin noun laetitia roughly means "happiness." Specifically, the word connotes a feeling of joy, exultation, rejoicing, gladness, pleasure, or delight. However, the word also carries connotations of fertility.[5] Szaivert assigns the LAETITIA issue to phase three of Marcus Aurelius' issues for Faustina, issued AD 161-164. He suggests the issue commemorates the birth of M. Annius Verus, but notes this hypothesis is "unsicher, aber durchaus möglich" (uncertain, but quite possible).[6] However, support for the notion that the issue commemorates the birth of a child comes from Beckmann's recent die study of the aurei issued for Faustina II. He notes the appearance of two new types linked to a common obverse in a long chain of die-linked SALVTI AVGVSTI types: LAETITIA and VENVS GENETRIX (Venus the mother). He interprets the simultaneous appearance of these two reverse types as follows:

Together these two types (each represented by only one die) echo strongly two of the themes with which Faustina's coinage began back in 147, Venus Genetrix (in another iconographic guise) and Laetitia Publica. The birth of a child is clearly referenced, and the most probable candidate is Marcus Annius Verus.[7]​

Earlier this year, I postulated that the VENERI GENETRICI, IVNONI LVCINAE, and LAETITIAE PVBLICAE issues for Faustina II under Antoninus Pius represented the earliest issues for the young empress. Moreover, I suggested that by depicting Venus and Juno in their roles as goddesses of motherhood and childbirth, respectively, and to announce cause for "public rejoicing," the coins were issued to commemorate the birth on November 30, 147 of Domitia Faustina, the first child born to Faustina and Marcus. A few months after my post, Beckmann published his die-linkage study that proved these three types did indeed form the first issue for Faustina II, and that they were issued to commemorate the birth of this child.[8] It seems clear that whenever Venus Genetrix and Laetitia appear on coins of Faustina, they indicate the birth of children.

The LAETITIA type was issued in all metals and with a variety of bust types and depicting Laetitia standing either to the left or the right. I won't go into detail about these varieties because I have written previously about them. The type is less common than the FECVNDITAS type, particularly in silver. There were only 34 denarii of the type in the Reka Devnia hoard, comprising but 2% of the issues in the hoard for Marcus Aurelius.[9] Here are a few examples.

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 2.60 g, 17 mm, 7 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right, wearing a double strand of pearls.
Rev: LAETITIA, Laetitia standing facing, head left, holding wreath and scepter.
Refs: RIC 700; BMCRE --; Cohen 147; RCV 5258 var; CRE 197.​

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.80 g, 32.6 mm, 6 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right, wearing stephane.
Rev: LAETITIA S C, Laetitia standing left, holding wreath and scepter.
Refs: RIC 1653; BMCRE 928; Cohen 150; RCV 5279 var. (bust); MIR 21-6/10b diad.​

As always, feel free to post anything you feel is relevant!

~~~

Notes:

1. Reynolds, Joyce Maire, et al. The Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania. British School at Rome, 1952, p. 33, no. 25.

2. SHA Marc. 21.3: sub ipsis profectionis diebus in secessu Praenestino agens filium nomine Verum Caesarem exsecto sub aure tuber septennem amisit (Just before his departure, while he was living in retreat at Praeneste, Marcus lost his seven-year‑old son, by name Verus Caesar, from an operation on a tumor under his ear). Magie, David. Historia Augusta. I, Harvard University Press, 1921, pp. 184-185. The profectio (departure) is referred to at SHA Marc. 20.6, profiscens ad bellum Germanicum (just before setting out for the German war), set in the context of a shortened period of mourning for Lucius Verus, who died in 169 (Magie, op. cit., pp. 182-183). Coins of Marcus Aurelius with the type PROFECTIO AVG were struck in 169 (BMCRE Marcus 1349 and 1350).

3. The sestertius depicting Fecunditas standing left, RIC 1640; BMCRE 905n; Cohen 102, probably doesn't exist and is likely a misinterpretation of the direction the goddess' head is facing on an unclear specimen. Cohen cites M. Hoffmann; RIC and BMCRE in turn cite Cohen.

4. Beckmann, Martin, Faustina the Younger: Coinage, Portraits, and Public Image, A.N.S. Numismatic Studies 43, American Numismatic Society, New York, 2021, p. 117.

5. Glare, P.G.W. Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2016; s.v. laetus, 1.

6. Szaivert, Wolfgang, Die Münzprägung der Kaiser Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus und Commodus (161/192), Moneta Imperii Romani 18. Vienna, 1989, p. 230.

7. Beckman, op. cit., pp. 60-61.

8. Beckman, op. cit., pp. 23 ff.

9. Beckman, op. cit., p. 117.

 

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Another great write up and coins that I NEED, RC!
I'll double drop and post my coin theorized to be Annius Verus as personified winter:

And the one FECVNDITAS I could fetch is of Domna:

Julia Domna, 194-217, AR denarius, 20 mm, 3,30g wife of Septimius Severus, IVLIA DOMNA AVG, draped bust right, hair waved and coiled at back / FECVNDITAS, Fecunditas seated right with child at breast; a second child standing before her, nice VF.
2021 Elkowicz

 

...i've only one coin of the lady...but by golly, "THATS IT!" Faustina the younger/Fecunditas 16.5mm 3.29gms

 

Thanks for the kind words, Scoob! I absolutely love that Annius Verus as winter personified coin and it's on my want list!

That Domna denarius is cool, too, but its reverse reads SAECVLI FELICITAS and shows Isis nursing infant Horus. @DonnaML had a really great write-up about the issue, with coins and artifacts and everything!

Fantastic! And if you only have one coin of Faustina Junior, it should be a FECVNDITAS, because nothing says fecundity like Faustina!

 

Thanks for another nice Faustina article, RC. I only have a single denarius with the similar reverse design.

 

This coin is kind of related.

It is an earlier sestertius that I recently acquired. It is not a FECVNDITAS type, but instead one with the VENVS reverse, from circa 150-152 CE.

The coin does have corrosion, but the portrait of a young Faustina Junior is quite nice.

This is a remainder coin that didn't sell, undoubted because of the corrosion.

RIC III 1387 (Pius)
25.25 grams

Obverse: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust to right.
Reverse: VENVS, Venus standing to left, holding apple and scepter; S-C across fields.

 

Addendum et Corrigendum

I erred when I first posted this in implying there were only two issues to commemorate the birth of Marcus Annius Verus. In fact, there are three, and I even mentioned the third, VENVS GENETRIX, though it was omitted in the original post.

Here is the third type, issued in the aureus and denarius denominations only, VENVS GENETRIX. After a hard-fought battle with some Clio wannabe which involved attempted aggressive sniping, I secured the coin for my collection at today's Leu auction. When the credit card bill comes next month, I'm going to have some 'splaining to do ...



But you know how it is. I work on the principle of "It's easier to obtain forgiveness than permission."

Here's the third and final coin issued for poor Marcus Annius Verus.


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 3.60 g, 19 mm, 1 h.
Rome, late AD 162 – early 163.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust of Faustina, right, wearing strand of pearls.
Rev: VENVS GENETRIX, Venus standing left, holding Victory in extended right hand and shield depicting the Dioscuri in left hand.
Refs: RIC 734 var.; BMCRE 172; RSC 280a; RCV 5268; MIR 35-4/10b; CRE 227.