The figures on the reverse of this coin are undoubtedly Antoninus Pius and his late wife, Faustina I. The motif is a representation of marital harmony. Faustina Senior, AD 138-141. Roman AR denarius, 3.73g, 17mm. Rome, ca. AD 142. Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, draped bust right. Rev: CONCORDIA, Antoninus standing right, holding scroll, clasping right hands with Faustina I, standing left, holding sceptre. Refs: RIC 381b; BMCRE 288; RCV 4592; Cohen 159. Because this image was used on subsequent coins, such as this sestertius of Orbiana commemorating her marriage to Severus Alexander, one might be inclined to interpret it as standard iconography. Orbiana, wife of Severus Alexander, Augusta AD 225-227. Roman orichalcum sestertius, 20.02 g, 28.6 mm, 12 h. Rome, special marriage issue, AD 225. Obv: SALL BARBIA ORBIANA AVG, diademed and draped bust, right. Rev: CONCORDIA AVGVSTORVM S C, Severus Alexander, togate, standing right, holding scroll in left hand and clasping right hands with Orbiana, veiled and draped, standing left. Refs: RIC 657; BMCRE 301; Cohen 6; RCV 8194; Banti 3. However, the image has far greater historical significance -- it probably is a representation of statues of greater than life-size erected during the reign of Antoninus Pius before which young brides and their grooms were to offer petitions to the gods in a ritual enacted by law. Barbara Levick,[1] summarizing the work of Peter Weiß,[2] describes the existence of a monument at Ostia constructed in response to a senatorial decree of AD 140 passed just three weeks at most following the death of Faustina I. In Ostia, as at Rome, the emperor and his late wife were represented on statues erected in accordance with the decree, before which betrothed couples were to make offerings. At Rome, statues of Pius and Faustina of more than life size with an altar between them and celebratory accompanying inscriptions were set up for the use of bridal pairs. Very appropriately, given the traditional association of empresses with Venus, this particular statuary group was erected in Hadrian's Temple of Venus and Rome on the Velian Hill. Such a scene is likely illustrated on the reverse of a scarce sestertius of Antoninus Pius dating to AD 140-144,[3] depicting the engagement of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina II. This is the specimen in the British Museum.[4] The coin depicts Antoninus Pius standing right, holding Victory in left hand, clasping right hands with Faustina I, standing left, holding vertical scepter; between them, two small figures of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger standing right and left. clasping hands over an altar.[5] Levick suggests the coin was issued to commemorate the marriage of Faustina II to Marcus Aurelius,[6] but Faustina would have been only ten to twelve years of age and didn't have children until AD 147, some years after the coin was issued. Rémy appropriately concludes that the scene could represent only the engagement of the imperial couple, not yet their marriage.[7] The tradition carried on after Marcus Aurelius became Augustus himself. Levick, citing the Roman historian Dio, notes that silver statues of Marcus and Faustina II were set up in the Temple of Venus at which brides and grooms were to leave offerings. The tradition may have continued for decades, for there appears -- based on numismatic and other evidence -- that another decree based on the model of the first was passed in AD 176 after Faustina II died.[8] So, what seems at first to have been a rather workaday representation of the Roman virtue of marital concord turns out to have been an interesting piece of Roman history, illustrating a senatorial decree, a statue in the Temple of Venus in Rome, and Roman matrimonial practices during the Antonine period. As always, post anything you feel is relevant. ~~~ Notes: 1. Levick, Barbara. Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 99-102. 2. Weiß, Peter. Die vorbildliche Kaiserehe. Zwei Senatsbeschlüsse beim Tod der älteren und der jüngeren Faustina, neue Paradigmen und die Herausbildung des ‘antoninischen’ Prinzipats, in: Chiron 38 (2008), pp. 1-45. 3. The absence of IMP II or COS DES III in the titulature, however, makes a date before early 143 probable. So Mattingly, Harold, Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, vol. IV: Antoninus Pius to Commodus. Introduction, indexes and plates. London, BMP, 1968, p. xlvi. 4. Mattingly, ibid., no. 1236, p.198. Listed online at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12623. 5. Mattingly, Harold and Sydenham, Edward A. The Roman imperial coinage, vol. 3: Antoninus Pius to Commodus, London, Spink, 1986, no. 601, p. 108. So too Gnecchi, Francesco. I Medaglioni Romani. III, Forni Editori, 1980, no 124, p. 26, as well as the curators of the British Museum. See description of the reverse at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-12623. 6. Levick, op. cit., pp. 100-101. 7. Rémy Bernard. Antonin Le Pieux, 138-161: Le siècle D'or De Rome. Fayard, 2005, p. 330 n. 36. 8. Levick, op. cit., pp. 99-100.
These images do not always show the truth: The CONCORDIAE AETERNAE of Plautilla and Caracalla didn't last an eternity: and it did not come to a PROPAGO IMPERI either
