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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 5005386, member: 82616&quot;]My latest addition is admittedly not the prettiest coin. It&#039;s worn and has a few surface issues. But I can forgive all because of the interesting reverse.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1201082[/ATTACH]<b>Domitian</b></p><p>Æ Sestertius, 28.36g</p><p>Rome mint, 88 AD</p><p>Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII CENS PER P P; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r.</p><p>Rev: COS XIIII LVD SAEC A POP; FRVG AC on platform; S C in exergue; Domitian std. r. on platfrom, approached by two or three citizens with open sacks; in background, four column temple</p><p>RIC 606 (C). BMC 419. BNC 457.</p><p>Acquired from CGB.fr, November 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>In October 88 AD Domitian held the <i>Ludi Saeculares</i>, a festival featuring theatrical performances and circus games accompanied by six various daytime and nighttime religious ceremonies. The games marked the transition from one era (saeculum) to another and were supposedly held once every 110 years, or the maximum span of a human lifetime, making them a &#039;once in a lifetime&#039; event. Domitian conducted his games on the Augustan calculation, rejecting the formula for the Claudian games held in 47 AD. The festival was important enough to interrupt the normal striking of reverse types on the coinage and for the mint to produce a new unique issue commemorating the event both in precious metal and bronze. The precious metal designs tended to be symbolic while the bronze were more narrative in nature, focusing on the various religious sacrifices that were at the heart of the games.</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin&#039;s reverse depicts the acceptance of wheat, beans, and oats (poured on ground) from a group of citizens by Domitian in front of a tetrastyle temple. According to Melanie Grunow Sobocinski* the meaning of this <i>Ludi Saeculare</i> ceremony is fairly clear - &#039;The festival began with nearly a week of preparatory events. First, the citizens brought gifts of agricultural produce (<i>fruges</i>) to various temples. On the following days, they received materials for the ritual purification of private homes (<i>suffimenta</i>) from the priesthood in charge of organizing the <i>Ludi Saeculares</i> ... According to the Augustan acta and Zosimus, the distribution of the suffimenta took place simultaneously at three locations, and the collection of the <i>fruges</i> at four locations. As a result, no firm identification of the temples can be reached without further evidence.&#039; Although, she later concedes - &#039;Scholars interested primarily in architectural form have identified some or even all of the other hexastyle and tetrastyle temple images as representations of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. This interpretation is plausible for the <i>suffimenta</i> and <i>fruges</i> coin types because the Temple of Jupiter was one of several sites for these two ceremonies.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>So, IMHO, a coin type interesting enough to forgive worn surfaces and a blotchy patina. Oddly enough, despite the condition it has a good deal of eye appeal.</p><p><br /></p><p>How worn can you go?</p><p><br /></p><p>* &#039;Visualizing Ceremony: The Design and Audience of the Ludi Saeculares Coinage of Domitian&#039;, AJA Vol. 110, No. 4 (Oct 2006)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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