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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3180970, member: 83956&quot;]I just ran across this article about this coin/series. You and other interested parties (e.g., [USER=82616]@David Atherton[/USER] ) can PM me an email address if you want the entire essay. Here&#039;s the abstract:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Visualizing Ceremony: The Design and Audience of the Ludi Saeculares Coinage of Domitian</p><p>Author(s): Melanie Grunow Sobocinski</p><p>Source:</p><p>American Journal of Archaeology,</p><p>Vol. 110, No. 4 (Oct., 2006)</p><p><br /></p><p>Domitian&#039;s Ludi Saeculares coinage (88 C.E.) violates</p><p>the usual patterns of Roman mint production: one festi-</p><p>val dominates all six denominations of gold, silver, and</p><p>bronze. Consistency in legends and in reverse types across</p><p>the issue suggests that unusual care was taken in designing</p><p>these coins. One composition is even repeated in both</p><p>silver and bronze. Ten events during the Ludi Saeculares,</p><p>nine of them religious rituals prescribed by the Sibylline</p><p>oracle, are depicted on the bronze coinage. Variations</p><p>among specimens within each type, however, indicate</p><p>that some details, such as the pedimental iconography of</p><p>temples, were created by individual die carvers and must</p><p>not have been specified in the original design. Using the</p><p>textual evidence for other imperial celebrations of the Ludi</p><p>Saeculares, previous scholars have focused on matching</p><p>each coin type with a known event and each architectural</p><p>background with a specific location in Rome. This article</p><p>reveals the problems with such an approach and uses in-</p><p>stead a variety of historical, iconographic, and numismatic</p><p>methodologies to explore questions of design, audience,</p><p>context, and interpretation. I conclude that, for a limited</p><p>audience, these coins attempted to send a coherent mes-</p><p>sage emphasizing the solemnity and ritual completeness</p><p>of Domitian&#039;s Ludi Saeculares and linking his celebration</p><p>to Augustus&#039; Ludi Saeculares of 17 B.C.E. But, because</p><p>Domitian&#039;s experiment in using the coinage for detailed</p><p>communication was not subsequently imitated, this set</p><p>of coins is unique.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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