Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Here I want to talk about the most important Roman god: Juppiter Optimus Maximus. The Coin: Roman Republic, Petillius Capitolinus, gens Petillia AR - Denarius, 18.1mm, 3.82g Rome, 43 B.C. Obv.: Eagle with spread wings stands half right on thunderbolt above PETILLIVS, below CAPITOLINVS Rev.: Front side of hexastyle temple of Iuppiter Capitolinus with three-stage stairs; pearl ribbons or garlands hanging down in the middle of the intercolumns, in the pediment frontally sitting figure(?), as corner acroteres each two horse protomes, above each one a standing figure with sceptre, on the gable top two horse protomes and a charioteer. on the sides S - F Ref.: Crawford 487/2b; Sydenham 1151; Petillia 3 almost VF Note: SF stands for Sacris Faciundis. Petillius was undoubtedly one of the XV viri sacris faciundis responsible for the religious ceremonies. The family seems to have held one of the hereditary offices related to the Temple of Juppiter on the Capitol (Juppiter Capitolinus). Juppiter Optimus Maximus: The name Juppiter comes from the vocative *dieu-pater. The stem dieu- means 'shining, divinely worshipped sky and shining day'. Correctly Juppiter should be written with 2 p's, which are created by consonant gemination. Another nominative was formed from the oblique case: Jovis. Thus Juppiter is the god of the heavenly light. Also his old epithet Lucetius (the shining one) points to it. Juppiter is not Zeus! Both have the same Indo-European ancestry, but the Greek mixed Zeus with oriental ideas early on and he became anthropomorphic. His numerous love stories, from which a number of children emerged, and his eternal small war with Hera are typical of the Greek Zeus. All this does not exist with Juppiter! Unlike Zeus, Juppiter was not the biological father of divine and semi-divine beings. Also Juno was not his wife and Minerva was not his daughter! So he was rather the divine principle of the highest being. The places where lightning had struck were considered sacred (Puteale). However, the alignment between Zeus and Juppiter already took place at the time of the Roman Republic. Juppiter Optimus Maximus was in historical time the main and state god of Rome. Optimus does not mean 'the best', but because it comes from Latin ops (= power), 'the most powerful'! With the increasing importance of Rome and the spread of Roman power, Juppiter's importance also increased and finally surpassed all other gods, including Mars, to whom Augustus under the name Mars Ultor wanted to transfer many of the customs related to political life and war. Under the name Juppiter Capitolinus he presided over the Roman Games, an important task in ancient life. With the introduction of the Imperial cult in the Imperial period, some of its political significance was lost. He was no longer so much the embodiment of the Roman greatness and well-being of the Roman Empire as the divine leader of the world. Cicero, for example, equated Juppiter with the numen praestantissimae mentis, i.e. the presence of an outstanding spirit. This was a concept that was no longer dissimilar to the monotheism of Constantine the Great when he turned to Christianity in 312 AD. The temple on the Capitol: The temple of Juppiter Optimus Maximus stood on the southern slope of the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Together with Juno and Minerva he formed the so-called Capitoline Trias. His temple was the most magnificent in Rome. The temple was promised by King Tarquinius Priscus during a war against the Sabines, completed by his successor Tarquinius Superbus and consecrated under the consul M. Horatius Pulvillus in 509 BC. Construction and consecration therefore took place during the royal period, which the Romans later obscured. In this temple Iuppiter took the middle cella, Iuno Regina the left and Minerva the right. Etruscan master builders were particularly involved in the construction. The erection of a statue of a god, although already known from the neighbouring cities, marks a turning point in the history of the Roman religion: "The path was taken which later led to the fact that the old formless powers could only be thought of anthropomorphically and, as far as they were not suitable for it, fell into oblivion" (Clavus). This temple was the centre of state life. Here the consuls took their oath of office and here always the first senate session took place. Here the commanders sacrificed when they started a war, and here the triumphal procession ended every time. The triumphator colored his face red with Mennige and thus resembled the colour of the statues. The temple burned down several times, mostly by lightning, but also during the civil war in 69 AD, when the followers of Vitellius stormed the Capitol. Finally, it was restored by Domitian in 86 AD, who also donated the agon Capitolinus, which consisted of chariot races, sporting and musical competitions. The temple was built on substructures. The three cellae contained the tettacotta statues of the three gods. Juppiter was depicted sitting with a bundle of lightning in his right hand. It was probably a work of Vulca from Veji. He was dressed with a tunic decorated with palm branches and Victoria (so-called Tunica palmata). Above it he wore a purple toga with gold borders (toga picta). The commanders wore a similar one during their triumphal procession. The trabeation was made of wood, on the apex of the pedimentum stood a terracotta group, Jupiter in a quadriga, probably made by the same artist as the statue itself. In 296 B.C. it was replaced by another bronze one. The roof was also decorated with figures, including a statue of Summanus 'in fastigio' (= at the top), therefore probably an acroterion. Later the temple ceilings were gilded and the temple was richly decorated with the victory trophies of the commanders and other consecration gifts, the oldest of which was the golden crown of the Italians. Unfortunately, nothing remains of this temple due to the turmoil of the early Middle Ages. We are dependent on the description of Pliny and the illustrations on the coins. Note: In Roman mythology Summanus is the god of lightning and the nocturnal equivalent of Iuppiter Fulgur, who is manifested in the lightning strikes during the day. The Mint Master: It is interesting that the mint master Petillius named on the coin appears in the Satires of Horace (Sat. lib.IV). Note 14: Petillius, who was in charge of the capitolium, would have been publicly accused on occasion that the crown of Capitoline Jupiter had been removed, of having stolen it, and the judges had only acquitted him in favor of Augustus, whose friend he had been. Another adds: Petillius had been mockingly given the surname Capitolinus because of this deal. This latter, as Terrentius has already noticed, seems to be without reason. But the fact that Capitolinus, as a friend of Augustus, was acquitted of him out of respect for him, may, by the nature of the matter, be something doubtful; at least amicus here can no longer want to say anything more than parvus amicus, a follower and protective relative of Augustus; and in this case Augustus, according to Roman custom, was not only entitled, but even obliged, to save his client as best he could. In fact, he had one more reason than any other patron; as Suetonius has just pointed out, hadn't the great Julius Caesar stolen three thousand pounds of gold from the Capitol in his first consulate and so this Petillius couldn't say with some semblance of right, as that of Terentius: ego homuncio non facerem (= I, as such an insignificant man, would not have done this)? I have added 2 pictures: 1) A picture showing what the temple might have looked like. You can also see here clearly the beautiful roof decoration. 2) A sketch of the Capitol, where you can see how the ancient buildings were compared to Michelangelo's place. Sources: (1) The Kleiner Pauly (2) Rainer Pudill, Die Götter Roms, in 'Das Fenster', Oct. 2006 (3) Horace, Satires (Theft of Petillius) (4) http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/G ... azio/Roma/ Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Aedes_Jovis_Capitolini.html (History and description of the temple of Jupiter) (5) http://www.museicapitolini.org/ (Model of the Capitol) (it is possible that some links have become invalid in the meantime) Best regards
Nice write-up and great coin. M. VOLTEIUS M.F. ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS VOLTEIA AR Denarius OBVERSE: Laureate head of Jupiter right REVERSE: Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with closed doors; thunderbolt on pediment; below, M. VOLTEI. M. F. Rome 78BC 3.60g, 18mm Crawford 385/1; Sydenham 774; Volteia 1
As usual great coin and another informative write up. Petillius Capitolinus, 43 BC. Denarius (Silver, 17 mm, 3.69 g, 2 h), Rome. PETILLIVS - CAPITOLINVS Eagle standing front on thunderbolt, wings spread and head to right. Rev. S - F Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with figures on the roof and the architrave; between central four columns, garlands hanging. Babelon (Petillia) 3. Crawford 487/2b. RBW 1706. Sydenham 1151. Banker's marks on the obverse and a scrape on the obverse, otherwise, very fine.
@Jochen1, Thank you for another well written lesson in ancient mythology connected to an interesting coin. Here is the Crawford 487/1 coin from the same series. Petilius Capitolinus, AR Denarius, Rome, 43 BC AR Obv: Head of Jupiter r. behind, CAPITOLINVS Rev: Hexastyle temple with decorated roof between central four columns, hanging decoration in ex. PETILLIVS Ref: Crawford 487/1, Petillia 1, Sydenham 1149
Informative write-up, as always, @Jochen1 . This reverse type was even produced way out in the eastern provinces! Julia Soaemias, AD 218-222 Roman Provincial AE 21.4 mm, 12.48 g Samaria, Sebaste, AD 218-222 Obv: SVΛEMIAS ΛV[GVSTΛ] SEB, bare-headed and draped bust, r. Rev: COL• L• SE• [SEB• ASTE•], temple of the Capitoline Jupiter* with four columns; Jupiter standing in center between Athena and Hera. Wreath within pediment Ref: Rosenberger 36 (die match); Price & Trell 786; SNG ANS 1083 *You can read a very interesting article about this temple here.
