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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3177420, member: 75937&quot;]The history of the relationship between Rome and the wolf goes back to the very beginning of the new city. The myth of the she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus was known at least from the beginning of the 4th century BCE, possibly already in the first half of the 6th century BC.[1] Wolves also had a major religious role in the early Roman cult of the Lupercalia.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the development of the she-wolf motif on coins, the most important milestone is the silver didrachm minted in 270-265 BCE (RRC 20/1; CRR 6; RCV 24):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]817980[/ATTACH]</p><p>Ira &amp; Larry Goldberg, Auction 72, <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1495724" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1495724" rel="nofollow">lot 4115</a>, February 3, 2013.</p><p><br /></p><p>The position of the animal (standing in a trapezoidal composition, with its neck turned three quarters to face the twins, who are on their knees beneath her), became the archetype of the <i>Lupa Romana</i> and was repeated for centuries, the she-wolf facing either right, as on this coin, or left. The double nature of the she-wolf is clear: she is both a loving foster mother (characterized by her attention on the nursing infants), and a ferocious beast, as shown in her predator’s jaw and her shaggy mane.</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>Lupa Romana</i> was not an official – or the only – symbol of Rome, but it was more distinctive than other commonly used icons, the goddess Roma or the eagle, which was used on the standards of the Roman legions.</p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>Lupa Romana</i> symbolized Rome also without the twins, as can be seen on a denarius minted by Publius Satrienus in 77 BCE (RRC 388/1; CRR 781; RCV 319),[2] and on coins minted by the Samnites during the Civil War of 90–89 BCE.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first widespread minting of coins with the she-wolf motif was introduced by the Emperor Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian in 71–79 CE. Their coins of different values (aureus, denarius, sestertius) were minted in Rome, and have been found in many provinces of the Empire. On the obverse there is an image of the emperor, on the reverse the she-wolf with the twins (RIC II, nos. 66, 70, 194, 204, 241, 442). The representation of the she-wolf on coins did not change much over the centuries. The pictorial motif used on imperial coins varied little from that on the 3rd century BCE silver didrachm presented above. The coins were minted in abundance in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, especially during the reigns of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Philip II.</p><p><br /></p><p>On Roman coins the she-wolf represented both the divine protection afforded to Romulus and Remus – and consequently, to the Roman Empire – and the idea of <i>aeternitas</i>, the eternity of Rome, as on this issue of Gallienus minted in Antioch bearing the reverse inscription, AETERNITAS AVG:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]817981[/ATTACH]</p><p>Gallienus, AD 253-268.</p><p>Roman Billon Antoninianus, 2.84 g, 21.2 mm, 11 h.</p><p>Antioch, AD 265-266.</p><p>Obv: GALLIENVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.</p><p>Rev: AETERNITAS AVG, <i>Lupa Romana</i> (she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus), right; branch in exergue.</p><p>Refs: RIC 628; Göbl 1628e; Cohen 46; RCV 10171 var.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the 4th century, Constantine the Great favored the image of the goddess Roma on the obverse of his she-wolf VRBS ROMANA coins:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]817982[/ATTACH]</p><p>Constantine I, AD 307-337.</p><p>Roman billon reduced centenionalis, 2.09 g, 17.4 mm, 1 h.</p><p>Cyzicus, AD 331, 333-334.</p><p>Obv: VRBS ROMA, bust of Roma, left, wearing plumed helmet and imperial cloak.</p><p>Rev: <i>Lupa Romana</i> standing left, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; two stars above; SMKS in exergue.</p><p>Refs: RIC vii, p. 656, 91; LRBC I 1232; Cohen 17; RCV 16523.</p><p><br /></p><p>~~~</p><p><br /></p><p>1. J. N. Bremmer: Romulus, Remus and the foundation of Rome. In: J. N. Bremmer – N. Horsfall: Roman Myth and Mythography. London 1987, 47–48.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Crawford (RRC, p. 388) suggests that the reason for the appearance of the &quot;predatory&quot; wolf without twins could possibly be a counter-reaction to the coins minted by Italian rebels.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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