Macrinus as PIVS FEL; his earliest numismatic titulature?

CNG’s latest electronic auction included a sestertius of Macrinus with a new obverse legend adding the titles PIVS FEL(ix):


IMP CAES M OPEL SEV MACRINVS PIVS FEL AVG (see their image above).


Macrinus’ standard obverse legend at the mint of Rome omitted PIVS FEL; it was just


IMP CAES M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG on his bronze coins, and the same but with CAES abbreviated to C on his aurei, antoniniani, denarii, and quinarii.


Interesting, because Pius and Felix were among the titles that Macrinus gave himself in his first letter to the Senate, and that the senatorial historian Cassius Dio therefore criticized him for assuming on his own authority, without awaiting their official bestowal by a senatorial decree.


“And in this letter”, Dio writes, “he subscribed himself Caesar, emperor, and Severus, adding to the name Macrinus the titles Pius, Felix, Augustus, and proconsul, without awaiting any vote on our part, as would have been fitting.”


We may safely assume that the Senate then officially confirmed Macrinus’ possession of all these offices and titles, and indeed Dio virtually states outright that this was the case:


“When, therefore, the first letter had been read, appropriate measures were passed with reference both to Macrinus and to his son, the latter being declared Patrician, Princeps Iuventutis, and Caesar. Macrinus accepted everything except the horse-race that was voted in honour of the beginning of his reign; but this he declined, claiming that the event had been sufficiently honoured by the games on the birthday of Severus.”



So the omission of Pius Felix from Macrinus’ standard coin legend didn’t mean that he had decided to drop those titles, but was just a matter of choice and available space. Eckhel assures us that Pius and Felix do occur in some of the official inscriptions of Macrinus that were known by his day.



Now the CNG sestertius, with reverse legend PONTIF MAX TR P II COS II P P S C, was certainly struck after Macrinus became COS II on 1 January 218. But it doesn’t seem impossible that this PIVS FEL sestertius obverse die was nonetheless one of the earliest of the reign, cut in c. early to late May 217 before the decision was made to omit PIVS FEL from his numismatic titulature, but was then retained at the mint until it was used, perhaps accidentally, with the TR P II COS II Quadriga type in c. January 218. Certainly this obverse die was at least a couple of months old when it was used in c. January 218, since it shows Macrinus with a short or possibly medium-length beard, somewhat obscured by corrosion. It should have been a long beard, as on the BM’s example of this same sestertius, also shown above (their online photo); for as I showed in my Macrinus paper of 1979, Macrinus was wearing his beard short when he became emperor, but he then let it grow, so that after c. September 217 the long beard was standard on all of his coins. There are fairly numerous other cases too on Macrinus’ coinage of obverse dies remaining in use after their types had become obsolete; so for example with the same TR P II COS II Quadriga reverse type in CoinArchives Pro, a dupondius still showing a short-bearded Macrinus and an As still showing his medium-length beard, both also reproduced above. If my suggestion is correct that Macrinus’ PIVS FEL titulature on his coins was the earliest of the reign, then we can expect other coins too with this obverse legend to turn up in due course, possibly on middle bronzes, denarii and antoniniani, and aurei in addition to sestertii, all mainly coupled with the reverse types of what I designated Macrinus’ Issue 1, not Issue 2 to which all of his TR P II COS II coins belong.



Confirmation that the CNG coin, which looks convincing in their photo, is indeed official: it shares its reverse die with the Glasgow specimen of the same coin, Hunter pl. 33, 41, which has a long-bearded portrait from the same obverse die as the BM specimen that I illustrate above. That is obverse die 3 in my Macrinus paper, also known to me coupled with other standard reverse types, namely TR P P P Fides standing (Lanz, eBay, 15 Nov. 2009),
TR P COS P P Fides standing, and VICT PART TR P II COS II Victory seated.

 

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An inscription in Vienna, published by Maffeius, that confirms Macrinus' acceptance of the titles Pius and Felix despite their absence from the standard obverse legend on his coins, is actually quoted by Eckhel in his chapter on Diadumenian:

IMP CAES M / OPELIVS SEVERVS / MACRINVS PIVS FEL / IX AVGVSTVS PONTI / FEX MAX TRIB POT / II P P COS PROCON / SVL ET M OPELIVS / ANTONINVS DIADV / MINIANVS NOBILISSIMVS / CAES PRINCEPS IVVENTVT / PROVIDENTISSIMI AVG / FECERVNT

The title TR P II proves that this inscription belongs to the second half of Macrinus' reign, after 10 December 217.

 

those are desirable coins curtis

 

Curtis, Interesting research ! Apparently you weren't the only one to recognize the coin's rarity since it sold for $1,416.00 (including buyers premium), despite it's condition. Pictured below is a larger image of the coin for easier viewing .



I don't have any coins of Macrinus struck at the Rome Mint, but I managed to score a handsome portrait Tet of Macrinus from a provincial mint 13 years ago.


Cyrrhestica, Beroea (modern day Aleppo, Syria), Macrinus, AD 217-218. Billon Tetradrachm: 14.80 gm, 26 mm, 6 h. Prieur 890.

 

A beautiful tetradrachm!

It would be interesting to know how many of the bidders on the sestertius had spotted the unpublished obverse legend, given that it was not mentioned by CNG.

 

According to the Life of Macrinus in the Historia Augusta, "when the senate conferred on Macrinus the names Pius and Felix, he accepted the name of Felix but refused that of Pius."

After Macrinus' death, the author continues, an epigram was written against him in Greek and then translated into Latin, which the author quotes for us, stating that Macrinus wanted to be Felix but not Pius, but that was impossible; he could have been both, but now he was neither forever.

This is all clearly invention by the author, perhaps inspired by Dio's full account of the titles that Macrinus assumed in his first letter, and that were then officially bestowed on him by senatorial decree. Dio's account is confirmed by the coins and inscriptions, as we have seen; his intention was clearly to write what had actually happened. The same cannot be said of the author of the Historia Augusta!

 

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It looks like the coins have the last word in this debate .

 

I didn't realize things like "Pius", "Felix" and "Augustus" were real conferred titles!

Was that always the case in the later empire too ?