Magnificent and not-so-magnificent Mars

Did you ever notice the deterioration in artistic quality of Mars advancing right types over the centuries? And look at Gallienus' portrait--he looks like one of the Simpsons!

Post your Mars coins!


Trajan, AD 98-117
Roman AR denarius; 2.95 gm, 20 mm
Rome, AD 114-117
Obv: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC, laureate and draped bust, right
Rev: P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, Mars walking right with spear and trophy
Refs: RIC 337; BMCRE 536; Cohen 270; RCV --; Woytek 520v; Strack 230; BN 819


Gallienus, AD 253-268
Roman billon antoninianus; 3.42 gm, 20.4 mm
Rome, AD 257-258
Obv: IMP GALLIENVS P F AVG GERM, radiate, cuirassed bust, right
Rev: VIRTVS AVGG, Mars walking right, holding spear and trophy
Refs: RIC 186; Hunter 22; Göbl 120; Cohen 1272; RCV 10409

 

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I agree, the roman's got a bit laxed with the artistry that they produced on coinage after the first couple of centuries.

 

haha! ..one of the simpsons>< but yeah, you're right.

 

Wow. That Gallienus reverse surely is a sad excuse for art.

On the other hand, the Trajan reverse of Mars is very well done, including the usual anatomically correct rendition of Mars.

I have a couple Mars reverses, the first of which is an excellent obverse portrait of Vitellius with a weakly struck Mars reverse:



VITELLIUS 69 A.D.
AE Sestertius (29.74 g.) Rome Apr. - Dec. 69 A.D. RIC 115
A VITELLIVS GERMANICVS IMP AVG P M TR P Laureate and draped bust r. Rev. MARS VICTOR S – C Mars, helmeted and in military dress, striding l., holding Victory in r. hand, parazonium at side and trophy over l. shoulder.


My second is the somewhat R-rated version of anatomically correct Mars on a Domitian:



DOMITIAN 69 - 81 AD.
AE Sestertius (26.88 g.) Thrace 80-81 AD RIC 509 Titus
CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIANVS COS VII, laureate head right / S C across field, Mars walking right, holding spear in right hand, trophy over left shoulder

 

Will also depend on the mint. Don't have any but I am sure later gold issues have some great details.

Constantine I
Treveri mint
AE Follis
Obvs: IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate and cuirass right.
Revs: MARTI PATRI PROPVGNATORI, Mars with shield and spear. S left, A right. PTR
25x26mm, 6.68g

 

Stunning coins, @IdesOfMarch01 ! Very attractive!

 

Heres a Caracalla with Mars as a funny little midget:

 

Why did they get lax with the artistry?

 

Your Trajan is lovely, RC! IOM-- wowza, as usual

Hmm, I only have Mars on a couple of Republican coins, and neither are in his glorious full-bodied depiction.


Roman Republic
moneyer L. Julius L. f. Caesar, 103 BC
AR denarius, 17mm, 3.9 gm
Obv: Helmeted head of Mars left; CAESAR; ・C (retrograde)
Rev: Venus Genetrix in chariot left, drawn by two Cupids; lyre to left; ・C (retrograde) above
Ref: Crawford 320/1
ex RBW Collection


Roman Republic, Ti. Veturius
137 BCE, Rome
AR denarius, 3.85 gm
Obv: Helmeted bust of Mars right
Rev: youth kneeling left, holding pig; two soldiers standing holding spear and touching pig with swords. ROMA above.
Ref: Crawford 234/1, Sydenham 527, RSC Veturia 1

 

There was severe inflation and debasement of currency (silver content minimal by the time of Gallienus--a few percent or so), so each coin wasn't worth very much. Therefore, the mint had to produce larger and larger quantities of them and had to do slip-shod work just to keep up with the demand.

 

Thanks.
So they needed many more dies and those die makers got sloppy in order to crank out more dies to make more coins.

 

that sounds logical, but idk tbh, & don't know if anybody has the answer to that real good question.

 

ahaha! the way you presented that><

 

My guess is as time went on the discipline (having to be perfect) became not so important as the Roman economy headed into turbulent economic environment and as a consequence haste and efficiency became more important. Only a guess.

 

Although I have a Roman coin with typical Mars reverse I would like to show something very different that also depicts Mars.


ARTUQIDS OF MARDIN. Husam al-Din Yuluq Arslan
580-597 AH (1184-1201 AD). Copper dirham.
Obv: Mars seated with sword behind his head and holding head (of the ghûl Medusa?) in his left hand.
Rev: names of the caliph, the Ayyûbids al-Afdal 'Alî and az-Zâhir Ghâzî, sons of Saladin, and the Artuqid.
Spengler/Sayles 36.3; Album, Checklist 1829.4.

I don't actually own the Spenger/Sayles volume which gives the proof that the seated figure is Mars. A CNG cataloger wrote of a similar coin "The 'head-cutter' type is is found elsewhere in Arabic art as a representation of Mars."

 

L VALERIUS FLACCUS


Caracalla


Probus

 

Great posts! A beautiful Trajan, RC; I didn't know that Artuqid piece depicted Mars, neat! and Ides' Domitian is of course incredible.

One of my favourite depictions of Mars:



On a Caracalla sestertius:


And on Tacitus:


The all-time worst depiction of Mars has to be late in the Taman Goths' series (Mars is on the reverse. I suppose he fares better than Septimius Severus on the obverse!):

 

I've shown this one many times before, but let's not forget that Mars was a lover as well as a fighter!

 

Great coins!

 

My first laugh of the day. Thank you.