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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3989221, member: 83956&quot;]Thanks everyone for this flurry of posts.</p><p><br /></p><p>It does seem that the number of Galerius coins featuring Mars might favor that association, though I suppose even this point is moot if, as Doug says, the figure on the reverse of the VIRTUS coin is indeed a personification of Virtus and not Mars.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is my rare early Constantine Virtus (Mars?) coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1050341[/ATTACH] </p><p>Nosing around a bit, it seems this coin was struck ca. 306-7 also for:</p><p><br /></p><p>Maximinus II Daia (Ticinum—Western mint for Eastern Caesar)</p><p>Severus II (Aquileia—Western mint for Western Caesar)</p><p>Constantine (Ticinum and Aquileia—Western mints for Western Caesar)</p><p><br /></p><p>In short, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of strict West-East preferential logic for striking coins featuring Mars.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I’m bothered by the idea that this isn’t really Mars at all on the coins, despite RIC’s identification that it is.</p><p><br /></p><p>Looking at near contemporary folles like the one Al posted, it seems that the reverse figures all look the same, and two are clearly labeled as Mars (Marti, in the dative singular). That might argue for Mars on the VIRTVS reverse. (All below are CNG coins and photos.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1050342[/ATTACH] </p><p>Mars sure has shapely legs for a God of War. I bet Venus would kill for those legs.</p><p><br /></p><p>I’m not sure we are any closer to an answer to my original query about the contradiction between Barnes and Stephenson, but it’s been a fun thread already.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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