Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;curtislclay, post: 5143122, member: 89514&quot;]How do we know that the four children on DonnaML&#039;s coin represent Faustina&#039;s own children? Well, as Roman Collector shows above, the same type of a woman accompanied by four children appears on coins of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Caesar that are dated by their tribunician numbers to late 160 and early 161 AD, and a similar type but with only three children accompanying the woman appears on coins of Antoninus dated to 160 generally, that is from 10 Dec. 159 until near the end of 160. Three children in 160, but four in 161, so looking rather like a growing family.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now we know from the vita Commodi that on 31 August 161 Faustina gave birth to twin boys, namely the later emperor Commodus and his brother Antoninus, who died a couple of years later. This birth of twin boys to Faustina and Marcus in 161 was commemorated on Faustina&#039;s coins not only with the type of two infants on a throne, also illustrated above by Roman Collector, but with the type of a woman standing holding two infants, while four more children, two small and two a bit larger, stand by her feet. See illustration below (BM specimen). There can be no doubt that the two babes in arms in this type are Commodus and Antoninus, and that the four standing children are Faustina and Marcus&#039; four earlier surviving children, all daughters, the birth of the fourth of whom had been commemorated on the four-children coins of Antoninus, Marcus, and Faustina herself late in 160 and early in 161. Note the continuous obverse legend on the BM aureus, a form that was used on the dated coins of Antoninus and Marcus only c. 160-1, so fitting perfectly with the date of the birth of the twins on 31 August 161. The differing sizes of the four standing children in this type confirm that they represent children of different ages, namely the two youngest daughters whose births had been commemorated on the coins of 160 and 161, and the two older daughters who had been born earlier. [ATTACH=full]1207223[/ATTACH].[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in