Got this today, was hard to pick which one I wanted. Had some really nice one at the local shop. Been kinda hectic at home and havent had alot of free time but schools gona start soon lol.. n e ways heres what I picked up, wanted to share it. L. Censorinus denarius L Censorinus Denarius. 82 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right / L CENSOR, the satyr, Marsyas, standing left with wineskin over shoulder; behind him, column surmounted by draped figure (Minerva?). Syd 737, Cr363/1d. Ref Marcia 24 denarius
Interesting.... I wish I knew more about Republican Denarii, they look like alot of fun. I like the busts of Apollo and Venus that are on the obverse on some. Nice addition.
if anyones interested heres a lil more info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denarius_of_L._Censorinus In 82 B.C., a denarius was minted by Lucius Marcius Censorinus picturing Apollo and Marsyas the satyr. The coin has attracted several interpretations because of the ambiguity of its symbolism Coin description On the obverse of this coin is a representation of the god Apollo, portrayed as a young man wearing a diadem. On the reverse of the coin is an image of the satyr Marsyas, nude, carrying a wineskin[1]. He is wearing a Phrygian cap, and has a pedestal standing beside him, holding a statue, which some think is a statue of Minerva [2]. Along the side is the inscription L. Censor.[1] The image of Marsyas may be copied from a statue in the forum of Rome at this time, as implied by the pedestal in the field of the coin. [3] The coin is silver and weighs roughly 3.95 grams.[1] Symbolism The Marcius gens The symbolism may refer to the moneyer’s family line, the gens Marcia, who claimed legendary descent from Marsyas.[4] An ancestor claimed to have experienced a vision which led to the founding of games in tribute to Apollo. The brother of Lucius, Gaius Marcius Censorinus, minted a coin with the image of Apollo.[5] Political climate Main discussion: Marsyas, Prophecy and free speech at Rome. Another view of the symbolism in this coin is that it is politically driven.[6] Apollo was seen as a symbol of harmony, especially in his manifestation at Rome.[7] During this time, Rome was experiencing a period of political upheaval, connected to the Social Wars.[7] Marsyas was regarded as a symbol of political freedom, particularly free speech. On the coin, Marsyas is wearing a Phrygian cap, a symbol of liberty.[8] L. Marcius Censorinus was a supporter of Marian or Cinnan politics, which advanced the cause of Roman citizenship for Italians during the Social Wars.[9] Gaius Marcius Censorinus was captured at the Battle of Colline Gate and beheaded by an order of Sulla, the champion of the senate's traditional privileges.[10] Many other supporters of Marian politics used images of Apollo on their coins, often in conjunction with images of Saturn, Venus and a god who is known as a young[clarification needed] Jupiter.[11] Warding off plague? The image of Apollo on the coin may refer to the plague of 87 B.C. Censorinus may have been invoking the god in his capacity as a healer and protector.[12]
I keep reading alot of neat info associated with the coin. Prophecy and free speech at Rome Among the Romans, Marsyas was cast as the inventor of augury[21] and a proponent of free speech (the philosophical concept παρρησία, "parrhesia") and "speaking truth to power." The earliest known representation of Marsyas at Rome stood for at least 300 years in the Roman Forum near or in the comitium, the space for political activity.[22] He was depicted as a silen,[23] carrying a wineskin on his left shoulder and raising his right arm. The statue was regarded as an indicium libertatis, a symbol of liberty, and was associated with demonstrations of the plebs, or common people. It often served as a sort of kiosk upon which invective verse was posted.[24] Denarius minted at Rome in 82 B.C. by L. Censorinus, with the head of Apollo and the figure of Marsyas holding a wineskin, based on the statue in the forum ( CNG)Marsyas served as a minister for Dionysus or Bacchus, who was identified by the Romans with their Father Liber, one of three deities in the Aventine Triad, along with Ceres and Libera (identified with Persephone). These gods were regarded as concerning themselves specially with the welfare of the plebs. The freedom that the ecstasies of Dionysian worship represented took on a political meaning in Rome as the libertas that distinguished the free from the enslaved. The Liberalia, celebrated March 17 in honor of Liber, was a time of speaking freely, as the poet and playwright Gnaeus Naevius declared: "At the Liberalia games we enjoy free speech."[25] Naevius, however, was arrested for his invectives against the powerful.[26] Marsyas was sometimes considered a king and contemporary of Faunus, portrayed by Vergil as a native Italian ruler at the time of Aeneas. Servius, in his commentary on the Aeneid, says that Marsyas sent Faunus envoys who showed techniques of augury to the Italians.[27] The plebeian gens of the Marcii claimed that they were descended from Marsyas. Gaius Marcius Rutilus, who rose to power from the plebs, is credited with having dedicated the statue that stood in the Roman forum, most likely in 294 B.C., when he became the first plebeian censor and added the cognomen Censorinus to the family name.[28] Marcius Rutilus was also among the first plebeian augurs, elected in 300, and so the mythical teacher of augury was an apt figure to represent him.[29] In 213 B.C., two years after suffering one of the worst military defeats in its history at the Battle of Cannae, Rome was in the grip of a reactionary fear that led to excessive religiosity. The senate, alarmed that its authority was being undermined by "prophets and sacrificers" in the forum, began a program of suppression. Among the literature confiscated was an "authentic" prophecy calling for the institution of games in the Greek manner for Apollo, which the senate and elected officials would control. The prophecy was attributed to Gnaeus Marcius, reputed to be a descendant of Marsyas. The games were duly carried out, but the Romans failed to bring the continuing wars with the Carthaginians to a victorious conclusion until they heeded a second prophecy and imported the worship of the Phrygian Great Mother, whose song Marsyas was said to have composed; the song had further relevance in that it was also credited by the Phrygians with protecting them from invaders.[30] The power relations between Marsyas and Apollo reflected the continuing Struggle of the Orders between the elite and the common people, expressed in political terms by optimates and populares. The arrest of Naevius for exercising free speech also took place during this period.[31] Another descendant of Marcius Rutilus, L. Marcius Censorinus, issued coins depicting the statue of Marsyas, at a time when the augural college was the subject of political controversy during the Sullan civil wars of the 80s B.C.[32] On the coin, Marsyas wears a Phrygian cap or pilleus, an emblem of liberty.[33] This Marcius Censorinus was killed by Sulla and his head displayed outside Praeneste. Sulla's legislative program attempted to curtail power invested in the people, particularly restricting the powers of the plebeian tribunes, and to restore the dominance of the senate and the privileges of patricians.[34] Marsyas was also claimed as the eponym of the Marsi, one of the ancient peoples of Italy.[35] The Social War of 91–88 BC, in which the Italian peoples fought to advance their status as citizens under Roman rule, is sometimes called the Marsic War from the leadership of the Marsi. The Roman coloniae Paestum and Alba Fucens, along with other Italian cities, set up their own statues of Marsyas as assertions of their political status.[36] During the Principate, Marsyas became a subversive symbol in opposition to Augustus, whose propaganda systematically associated him with the silens’ torturer Apollo. Augustus's daughter Julia held nocturnal assemblies at the statue, and crowned it to defy her father.[37] The poet Ovid, who was ultimately exiled by Augustus, twice tells the story of Marsyas's flaying by Apollo, in his epic Metamorphoses and in the Fasti, the calendrical poem left unfinished at his death.[38] Although the immediate cause of Ovid's exile remains one of literary history's great mysteries, Ovid himself says that a "poem and transgression" were contributing factors; his poetry tests the boundaries of permissible free speech during Rome's transition from republic to imperial monarchy.[39] Pliny indicates that in the 1st century A.D., the painting Marsyas religatus ("Marsyas Bound"), by Zeuxis of Heraclea, could be viewed at the Temple of Concordia in Rome.[40] The goddess Concordia, like the Greek Harmonia, was a personification of both musical harmony as it was understood in antiquity, and of social order, as expressed by Cicero's phrase concordia ordinum. The apparent incongruity of exhibiting the tortured silen in a temple devoted to harmony has been interpreted in modern scholarship as a warning against criticizing authority.[41] alot more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsyas United States The Phrygian cap has been used to symbolize liberty in numerous countries of the Americas. For example, starting in 1793 United States of America coinage frequently showed liberty wearing the cap or, on many 19th Century pieces, holding it on a Liberty Pole. The cap's last appearance on circulating coinage was the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, which was minted through 1947 (and reused on the current bullion American Silver Eagle). The U.S. Army has, since 1778, utilized a "War Office Seal" in which the motto "This We'll Defend" is displayed directly over a Phrygian cap on an upturned sword. It also appears on the state flags of West Virginia, New Jersey, and New York, as well as the official seal of the United States Senate (left), the state of North Carolina (as well as the arms of its Senate,[7]) and on the reverse side of the Seal of Virginia. In 1854, when sculptor Thomas Crawford was preparing models for sculpture for the United States Capitol, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later to be the President of the Confederate States of America) insisted that a Phrygian cap not be included on a statue of Freedom on the grounds that, "American liberty is original and not the liberty of the freed slave". The cap was not included in the final bronze version that is now in the building. [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap
Wow, there certainly is alot of info associated with that coin. Interesting stuff. Be sure to keep us posted on any new aquisitions.
