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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 8030361, member: 110350"]Four coins that I think are relevant. I've left in the footnotes; as usual, my apologies in advance for their length. 1. Here's a denarius issued by Q. Cassius Longinus -- presumably the same individual, given that it was also apparently issued in 55 BCE -- that has nothing to do with Vestal Virgins or with voting. Note that the authorities state that at least at the time he was moneyer, Q. Cassius Longinus was known to be a supporter of Pompey. Perhaps he became an adherent of Caesar later, after the Civil War began? After all, in 55 BCE the First Triumvirate was still in effect, and Crassus's death at Carrhae was still a couple of years in the future. Roman Republic, Q. Cassius Longinus, AR Denarius, 55 BCE [Crawford] or 53 BCE [Harlan], Rome Mint. Obv. Young male head of Genius Populi Romani [Crawford & RCV] or Bonus Eventus [RSC & RRM II] right, with flowing hair, scepter behind, border of dots / Rev. Eagle, with wings spread, standing right on thunderbolt, lituus [curved augural staff used in reading auspices] to left and capis [jug used in same rituals] to right, border of dots; Q • CASSIVS in exergue. Crawford 428/3, RSC I Cassia 7 (ill.), Sydenham 916, Sear RCV I 391 (ill.), Harlan, RRM II Ch. 23 at pp. 180-187, BMCRR Rome 3868. 19 mm., 3.77 g., 6 h.* [ATTACH=full]1391419[/ATTACH] *    According to Crawford (Vol. I at p. 452), the eagle, lituus, and capis together symbolized imperium. He suggests that they refer to the Lex Cassia of 104 BCE, introduced by L. Cassius Longinus, under which individuals who had been deprived of imperium by popular vote, or had been convicted of a crime in a popular assembly, were excluded from the Senate. This coin is also discussed in Roberta Stewart, The Jug and Lituus on Roman Republican Coin Types: Ritual Symbols and Political Power, in Phoenix Vol. 51, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 170-189 at pp. 181-182 (DOI: 10.2307/1088493, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088493" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088493" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/1088493</a>). The author notes that the eagle and thunderbolt were “auspical signs associated with Jupiter, the god of the auspices,” and that both moneyers in 55 BCE were adherents of Pompey, “whose position in 56-55 was problematical.” Thus, the coin’s allusion to these traditional symbols of political power -- reading auspices was a predicate to the conduct of public business -- “identif[ied] Pompey’s desire for political and military prestige with the political and religious values of Rome.” 2. Here's a denarius that does relate to Vesta and to voting, from a different Cassius Longinus (Lucius, the brother of Caesar's assassin Gaius Cassius Longinus) -- I don't know how they were related to Quintus. Roman Republic, L. Cassius Longinus, AR Denarius, 63 or 60 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Veiled and diademed head of Vesta left, control-letter “A” before her, kylix (two-handled cup) behind her / Rev. Togate figure standing left, dropping a voting tablet favorable to proposed legislation, inscribed “V” (Vti Rogas [= “as you propose”]) into a cista before him, LONGIN III•V downwards behind him. Crawford 413/1, RSC I Cassia 10 (ill.), Sear RCV I 364 (ill.), Sydenham 935, Harlan, RRM II Ch. 6 at pp.49-53, BMCRR 3929 (control-letter “A”); see also id. 3930-3936 (other control letters). 3.96 g., 19 mm., 6 h. Formerly in NGC slab, Cert. No.4280866-009, Graded Ch. XF, Strike: 4/5, Surface 4/5.)* [ATTACH=full]1391424[/ATTACH] *Crawford & RSC date the coin to 63 BCE, Harlan dates it to 60 BCE based on hoard evidence (see Ch. 6 at p. 49), and Sear notes the different dates but offers no opinion (see Sear RCV I at p. 141). Crawford identifies the moneyer as the L. [Lucius] Cassius Longinus who was proconsul in 48 BCE (see Vol. I p. 440), and was the brother of Gaius Cassius Longinus, Caesar’s assassin. Harlan argues against this identification on the ground that the assassin’s brother would have been too young (in his early 20s) to be the moneyer of this coin, and concludes that the moneyer was someone otherwise unknown. (See pp. 50-51.) Regardless of the specific identity of the moneyer, all authorities note that he omitted express mention of his nomen, Cassius (from the gens Cassia), and his praenomen, L. (for Lucius) from the coin, mentioning only his cognomen, Longinus, on the reverse. He was the only Republican moneyer from the gens Cassia to do so. Instead, he disclosed his praenomen and nomen by means of the control-letters on the obverse: the only control-letters used spell out his praenomen and nomen, as L CASSI (with one S reversed). See Sear RCV I at p. 141, Crawford at p. 440, Harlan at pp. 49-50. (See Crawford 362/1 at p. 377 for a discussion of the other known example of a moneyer spelling out his name via control-letters, the denarius of C. Mamilius Limetanus).  Harlan suggests that this moneyer’s reason for omitting his praenomen and nomen from the coin may have been to avoid confusion with another Lucius Cassius Longinus, praetor in 66 BCE, who had been condemned as a participant in the so-called Catiline conspiracy, exposed in 63 BCE, only two years earlier (according to Harlan’s dating of the coin).  See Harlan at p. 50. The “III•V” at the end of the reverse inscription stands for “IIIVIR” or triumvir. See the Numiswiki entry for IIIVIR, at <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=IIIVIR" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=IIIVIR" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=IIIVIR</a>: “On coins of the Roman Republic IIIVIR is used as a shortened abbreviation for IIIVIR AAAFF, which abbreviates "III viri aere argento auro flando feiundo" or "Three men for the casting and striking of bronze, silver and gold," a moneyer or mint magistrate.” The veiled depiction on the obverse of this coin is generally taken to be a portrayal of Vesta despite the absence of an inscription to that effect. Note the kylix cup behind her head, similar to the bowl in Vesta’s hands on Crawford 512/2, as well as the similarity of the portrait to the specifically identified portrait of a veiled Vesta on Crawford 428/1, issued by Quintus Cassius Longinus in 53 BCE -- also with a voting scene on the reverse. (But see the equally similar veiled portrait specifically identified as Concordia on a denarius issued by Lepius Paullus in 62 BCE, Crawford 415/1.) Crawford assumes without discussion that the obverse portrait depicts Vesta, and concludes that her portrayal on the obverse, taken together with the voting scene on the reverse, constitute a reference to the election in 113 BCE of another member of the Cassius gens, Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, as a special prosecutor to retry two acquitted Vestal Virgins (one of the three originally charged was convicted the first time) on allegations of breaking their vows. They were convicted on retrial and buried alive as punishment. See Crawford p. 440; Harlan at p. 182-183 (discussing the voting scene on the reverse of Crawford 428/1). In BMCRR, on the other hand, Grueber concluded that the reverse type commemorated the passage in 137 BCE of the Lex Cassia tabelleria, proposed by the same Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, as tribune of the plebs, to curb the power of the nobility by expanding the recently-instituted secret ballot law to trials held before the people.  (See BMCRR Vol. I p. 494.)  If one thing is clear, it is that unlike Crawford 328/1, the reverse of this coin cannot refer to the retrial of the Vestal Virgins itself, since the scene on this reverse depicts a legislative vote (determined by votes of Vti Rogas [= “as you propose”] or Antiquo [= “I vote against it”]), rather than a trial, as depicted on the reverse of Crawford 328/1 (determined by votes of Absolvo [= “I absolve”] or Condemno [= “I acquit”]). Harlan adopts neither view, arguing as follows (see pp. 52-53): “We should ask if we want to assign this depiction of voting to the passage of one specific law. By the time this coin was minted it was not the specifics of Longinus’ law that people recalled, but that voting tablet laws represented the liberation of the people from the oppression of the nobility [Quotation from Cicero’s speech Pro Sestio, concerning the voting tablet law of 137 BCE, omitted.] . . . . Our moneyer’s coin reminded the people how his family had traditionally championed the people’s interests over the nobility’s and how their interests have been furthered through constitutional means rather than violent revolution which threatens the interest of all citizens. The recent involvement of a Cassius Longinus in Cataline’s attempt to effect change through violent revolution was not representative of the true values of the Cassii Longini.” 3. Here's another Republican denarius depicting Vesta, that neither relates to voting nor was issued by a Cassius Longinus: Roman Republic, P. [Publius] Sulpicius Galba, AR Denarius, 69 BCE. Obv. Veiled head of Vesta right, S•C• [Senatus consulto] downwards behind / Rev. Sacrificial implements (Long knife [secespita], short-handled simpulum or culullus,* and single-bladed axe [securis] ornamented with lion’s head, left to right), AE in left field, CVR in right field [together = Aedilis Curulis]; in exergue, P•GALB.** Crawford 406/1, RSC I [Babelon] Sulpicia 7, Sear RCV I 345, BMCRR 3517, Harlan, RRM I Ch. 28 at pp. 160-163 [Harlan, Michael, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012)], Sydenham 839, RBW Collection 1454.*** 18 mm., 3.97 g. Purchased from Kölner Münzkabinett, April 2021; ex. Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Auction 347, Lot 918, March 22, 2021. (With 19th-Century handwritten French-language coin ticket, citing Babelon Sulpicia 6[bearing the reverse legend AED-CVR] on one side, and Babelon Sulpicia 7[this coin, bearing the reverse legend AE-CVR] on the other.)[Double die match to <a href="http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b06#schaefer.rrdp.b06_0214" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b06#schaefer.rrdp.b06_0214" rel="nofollow">http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b06#schaefer.rrdp.b06_0214</a> , Binder 06, p. 165.1, Col. 3, Row 4, No. 444.] [ATTACH=full]1391428[/ATTACH] * “Culullus: The Culullus is a horn-shaped vessel like the rhython held aloft by the Penates, holding milk or wine. This was an emblem of the Vestales Virgines as well as of the pontifices.” <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Culullus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Culullus" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Culullus</a>. But see Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London 1990) (entry for “Culillus or culullus” at pp. 78-79): “This is said to have been the name of a drinking cup used in religious ceremonies by the Roman pontifices and Vestal Virgins. For this reason the digger or scoop which appears on the reverse of a denarius of P. Sulpicius Galba issued in 69 BC, with a head of Vesta on the obverse, has been identified as a culillus. It seems, however, to be only a simpulum, perhaps with a slightly shorter handle than usual.” See also Jones, entry for “Simpulum” at p. 290: “the name for a ladle made of earthenware which was one of the traditional implements of the pontifices at Rome. It should be distinguished from a culullus, which was a drinking vessel.” **The moneyer is known to have been “appointed one of the judges in the trial against Verres in B.C. 70 [for extortion and corruption as provincial governor of Sicily, prosecuted by Cicero; see <a href="https://www.famous-trials.com/gaius-verres" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.famous-trials.com/gaius-verres" rel="nofollow">https://www.famous-trials.com/gaius-verres</a>] but was rejected by Verres on account of his reputation for severity. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship in B.C. 63, and he is mentioned as pontifex in B.C. 57, and augur in B.C. 49.” (BMCRR Vol. I at p. 433 n. 1.) See also Harlan, RRM I at 160 (quoting Cicero’s characterization of Sulpicius Galba, in a letter to his brother Atticus in July 65 BCE, as “sobrius et sanctus”).  Crawford states at Vol. I p. 418 that the moneyer was already a pontifex (i.e., a member of the senior college of priests) at the time of his term as moneyer in 69 BCE -- as is demonstrated by the head of Vesta on the obverse of this coin (given that the pontiffs had oversight of the ceremonies of Vesta; see Harlan, RRM I at p. 161), as well as the depiction of sacrificial implements on the reverse. The moneyer’s position as curule aedile in 69 BCE, expressly mentioned in the coin’s reverse legend (AE - CVR), was separate from his status as a pontifex.  There were two curule aediles -- i.e., patrician aediles entitled to use the sella curulis (curule chair) -- at any given time in Rome. They were the magistrates charged with “the general administration of the city and its buildings and the organizing of public games and spectacles.” (See Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins, supra, entry for “Aedile” at p. 5.) See also the NumisWiki entry for “Aediles Curules,” from Stevenson’s A Dictionary of Roman Coins (1889), at <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Aediles%20Curules" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Aediles%20Curules" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Aediles Curules</a>: “To the curule ediles were entrusted the care of the sacred edifices (especially the temple of Jupiter), the tribunals of justice, the city walls, and the theatres; in short, all that was essential to the religion, defence, and embellishment of the city, came under their cognizance.”  According to Harlan (RRM I at p. 163), this coin represents “the first time under the Sullan constitution that an aedile minted” as moneyer. The specific special purpose for the Senate’s authorization of this issue (as signified by the “S•C” on the obverse) is unknown, although Harlan suggests (id.) that the purpose may have been related to the need to purchase extra grain from Sicily to alleviate the severe grain shortages during that period, exacerbated by Verres’s peculations as provincial governor. Cf. the Stevenson entry on Aediles Curules quoted in NumisWiki at the link above, citing various coin issues expressly depicting corn ears, and noting that “[t]he addition of EX. S. C. denotes that those Curule Ediles purchased wheat for the supply of the Roman population, with the public money, by authority of the Senate.” ***The coin pictured as RBW Collection 1454 (at p. 301 of the book) is actually the same type as this coin ([RSC I] Babelon Sulpicia 7, bearing the reverse legend AE - CVR), even though the book’s text (at p. 300) erroneously identifies it as [RSC I] Babelon Sulpicia 6, mistakenly characterizing it as bearing the reverse legend AED-CVR. (Both types have the same Crawford number, namely 406/1.)  The RBW Collection coin was sold by Numismatic Ars Classica (NAC) with that erroneous identification on May 17, 2012. Interestingly, NAC proceeded to sell at least two other Sulpicius Galba AE-CVR examples in 2015, and another in 2016, all with the exact same erroneous identification as purportedly bearing the AED-CVR legend. 4. Finally, another coin relating to voting, from considerably earlier than the others: Roman Republic, P. Nerva, AR Denarius, Rome Mint, 113-112 BCE. Obv: Bust of Roma left wearing crested helmet with feather or aigrette (instead of wing) and single-drop earring, holding shield (ornamented with image of horseman galloping) against left shoulder with left hand, and spear over right shoulder with right hand, crescent moon above, star (*) [= monogrammed XVI; mark of value] before; behind, ROMA upwards / Rev. Voting scene inside Comitium in Forum: one togate voter to left of pons [bridge/walkway to place for depositing ballot tablet] receives ballot from attendant below; another togate voter to right of pons drops ballot in cista (voting basket); two lines behind voting scene and bar near top of reverse (described as “screen” by Sear) mark off voting area (denoting the barrier dividing a given tribe’s enclosure [saepta] from those allotted to different tribes), with bar or screen surmounted by marker/tabella inscribed with the initial “P” (possibly representing a particular voting tribe); P • NERVA [NE ligate] across field beneath bar (or beneath top of screen per Sear). Crawford 292/1; BMCRR II Italy 526 (at p. 274); RSC I [Babelon] Licinia 7 (ill.); Sear RCV I 169 (ill.); Sydenham 548; Yarrow 4.40 at p. 195 (ill.) [Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021)]. 17.21 mm., 3.87 g., 7 h. David R. Sear Certificate of Authenticity,  May 2, 2013, No. 811CY/RR/A/CR (issued to Steve Peterson, noting “flan flaw on edge of reverse not affecting the type”).*  Purchased at JAZ Numismatics Auction # 186, Lot 4, June 2021; ex. J.B. DePew Collection; ex. Steve Peterson Collection; ex. CNG Auction 295, Jan. 30, 2013, Lot 361; ex. Bruce R. Brace Collection.** [ATTACH=full]1391435[/ATTACH] *David Sear describes this issue as “[o]ne of the most celebrated types of the entire Republican coinage,” depicting “the actual voting process in the political assembly of the Roman People in the Comitium, where citizens voted on business presented to them by magistrates. The area occupied by the Comitium was consecrated ground, like a temple, and was located in front of the Senate House [Curia] in the forum.” Sear RCV I at p. 105; see also Sear Certificate; Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London, 1990), entry for “Comitium” at p. 64: “From coire, ‘go together,’ the name of the area on the edge of the Forum at Rome which was used as a place of public assembly and where elections took place (the plural, comitia, was used as the name of the assemblies which were held there). A denarius of 113-[11]2 BC [this issue] shows a voting scened in the Comitium, with a voter crossing a narrow walkway, the pons, to cast his vote without being observed.” See also the Sear Certificate, explaining that “[t]he pons was a bridge in the Comitium which voters had to cross in order to cast their ballots and it kept them from any potential interference”; Crawford p. 307 (“it is not clear what the purpose of the pons was if not to isolate the voters”). The standard view of the “P” on the marker or tablet surmounting the barrier or screen is that it represents the initial of a particular voting tribe. See Crawford Vol. I p. 307. For a different opinion, see E.E. Clain-Stefanelli, Life in Republican Rome on its Coinage (1999) at p. 16: “above to the right is a tablet inscribed with a P (provoco -- I appeal),” referring to the right of appeal in criminal proceedings; accord BMCRR II Italy p. 275 n. 2. Prof. Yarrow has yet a still different opinion: see Sec. 4.41 of her book at pp. 193-194, stating that electoral ballots as depicted on the Republican coinage (as opposed to ballots in criminal proceedings) “seem[] to be hinged-like representations of wax-writing tablets; one side of the tablet is inscribed with a P and the other has the initials (or space for the initials) of the candidate [citing, inter alia, the illustration of this coin at Fig. 4.40]. The P may resolve as pro, in the sense of a vote ‘for’ or ‘in support of’ the named candidate.” (This explanation may account for the fact that on less worn examples, the open “P” on the rectangular tablet or marker seems to be to the far left, with the remainder blank.) The moneyer is “presumably” Publius Licinius Nerva, Praetor in Sicily (i.e., its governor] in 104/103 BCE at the time of the Second Servile War. See Crawford I. p. 306; Sear Certificate; BMCRR II Italy p. 274 n. 2. The Sear Certificate states that “[t]he reason for Nerva’s selection of this type is not easy to establish, though it may refer back to a measure concerning enfranchisement carried by an ancestor of the moneyer’s as well as being a more contemporary reference to the Marian law of 119 BC by which the width of the pons was narrowed.” Crawford prefers the Marian explanation; see Vol I p. 307. ** Bruce R. Brace "was a scholar and by many considered to be a dean of Roman Numismatics in Canada. Coins from his extensive collection were sold by CNG in 2012 and 2013." <a href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an..._ex_bruce_r_brace_library/630746/Default.aspx" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an..._ex_bruce_r_brace_library/630746/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an..._ex_bruce_r_brace_library/630746/Default.aspx</a> . According to Google, he was the former General Chairman of the Canadian Numismatic Association, the recipient of their J.D. Ferguson Award in 1984, and the former honorary curator of the McMaster University Museum of Art coin collection, at least a portion of which is now known as the Bruce R. Brace Coin Collection.[/QUOTE]

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