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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 7956486, member: 110350"]Some coins with trophies or otherwise celebrating (or commemorating) military victories: Roman Republic, M Fovri L.f. Philus, AR Denarius 119 BCE. Obv. Laureate head of Janus, M•FOVRI•L•F around / Rev. Roma with Corinthian helmet standing left holding scepter, crowning trophy surmounted by helmet and flanked by carnyx and shield on each side, Gallic arms around; star above, ROMA to right, PHLI in exergue.  RSC I Furia 18 (ill.), Crawford 281/1, Sydenham 529, Sear RCV I 156 (ill.), BMCRR Italy 555. 20.13 mm., 3.66 g. [According to Crawford (Vol. I p. 297), this reverse probably refers to "the defeat of the Allobroges and Arverni and the triumphs of 120."] [ATTACH=full]1379387[/ATTACH] Roman Republic, M. Cato, AR Quinarius [half denarius], 89 BCE. Obv. Head of young Liber (or Bacchus) right, M•CATO (AT ligate) downwards behind; below, control-mark star/ Rev. Victory seated right, holding patera with outstretched right hand and palm branch over left shoulder; in exergue, VICTRIX (TR ligate). Crawford 343/2b, RSC I Porcia 7 (ill.) (type with symbol as control-mark), BMCRR 662, Sydenham 597(c), Sear RCV I 248 (ill.), RBW Collection 1298. 15 mm., 1.58 g., 6 h. Ex. Numismatique Louis Brousseau Auction 1, Aug. 24, 2019, Lot 255.* [ATTACH=full]1379340[/ATTACH] *Issued at end of Social War. The moneyer’s specific identity and relationship to Cato the Younger (Uticensis) are unknown; he was not that Cato’s father, who died no later than 91 BCE. There is a possibility that he can be identified with M. Porcius the wine-merchant. See Crawford p. 352. The reverse figure is presumably Victoria Virgo, whose shrine was built by Cato Censorius (id., citing Livy). Roman Republic, Cn. Lentulus Clodianus Cornelia, AR Quinarius [half denarius], Rome 88 BCE. Obv. Laureate head of Jupiter right / Rev. Victory standing right, crowning trophy; in exergue, CN•LENT. Crawford 345/2, RSC I Cornelia 51a (ill.), BMCRR 2443-2444, Sear RCV I 255 (ill.), Sydenham 703, RBW Collection 1313.  14x15 mm., 1.99 g.* [ATTACH=full]1379336[/ATTACH] *The moneyer was Consul in 72 BCE (when he was sent against Spartacus but his legions were defeated), and was later Censor in 70 BCE, and a legate with praetorian imperium under Pompey in 67 BCE. This coin was issued after the end of the Social War, to celebrate the Roman victory and/or to commemorate the “victories of M. Claudius M.f. M.n. Marcellus over Hannibal in the Second Punic War, which culminsted in the capture of Syracuse in B.C. 212.” See RSC I at p. 39. Roman Republic, C. Naevius Balbus, AR Serrate Denarius, 79 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Head of Venus [or Juno, see BMCRR p. 366] right, wearing diadem, necklace and long earring, hair long,  S • C [Senatus Consulto] behind / Rev. Victory, naked to waist, driving triga right, with rightmost horse turning head back towards the others; control-number CLIII (= 153, with L in form of upside-down T); in exergue, C•NAE•BALB [AE and LB ligate]. Crawford 382/1b, RSC I Naevia 6 (ill.), Sydenham 760b, Sear RCV I 309 (ill.), Grueber, BMCRR 2926-2976 (this control-number at BMCRR 2964), RRM I Ch. 6 at pp. 28-31 [Michael Harlan, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012)]. 19 mm., 3.92 g.* [ATTACH=full]1379342[/ATTACH] * The moneyer is “not otherwise known” (Crawford p. 398), although he has been speculatively identified with the Sullan cavalry officer named Balbus, mentioned by Plutarch, who reached Rome in time to stop the Samnites’ advance on the Colline Gate. (Harlan at 28.) The deity on the obverse has most often been identified with Venus (Crawford p. 398, Harlan p. 30, RSC I p. 68. Sear RCV I p. 130), particularly given her claimed resemblance to Venus as depicted on earlier coins by Gaius Norbanus (Crawford 357) and Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Crawford 359) (see Crawford, id.).  If she is Venus, the depiction could be another allusion to the Sullan victory at the Colline Gate, which took place near the Temple of Venus Erycina. (Crawford and Harlan, id..) However, Grueber identifies the deity as Juno (see BMCRR p. 366), given the similar head expressly identified as Juno Moneta on a later coin of L. Plaetorius (Crawford 396). This was a large issue (as was the next issue, the denarius of Ti. Claudius Ti.f. Ap.n. Nero, Crawford 383, which also bears the “Senatus Consulto” authorization).  According to Crawford, there were 280 obverse and 311 reverse dies of this issue in two subtypes, the first bearing the letters of the Latin alphabet on the obverse as control marks (type 382/1a), and the second bearing the letters of the Latin alphabet and the numerals from I to CCXXX on the reverse (type 382/1b, represented in this coin). See Sear RCV I at p. 130:”This and the following type represent further large outputs of coinage specially authorized by decree of the Senate, doubtless necessitated by the extensive military operations during the dictatorship of Sulla.” Specifically, according to Harlan (p. 29), this issue and the next were minted for the use of the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metullus Pius (see Crawford 374/1, the Pietas with elephant reverse) for paying his troops in Sulla’s campaign against the rebellious Sertorius in Spain. Sear also notes at p. 130 of RCV I that the three-horse chariot (triga) depicted on the reverse “is rarely depicted on the Republican coinage, the only other example being on a denarius of Ap. Claudius Pulcher issued in 111/110 BC” (Crawford 299/1). Harlan also states at RRM I pp. 30-31 that “[t]his is the second and last time that the triga appears on Repblican coinage.” At p. 31, Harlan cites Dionysus of Halicarnassus, who said that “the triga, used long ago by Homeric heroes, was completely out of fashion with the Greeks” by this time. The triga’s current use in Rome in the late second and first centuries BCE, when it was no longer used by the Greeks, “was only found in the celebration of the Ludi Romani, a religious and ceremonial survival of the games originally held by the dictator Aulus Postumius to commemorate [his] victory [over the Latins] at Lake Regillus” in the 490s BCE (famously aided by Castor and Pollux). Id. As the Roman practice in these games is described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (7.73.2), the “third horse, joined to the team by a trace, runs alongside the two horses yoked together in the usual way” -- explaining why the third horse on the reverse looks back at the other two. According to Harlan, “Naevius’ imagery is intended to recall that ancient victory which established Roman imperium, echoing the caput rerum theme found on the coinage of Aulus Postumius Albinus [Crawford 372/1]. Victory driving the three-horse chariot shows that all efforts to dispute Roman rule were fated to end in Roman victory.” (Emphasis supplied.) By contrast, as stated above, it is reasonable to interpret the first depiction of a triga, on Crawford 299/1a-1b, as representing the triumvirate of moneyers that issued the type. Indeed, as also noted above, there is a possible explanation for the only subsequent depiction of a triga (on the C. Naevius Balbus denarius, Crawford 382/1) that is much simpler than Harlan’s complicated theory of a symbolic represenatation of Roman imperium: assuming that the AP•CL who was one of the three moneyers named on Crawford 299 was the Appius Claudius Pulcher who was later Consul in 79 BCE, the fact that Crawford 382/1 was itself issued in 79 BCE strongly suggests that its otherwise unique depiction of a triga was no coincidence, but was a tribute to Appius Claudius Pulcher and his earlier issue as moneyer. See Yarrow, supra,  Section 2.1.1 n. 26 at p. 219: as an example of a moneyer’s issue having some “close connection with the consul” of that year (see id. p. 69), pointing out that “[Crawford] 382/1 copies the reverse of 299/1 in the very year the moneyer of 299/1 became himself consul.” Roman Republic, Publius Fonteius P.f. Capito, AR Denarius 55 BCE [Harlan: 54 BCE], Rome mint. Obv. Helmeted and draped bust of Mars with slight beard, right, with trophy over far shoulder, P•FONTEIVS•P•F•CAPITO•III•VIR counter-clockwise around / Rev. Helmeted and caped Roman soldier on horseback galloping right, thrusting his spear down at helmeted Gallic warrior crouching beneath horse, holding his shield up with left hand to try to fend off horse, and thrusting sword with his right hand at unarmed captive to left; the captive’s Gallic helmet [and shield, off flan] sailing off to lower right; MN•FONT•TR•MIL clockwise above. Crawford 429/1, RSC I Fonteia 17, Sear RCV I 392 (ill.), Sydenham 900, Harlan RRM II Ch, 22 at pp. 174-175 [Harlan, Michael, Roman Republican Moneyers and Their Coins 63 BCE-49 BCE (2nd Revised Edition 2015)]. 17.8 mm., 3.97 g.  (Purchased from Zuzim Inc., Brooklyn, NY, Aug. 2020. Ex: Roma Numismatics, E-Sale 54, Feb. 28, 2019, Lot 558 [see <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5704785" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5704785" rel="nofollow">https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5704785</a>]; Ex: Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 100, May 29, 2017, Lot 329 [see <a href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/nac/browse?a=131&l=114088];" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/nac/browse?a=131&l=114088];" rel="nofollow">https://www.biddr.com/auctions/nac/browse?a=131&l=114088];</a> Ex: Gerhard Hirsch Auction 168, Nov. 22-24, 1990, Munich, Lot 434. Formerly in NGC slab, Cert. No. 4629554-001, Graded Ch. AU, Strike: 4/5, Surface 4/5.)* [ATTACH=full]1379337[/ATTACH] *The moneyer is usually identified as either (1) the Publius Fonteius who became the adoptive father of the famous Publius Clodius Pulcher when the latter changed his patrician status to plebeian; or (2) a friend of Cicero named Fonteius, mentioned in a letter to his brother Atticus.  However, both Crawford (Vol. I at p. 453) and, at greater length, Harlan (Ch. 22 at pp. 171-173) point out the lack of evidence for either theory.  The scene on the reverse of this coin is believed to record the exploits of the moneyer’s ancestor, the military tribune Manius Fonteius (identified as such in the reverse legend), who may have been on the staff of Marcus Fonteius, governor of Narbonese (Transalpine) Gaul from 76-73 BCE. See RSC I at p. 49, Crawford Vol. I at p. 453, Harlan RRM II at pp. 174-175. Trajan AR Denarius, 106 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate bust right; IMP TRAIANO AVG  GER DAC P M TRP COS V P P / Rev. Captive Dacian in peaked cap with wide brim, seated right on shield in mournful attitude with left elbow on raised left knee, and face resting in left hand; below, curved Dacian sword (falx) right; SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI. RIC II 219 (<a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=RIC+II+Trajan+219" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=RIC+II+Trajan+219" rel="nofollow">http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=RIC+II+Trajan+219</a>); RSC II 529; Sear RCV II 3168 (obv. var.); BMCRE 175 (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-11584" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-11584" rel="nofollow">https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-11584</a>). 17 mm., 3.02 g., 6 h. [ATTACH=full]1379338[/ATTACH] Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, AR Denarius [Restored Issue of Mark Antony Legionary Denarius Leg. VI, probably issued for 200th anniversary of Battle of Actium], 168-169 AD, Rome Mint.  Obv. Praetorian galley moving left over waves with four crew members, ANTONIVS AVGVR around from 8 o’clock, IIIVIR R P C across below galley / Rev. Legionary eagle (aquila) facing left between two standards, ANTONINVS ET VERVS AVG REST [ = Restituit] around from 8 o’clock, LEG - VI across lower field. RIC III M. Aurelius 443 (at p. 248), RSC I Mark Antony 83 (ill. at p. 127), Sear RCV II 5236 (ill. at p. 341), BMCRE 500. 19 mm., 2.86 g. [ATTACH=full]1379339[/ATTACH] *See Sear RCV II at p. 340: “Issue of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus restoring the ‘Legionary’ Coinage of Mark Antony. The reasons for this remarkable restoration remain obscure. Mattingly (BMCRE, p. cxxiii) suggests that Legio VI Ferrata, which had fought for Antony at Philippi in 42 BC, may have played a leading role in the Parthian War of AD 164, the exceptional commemoration of this achievement on the coinage being prompted both by the the legion’s long and distinguished history and the similarity of the names ‘Antonius” and ‘Antoninus.” The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Actium [in 31 BC] perhaps provides a more obvious reason for the issue.” (Emphasis added.) . . . . The original “LEG VI” Mark Antony legionary denarius on which this restoration issue was modeled is Crawford 544/19; see also Sear Roman Imperators 356 at p. 232. Notable differences from the restored coin’s design include the fact that the galley on the obverse and the eagle on the reverse of the original both face right (as opposed to facing left on the restored coin), and that the obverse inscription on the original reads “ANT AVG,” whereas on the restored coin those abbreviations are fully spelled out as “ANTONIVS AVGVR,” presumably to avoid confusion. (Had the original obverse inscription been used on this coin, it would likely have been misread by most people as “ANTONINVS AVGVSTVS” -- a potential ambiguity not present when the original was issued 200 years earlier.) Septimius Severus, AR Denarius 201 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate head right, SEVERVS - PIVS AVG / Rev. Trophy with two Parthian captives seated at its base, facing outwards, with their hands supporting their heads, PART MAX P M - TR P VIIII. RIC IV-1 176, RSC III 370, Sear RCV (1988 ed.) 1767, BMCRE 356. 19 mm., 3.49 g. (Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 212th Buy or Bid Sale, August 2020, Lot 153; Ex. Philip Ashton Collection, acquired Jan. 1998). [ATTACH=full]1379347[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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