Roman Republican Coin No. 67: the Dioscuri, from L. Memmius

Thanks so much to all of you for the interesting examples you've posted, and your kind words about the Memmius denarius. @Ed Snible, it hadn't occurred to me that the @Andrew McCabe provenance contributed to the vigorous bidding on this coin and resulted in a premium, but now that I think of it I'm sure I wasn't the only one who relied on his excellent taste!

@zumbly, your second coin, the Maxentius from Tomis, is particularly unusual: I doubt there are any other coins showing the Dioscuri not only dismounted but reclining!

@Cucumbor and @furryfrog02, I really love the Maxentius type, and now I want one myself! For one thing, I wasn't even aware before that there was ever a mint in Ostia. The design, with the Dioscuri on the outside rather than between their horses, reminds me of the statues on the Quirinal Hill on either side of the Egyptian obelisk (as opposed to the ones at the Piazza del Campidoglio, which resemble the design on my coin):





Apparently, these two statues are among the few ancient sculptural groups never to have been buried or lost to view in nearly 2,000 years, even though they apparently weren't identified as Castor and Pollux until the 18th century. See https://www.througheternity.com/en/blog/history/dioscuri-castor-pollux-quirinal-hill.html# .

@ambr0zie, I had actually never read that the Istros design with the inverted heads on the obverse has been interpreted as the Dioscuri. Do you have a citation for that theory? Here's my example:

Thrace, Istros. 400-350 BCE. AR Drachm. Obv. Two facing male heads, left head inverted / Rev: Sea eagle on dolphin, ISTRIH [partially off flan] above eagle, globule under eagle’s tail; letter “A” ligatured with [archaic Π with shortened right stem, or sideways Γ ?] beneath dolphin. SNG.BM.249 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain, Volume IX, British Museum, Part 1: The Black Sea (London, 1993)] [online ID SNGuk_0901_0249 with Rev. Monogram No. 49]; AMNG I/I No. 417 var. [no globule], see also No. 422 [Pick, Behrendt, Die antiken Münzen von Dacien und Moesien, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands Vol. I/I (Berlin, 1898) at pp. 161-162]; BMC 3 Thrace No. 6 var. [no globule] [Poole, R.S., ed. A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, The Tauric Chersonese, Sarmatia, Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, etc., Vol. 3 (London, 1877) at p. 25]; Seaby 1669 var. [Sear, David, Greek Coins & their Values, Vol. I: Europe (Seaby 1978)]. 19 mm., 5.36 g.

 

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I guess I can respond to my own request and post the three other Dioscuri coins I have. (I'm including only the ones that show the Twins themselves, rather than merely their caps and/or the stars above them).

First, with a nice provenance, my only example of the traditional depiction of the Dioscuri galloping in tandem with lances couched and stars above (I'm not particularly fond of them except when, as here, they also have some sort of additional design beneath the horses):

Roman Republic, C. Antestius, AR Denarius 146 BCE. Obv. Head of Roma right wearing winged helmet with peaked visor (ornamented with griffin’s head?), pearl necklace, and earring of pellets in form of bunch of grapes, C • ANTESTI upwards behind [partially off flan, ANTE ligate], X [mark of value, 10 asses]* beneath chin / Rev. Dioscuri holding spears, on horseback galloping right; puppy running right below horses’ hooves, with both forefeet raised; in exergue, ROMA; minor flan flaws on reverse. Crawford 219/1e, RSC I Antestia 1, BMCRR I 859, Sear RCV I 95/1 (ill.), Sydenham 411. 19 mm.. 3.76 g., 3 h. Ex. CNG Auction 378, July 13, 2016, Lot 408; ex. RBW [Richard B. Witschonke] Collection; ex. BCD Collection [see old coin ticket], purchased by RBW from BCD March 1985; ex. ASW [Alan S. Walker, currently Dir. of Nomos AG].





*My only denarius issued before the re-tariffing of that denomination to 16 asses circa 141 BCE. [2nd footnote omitted.]

Second, a coin showing the Dioscuri galloping in opposite directions rather than in tandem:

Roman Republic, C. Servilius M.f., AR Denarius 136 BCE. Obv. Head of Roma right wearing winged helmet, wreath behind neck, ROMA beneath with * [XVI monogram] to left / Rev. Dioscuri on horseback galloping in opposite directions, heads turned back to face each other, both twins holding their spears downwards behind horses, C. SERVEILI M F in exergue. RSC I Servilia 1, Crawford 239/1, Sydenham 525, Sear RCV I 116 (ill.), BMCRR Italy 540. 19.35 mm., 3.89 g. [Sear says that this is the first Republican denarius with “ROMA” legend on obverse, and the second to use the monogram * for XVI .]



Third, the Janiform faces of the Dioscuri:

Roman Republic, C. Fonteius, AR Denarius, 114-113 BCE. Obv. Laureate, Janiform head of the Dioscuri, control mark N under left chin [mark of value * (= 16) under right chin is worn off], one dot beneath head / Rev. Galley left with three rowers, gubernator (pilot) at stern, rudder beneath stern, apotropaic eye on side, three-pronged ram with wolf’s head above extending from prow, banners/streamers extending from stern, C • FONT above (N and T in monogram), ROMA below. Crawford 290/1, RSC I Fonteia 1 (ill.), Sear RCV I 167 (ill.), Sydenham 555. 20 mm., 3.90 g. Ex: Auctiones GmbH, eAuction 67, Lot 55, 15 March 2020; Ex: CNG Auction May 2012, Lot 293; Ex: Bruce R. Brace Collection.*



* According to H.A. Seaby in RSC I (at p. 48), the Janiform head on the obverse relates to the origins of the Fonteia gens -- which claimed as its founder Fons or Fontus, supposedly the son of Janus -- and the galley on the reverse relates to the naval exploits of the moneyer’s ancestor P. Fonteius Capito, who was praetor in Sardinia in 169 BCE. Crawford disagrees. (See Vol. I at p. 305.) He states that there is no good evidence for the existence of Fontus, and that the Janiform head should instead be regarded as that of the Dioscuri, because the gens Fonteia came from Tusculum, the chief cult-center of the Dioscuri in Latium. Crawford also states that the reverse is “doubtless” an allusion to the transmarine origin of Telegonus (the son of Ulysses and Circe), who was the legendary founder of Tusculum. Sear agrees with Crawford.

 

Here’s my L. Memmius denarius:



LUCIUS MEMMIUS AR silver denarius. Struck 109-108 BC. Bust of Apollo Vejovis right, wearing oak-wreath; before, XVI monogram of value before, thunderbolt underneath. Reverse - The Dioscuri standing facing between their horses, each holding spear; L MEMMI in exergue. 19mm, 3.9g. RCV 181, RSC Memmia 1, Crawford 304/1.

Ex. Incitatus Coins

I also own a generic Anonymous denarius depicting the Discouri on horseback



AR denarius, 187-175 BC, 21mm, 3.45gm. Winged head of Roma right / Dioscuri on horseback right, VF+, old collection patina, SR 112.

Ex. Wayne Sayles