Can someone please enlighten me on the English meaning of the word "Tetrassaria"? Thank-you. I have a "Tetrassaria" of Macrinus that I am trying to 'attribute'.
Thank-you, people. To make sure that I understand it correctly, an 'Assaria' is what I (and others) shorten to 'As', and a 'Tetrassarion' is a coin with the value of four 'Asses'? If an 'As' was a 'Dollar' this would be a $4 coin? Am I correct? P.S. Thanks for the compliments on the coin, by the way. I like it, too.
Wow, Topcat => that OP-coin has fantastic eye-appeal (congrats on that great Macrinus) This is my only Macrinus example ... an AR Denarius Oh, and I may as well use-up this single post with more miscellaneous info regarding my assarion coins, eh? Yup, thumbing-through my hoard, I found three cool examples identified as multiples of assaria ... a Philip-I, a Philip-II and a Gallienus ... SYRIA, Seleucis and Pieria, Philip I Æ 8 Assaria MOESIA INFERIOR, Marcianopolis. Philip II. As Caesar Æ Pentassarion (5 Assaria) PAMPHYLIA, Side. Gallienus Æ 11 Assaria Again, Topcat => your OP-coin is all that (very tough looking addition ... great coin, congrats) *edit* => ooops, sorry "Topcat" (I was accidentally calling you Tophat today)
You are correct except that as (plural asses) is Latin while assarion (plural assaria) is the equivalent Greek word. So a tetrassarion (singular) is a coin valued at 4 assaria.
For non collectors who like to be confused: If there are four assaria in a Greek tetrassarion, what do we call a Roman coin of four asses? Answer: Sestertius. Why is Lincoln on a five dollar bill instead of on a five dollars bill? Languages have rules. The first rule is they do not have to make sense. Coins of every time and place have a language of their own.
I was blessed with what used to be called a "classical education". We studied, among other history courses, ancient history and the classical languages of Greek and Latin. I suppose that when it came to numismatics this would explain my interest in ancient, Byzantine and medieval coinage. Since it is not a matter of speaking these languages (modern Greek is as different from Ancient Greek as Italian from Latin) that they are studied it is possible for the motivated collector to study these two languages on his own and acquire a decent reading knowledge of them. For anyone who is serious about being a collector of ancients I heartily recommend trying this. It will add immeasurably to your pleasure. Fortuna te adjuvet.
Right, Dougsmit. It's why I'm 6 feet 2 inches tall, but to someone else I'm 6 foot 2. Or used to be before age and gravity and surgery took their toll. Steve
exactly, Stevearino => 6 foot 2, or 74 inches ... or 1880 mm, or 188 cm, or 1.88 meters ... ummm, or 18.5 hands ... or 0.0093 furlongs ... or 1.987162e-16 light years (same as coin denominations, I suppose, eh?) => it depends heavily on time and place and the language of the time (kinda interesting) Stevearino ... hmmm, I like that
stevex6 Yeh, my wife gave me that little term of endearment. BTW, if you're in Northern Manitoba I've probably fished in your back yard. Used to go a couple of hundred miles north of Winnipeg every spring until the demands of being a parent and making a living intruded. Steve
=> Hey Stevearino ... sadly, that would still be fishing in my "front-yard" for I'm currently living almost 500 miles north of Winnipeg (a 7-8 hour drive, North) Cheers, coin-bro ... I'm sure that having an endearing wife and new family slightly outweighs those sweet northern trout, pike (Jack-fish) and pickerel (Walleyes)
stevex6 Good lord, you ARE up there! I never hear anyone down here in Minnesota refer to a Northern Pike as Jackfish, but I sure enjoyed catching some big 'uns up there, including the Cross Lake dam. PM, if you wish, to let me know what you are doing up there with the polar bears. Steve
