Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 7978667, member: 110350&quot;]Since we&#039;ve expanded into jugate portraits, here are a few:</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Sulpicius C.f. Galba, AR Serrate Denarius, 106 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Jugate heads of Dei Penates left, D•P•P [<i>Dei Penates Publici</i>]&nbsp; beneath heads / Rev. Two soldiers facing each other, holding spears and pointing at sow lying down between them; S above; in exergue: C•SVL•ICI•C•F. [<i>Indication of undertype on right of reverse, causing loss of detail.</i>]&nbsp; RSC I Sulpicia 1, Crawford 312/1, Sydenham 572, BMCRR Rome 1324, Sear RCV I 189 (ill.)&nbsp; 18.12 mm., 3.83 g. [<i>See Sear RCV I at p. 108: “Crawford’s interpretation of this interesting type seems the most convincing: it refers to Aeneas’ [landing at and founding of] Lavinium (home of the Sulpicia gens) with the Penates, and the subsequent miracle of the great white sow [giving birth to 30 piglets], which foretold the founding of Alba Longa,” where the soil was more fertile, 30 years later</i>.] (<i>Ex. Madroosi Collection [Joe Blazick]</i>).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1384724[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Marcius Censorinus, AR Denarius, Rome 88 BCE. Obv. Jugate diademed heads, right, of kings Numa Pompilius, bearded [<i>legendary second king of Rome</i>], and Ancus Marcius, beardless [<i>his grandson, the legendary fourth king of Rome</i>], no control-mark / Rev. Desultor on horseback galloping right, wearing pileus [conical cap], with second horse at his side, holding whip with right hand and holding reins for both horses with left hand; in exergue, C•CENSO; no control-mark. Crawford 346/1i [no control-marks], RSC I Marcia 18a [no control marks], BMCR 2367 [no control-marks], see also id. 2368-2393 [various control-marks], Sydenham 713, Sear RCV I 256 [illustration has control-mark].&nbsp; 17 mm., 3.72 g. [<i>Purchased from Munthandel G. Henzen, Netherlands, Feb. 2021; ex. Dutch private collection.</i>]*</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1384727[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>*The moneyer, as was traditional for the <i>gens</i> Marcia, belonged to the <i>populares</i> faction, and was “one of the leading men of the Marian party; he was the accuser of Sulla for malversation upon his return from Asia in BC 91. He entered Rome with Marius and Cinna in BC 87, and took a leading part in the massacres which ensued.” BMCRR p. 301 n. 1. In 87, as a military tribune or prefect for Marius, he famously commanded the cavalry that attacked and killed the consul Gnaeius Octavius, and then brought his head to Marius’s ally Cinna (who then controlled Rome) before nailing it to the Rostra -- according to the historian Appian, the first time the head of a consul was displayed on the Rostra, but unfortunately not the last.&nbsp; Censorinus died in 82 BCE in the course of the final struggle against Sulla, when he was taken prisoner in the defeat at the Battle of the Colline Gate and was put to death. See id.; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcius_Censorinus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcius_Censorinus" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcius_Censorinus</a>; Crawford p. 361.</p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse design “records the descent of the <i>gens</i> Marcia from Ancus Marcius [citing Plutarch, Suetonius, and Ovid] and hence also from his grandfather Numa Pompilius, a piece of genealogical fiction.” Crawford p. 361; accord BMCRR p. 301 n. 2. The reverse types on all of the denarii issued by this moneyer&nbsp; “commemorate the foundation of the <i>Ludi Apollinares</i>, which were instituted in BC 212 in virtue of a prophecy of the soothsayer Marcius.” Id; accord Crawford p. 361.&nbsp; This particular type “represents the race in which a rider (<i>desultor</i>) was provided with two horses, from one to the other of which he sprang during the race.” BMCRR p. 301 n. 2. See also Jones, John Melville, <i>A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins</i> (Seaby, London, 1990), entry for “Desultor,” at p. 94, defining the term as follows:</p><p><br /></p><p>“One who leaps down or dismounts, the name given to a competitor in games at Rome who, in a manner not now clearly understood, took part in a horse race using more than one horse. It may be assumed that he had to change horses at least once during the race. In a collection of myths by the Roman writer Hyginus the statement occurs that a desultor wore a <i>pileus</i> because his actions symbolized the alternate immortality of Castor and Pollux [i.e., as he switched from one horse to the other]. This may be true but when a rider with two horses appears on Republican coins, the type should be regarded as agonistic rather than religious.”</p><p><br /></p><p>At p. 361, Crawford describes 9 different subtypes of this issue, differing in whether and where control-letters, numerals, symbols, and “fractional signs” appear, i.e., on the obverse and/or the reverse. This type, with no control-mark of any kind on either side of the coin -- and it seems unlikely that any such mark would have worn off completely but left all the other major features of the design, including the whip in the rider’s hand, still clearly visible -- is the ninth subtype, denominated Crawford 345/1i.&nbsp; Taking all subtypes together, there are a total of 102 obverse dies and 113 reverse dies. Id. Thus, the number of dies with no control-marks is quite scarce when compared to the total number of dies with one or more control-marks of any kind, but is no more scarce, when compared on a one-to-one basis, than the number of dies with any given individual control mark or marks.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Rhoemetalces and Augustus, AE 22 mm., 11 BCE-12 AD, Thrace. Obv. Jugate heads of King Rhoemetalces and his queen Pythodoris right, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΡΟΙΜΗΤΑΛΚΟΥ / Rev. bare head of Augustus right, ΚΑΙΣΑΡΟΣ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΥ. ); RPC [<i>Roman Provincial Coinage</i>] Vol. I&nbsp; 1711 (1992); RPC I Online at&nbsp; <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/1711" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/1711" rel="nofollow">https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/1711</a> ; Sear <i>GIC </i>Thrace 5396 [D. Sear, <i>Greek Imperial Coins and their Values </i>(Seaby 1982)]; BMC 3 Thrace 4-6 [Poole, R.S., ed. <i>A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, The Tauric Chersonese, Sarmatia, Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, etc., Vol. 3</i> (London, 1877)]. 22 mm., 8.93 g., 7 h. Ex. London Ancient Coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1384728[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in