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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sulla80, post: 24675485, member: 99456&quot;](A favorite question : how do we know what we know?)</p><p><br /></p><p>Crawford states: &quot;T<i>here is no reason to regard Venus here as Verticordia, contra <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.104771/page/n35/mode/2up" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.104771/page/n35/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">S. Reinach, RA 1913</a>,1 29-30; F. Quilling, Iuppitersaule, 101-2).</i>&quot;&nbsp; He refers to Venus Victrix, and suggests that the &quot;<i>balance on the reverse of 1 perhaps suggests that the coinage of Md Cordius Rufus is in the tutela (protection) of Venus and hence is a further compliment to Caesar (G. Wissowas, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 44)</i>&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Reinach points to Cavedoni in this 1917 reference (Crawford does not reference this writeup):</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Until recent years, only one image of Venus holding a scale was known: it is the one that appears on the denarii issued around the year 50 BC, in the midst of civil war between Caesar and Pompey, by the <i>triumvir monetalis</i> Manius Cordius Rufus. We see, on the reverse of these coins, Venus draped, standing, carrying Cupid on the left shoulder and holding a balance. Cavedoni put forward the hypothesis, accepted by some, opposed by others, that this Venus was that of the temple of Venus Verticordia, the gens Cordia having resorted to a pun like the reverses of more than one Roman denarius&quot;</p><p>-Reinach, <a href="https://archive.org/details/revuearcheologique5s5/page/290/mode/2up" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/revuearcheologique5s5/page/290/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">Jan-Jun 1917 Revue archéologique</a>, pp.291-292</p><p><br /></p><p>By 1917 Reinach added an additional explanation for the scales: Venus the planet in the constellation of libra starting from a quote from Macrobius&#039; Saturnalia (written in the 5th century AD):</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Right across from those two signs Scorpio is divided in such a way that both gods share it, and that very division is thought the work of a heavenly plan, since Scorpio’s tail, armed with the spear-like telson, is the house of Mars, while its front end—the Greeks call it Zygos [“Yoke”], we call it Libra [“Scale”]—belongs to Venus, who joins people in marriage and brings friends together as though with a yoke of harmony.&quot;</p><p>-Macrobius,<a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#12.11" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html#12.11" rel="nofollow"> Saturnalia, 1.12.11</a></p><p><br /></p><p>he writes:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;As none of the other assumptions is likely to convince us, I believe it is appropriate to recall the Alexandrian coins of Antoninus Pius, where the head of Venus is associated with a balance, and the passage quoted above from Macrobius (1.12.11). Cordius had placed a scale in the hands of Venus because the astrologers of his day - very preoccupied, as we know, with astrology - located the planet and the goddess Venus within the constellation of Libra. It is possible that to this main reason were added two others:</p><p>- one drawn from the fact that Venus was reputed to be the ancestor of Caesar</p><p>- the other from the civil war which held the destinies of the world in suspense</p><p><br /></p><p>But we do not even know with certainty whether the moneyer Cordius belonged to Caesar&#039;s party, and the explanation of the scales by astrology seems plausible enough that there is no need to complicate it by completing (the additional explanations).&quot;</p><p>-Reinach, <a href="https://archive.org/details/revuearcheologique5s5/page/290/mode/2up" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/revuearcheologique5s5/page/290/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">Jan-Jun 1917 Revue archéologique</a>, pp.293-294</p><p><br /></p><p>The rare Alexandrian coin in question from Antoninus Pius (photo of <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5977864" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5977864" rel="nofollow">a CNG coin</a>)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1573950[/ATTACH]</p><p>EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (33mm, 26.22 g, 11h). Zodiac series. Dated RY 8 (AD 144/145). Laureate head right / <b>Venus (Aphrodite) in Libra</b>: Diademed and draped bust right of Aphrodite; before her, star of eight rays and male figure (Libra) standing facing, head left, lower half of his body draped, holding scales with his right hand and fold of drapery with his left; to lower left, L H (date). Köln –; Dattari (Savio) 8831; K&amp;G –; Emmett 1452.8 (R5)</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll also add a link to <a href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367845" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367845" rel="nofollow">Ovid&#039;s Fasti IV, 1st of April : Kalends</a>:</p><p>&quot;In the time of our forefathers Rome had fallen from a state of chastity, and the ancients consulted the old woman of Cumae. She ordered a temple to be built to Venus, and when that was duly done, Venus took the name of Changer of the Heart (Verticordia)&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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