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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 4083901, member: 75937&quot;]You are the sun</p><p>I am the moon</p><p>You are the words</p><p>I am the tune…</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]Gi_m-HIiwww[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>The emperor as sun and the empress as moon is a recurrent theme in Roman numismatic iconography. This is exemplified by the use of the radiate crown on an emperor to assimilate him to Sol, the sun god, and the use of a crescent on the shoulders or forehead of an empress to assimilate her to Diana Lucifera, the goddess of the moon.</p><p><br /></p><p>This pair of antoniniani from Philip I and his wife, Otacilia Severa illustrate this principle quite well.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/philip-i-aeternitas-avgg-elephant-antoninianus-jpg.775508/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Philip I, AD 244-249.</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman AR Antoninianus, 3.73 g, 22.4 mm, 7 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, AD 247.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: IMP PHILIPPVS AVG, radiate and draped bust, right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: AETERNITAS AVGG, elephant guided by mahout with goad and wand, walking left.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC 58; Cohen 17; RCV 8921; Hunter 31.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/otacilia-severa-concordia-short-obv-inscr-jpg.761486/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Otacilia Severa, AD 244-249</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman AR antoninianus; 3.75 g, 22.6 mm, 6 h</font></p><p><font size="3">Rome, AD 248-249</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: OTACIL SEVERA AVG, diademed and draped bust, right, on crescent</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: CONCORDIA AVGG, Concordia seated left, holding patera and cornucopiae, altar at feet</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: RIC 129; Cohen 16; RCV 9150; Hunter 7; CRE 524</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>But this practice antedated the use of the radiate crown on the dupondius and antoninianus on Roman provincial coins. This sestertius-sized bronze of Romula depicts Augustus as the sun, with a radiate crown and a sun placed above his head, and Livia as the moon, with crescent above and a globe below her head.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/augustus-and-livia-hispalis-jpg.697424/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Augustus and Livia, issued under Tiberius, AD 14-29. </font></p><p><font size="3">Roman provincial Æ 31 mm, 21.48 g.</font></p><p><font size="3">Spain, Hispalis, Colonia Romula, AD 14-29. </font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: PERM DIVI AVG COL ROM, radiate head of Augustus right; thunderbolt before, star above.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: IVLIA AVGVSTA GENETRIX ORBIS, head of Livia, left; globe beneath, crescent above. </font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/73" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/73" rel="nofollow">RPC-73</a>; SGI-189; Heiss 393, 2; Cohen 169, 3; Alvarez-Burgos 1587; Lindgren II 69; SNG Tubingen 118; SNG Copenhagen 423.13.35.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, this tiny provincial of Claudia Leucas depicts a radiate male figure on the obverse and a female figure surmounted by a crescent on the reverse. The identities of the figures, though, is a matter of controversy. I favor their identification as Trajan and Plotina. The obverse bust is similar to other coins of Trajan from Claudia Leucas; in addition, the reverse has the facial features and hairstyle of Plotina.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/trajan-and-plotina-jpg.841865/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Pseudo-autonomous issue, AD 50-117.*</font></p><p><font size="3">Roman Provincial Æ 15.2 mm, 3.06 g, 2 h. </font></p><p><font size="3">Syria: Coele-Syria, Claudia Leucas (Balanea), AD 50-117.</font></p><p><font size="3">Obv: ΛΕVΚΑΔΙѠΝ, radiate male head, right.</font></p><p><font size="3">Rev: ΤѠΝ ΚΑI ΚΛΑVΔΙΑΙѠΝ, female head, right, wearing crescent.</font></p><p><font size="3">Refs: SGI 508; BMC 20, p. 296, no. 1, pl. XXXVII, 1; Lindgren I 2180; <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/4465" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/4465" rel="nofollow">RPC I 4465</a>.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>*RPC I (p. 640) notes:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>The heads are often identified as Agrippina and Claudius (<i>BMC</i>; Mionnet; Seyrig on the tickets under his coins), but a simple radiate head, presumably of Helios, had occurred under Antony (4458). Imhoof-Blumer noted a similarity with heads of Trajan, but still preferred to date the coin to the period of Claudius or Nero (<i>GRMK</i>, p. 236), perhaps because he thought that the coin came from Apamea, whose coinage ended under Claudius. The origin of the identification as Claudius and Agrippina seems to go back to the misreading of ΤWΝ as ΘΠ (de Saulcy, p. 22, nos 5–6); the date 89 would, on an era of 37, be AD 52.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=137668" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=137668" rel="nofollow">Others</a> prefer to consider this a pseudo-autonomous issue depicting Helios and Selene.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Post your sun and moon coins! </i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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