Friday, April 14, 2006
Æ25, Cotiaeum in Phrygia, Valerian, SNG Co'hagen 338var...
(bust)
AVT K Π ΛIK OVAΛEPIANON, Radiate draped curiassed bust left, spear before | EΠI Π AI ΔH·MH TPIANOVC IΠ / KOTIAEΩ / N, Aesculapius right and Hygieia left, standing facing each other. AP / X in upper fields.
Like this coin I posted last year, but with a more ornate left-facing bust. I don't understand why the Romans varied the obverses like this, whether the less-frequently employed busts carried some significance that the Romans wished to convey, but not to the exclusion of other messages, or whether the die engravers, usually thought to have been slaves, were free to excercise their own skill, so long as they produced as many dies as were required.
AVT K Π ΛIK OVAΛEPIANON, Radiate draped curiassed bust left, spear before | EΠI Π AI ΔH·MH TPIANOVC IΠ / KOTIAEΩ / N, Aesculapius right and Hygieia left, standing facing each other. AP / X in upper fields.
Like this coin I posted last year, but with a more ornate left-facing bust. I don't understand why the Romans varied the obverses like this, whether the less-frequently employed busts carried some significance that the Romans wished to convey, but not to the exclusion of other messages, or whether the die engravers, usually thought to have been slaves, were free to excercise their own skill, so long as they produced as many dies as were required.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
“scholars are in a snit because people are profiting from the antiquity”
Outside the Beltway finds the cultural property lobby looking for a piece of the much-noted Gospel of Judas. (Via Riehl World View.)
Billon antoninianus, Valerian II, Samosata, Göbl 1692b
VALERIANVS NOBIL CAES, Radiate draped cuirassed bust right | FIDES MILITVM, Legionary eagle between two standards.
The coins minted at Samosata, as Göbl assigns them, almost always feature two figures facing each other. While this coin features no such design, I see that it preserves much the same sort of symmetry and that all the designs used at that mint may have been designed by ome person with a consistent aesthetic.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Æ2, Constantine I ("the Great"), Lugdunum, RIC 15
[IMP CO]NSTANTINVS P F AVG, Laureate draped cuirassed bust right | SOLI INVICTO COMITI, Sol standing left raising right hand, holding globe in left. F in left field, T in right field, PLG in exergue.
Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was one of the towering figures of Roman history, perhaps more important than any emperor since Augustus. He's not, though, remembered as Constantine the Good.
No Roman emperor acheived power or held it long without killing and Constantine's killing of first his son Crispus and soon thereafter of his wife Fausta was never unwilling to kill. He's forgiven much because he put Christianity well on the way to being the solely sanctioned religion of the Empire.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Today in history
rogueclassicism lists today as the birthdate of Septimius Severus.
Æ27, Tyre in Phoenicia, Salonina, BMC 497
[CORN]E SALONINA [AVG], Diademed draped bust right | [COL] TVRO M[E]T, Ocean reclining left, crab headdress, ambrosial rocks from which water flows in left field. [ω]KEAN[OC] beneath, murex shell in field.
While I have many coins of Tyre, they're nearly all in the names of Valerian or Gallienus, and this is only the second for Salonina. The other was the subject of my first post.
Seeing today's coin, and the seller's description, cleared up a question I had about the reverse on this coin.
The ambrosial rocks were baetyls, sacred stones involved in the foundation myth of Tyre.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Billon antoninianus, Salonina, Mediolanum, Göbl 1231a
SALONINA AVG, Diademed draped bust right on crescent | AVGVSTA IN PACE, Salonina seated left holding olive branch in right hand and long transverse scepter with left.
This has been a slow week, busy at work the last few weeks and no imperial coins acquired, so here's something I bought in 2003 but haven't posted yet. The legend AVGVSTA IN PACE doesn't seem to been used under any other emperor, though a few variations were issued for Salonina. The similarity to requiascat in Race,%nbsp; combined with the end of persecution of Christians under after Va;erian left the scene has prompted some writers to speculate that Salonina was a Christian or at least sympathetic, and perhaps she was, but I don't think this coin constitutes any sort of evidence.
