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Number 161
COPYRIGHT © 1979
THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
ISSN 0078-2718
ISBN 0-89722-176-1
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 74–82869
Printed in Germany
at J. J. Augustin · Glückstadt
To the memory of my mother
LILIAN MAY MAC DOWALL
b. 1895 d. 1961
The coins of Nero present a bewilderingly rich variety of obverse legends and reverse types. The principal varieties have indeed been described in the celebrated catalogues of Roman Imperial Coins compiled by Eckhel, Cohen, Fiorelli, Sydenham, Mattingly, Miss Robertson and others—each largely based on one of the great numismatic collections. But although considerable progress has been made in listing the varieties, identifying the denominations and distinguishing the mints, the basic pattern of the coinage and its successive chronological stages have largely remained obscure.
This study of the western coinages of Nero seeks to apply to this rich coinage the principles of die study and type analysis. A new corpus has been established of the varieties that can be substantiated from coins in the principal numismatic collections. Whenever possible, examples have been cited from distinct obverse and reverse dies to distinguish the normal varieties of the coinage from the exceptional variants. The evidence of site finds has been used to clarify the attribution of uncertain groups, and this body of evidence has then been analyzed to establish the chronological sequence of successive issues and to reconstruct the administrative subdivisions of the mints.
As in any work of this kind, my obligations are numerous. I am indebted to the Board of Management of the Bryce and Amy Mary Preston Read Scholarship Fund and to the Trustees of the Arnold Historical Essay Fund for generous help which has greatly facilitated the collection of material. My thanks are due to the curators and owners of the numerous collections in Western
Many scholars have generously discussed relevant subjects with me. R. A. G. Carson, J. P. C. Kent, C. M. Kraay, F. A. Lepper, C. H.V. Sutherland and the late Mlle. G. Fabre have kindly allowed me to study a number of their unpublished papers. I am indebted to Sra. de Moya for sending me rubbings of coins in some Spanish collections that I was unable to visit, to H. Plates XXIV and XXV, and to Almirall Barril, who has long been interested in the coinages of Nero, for information about the interesting material he has added to his collection over the years. But above all I should like to record my gratitude to the late John Walker, formerly Keeper of Coins in the British Museum, for the facilities which he so freely granted me both before and after I joined the staff of his department, and to C. H. V.
Admont,
Berkhamsted
7 April 1978
Public collections are listed under the name of the town in which they are to be found, except for those of the American Numismatic Society, British Museum and Hermitage Museum. Private collections are listed under the name of their owner. Where a collection has been offered for public sale reference is given to the printed sale catalogue and the date and place of sale. Private collections known to have dispersed are shown in Italics. The abbreviations are those used in the Catalogue section.
For most of the more common varieties it would be possible to quote examples from any of the major collections. The British Museum, Oxford,
The basic chronological framework for the arrangement of Nero's coinages is provided by the elements of imperial titulature found on the coins. Nero held the consulship five times, in 55, 57, 58, 60 and 68,
1
and his first and fourth consulships are recorded on the gold and silver.
2
Considerably more important are the series of tribunician dates found on the pre-reform aurei and denarii and on a limited number of the later sestertii and dupondii, and the use of "imperator" as a praenomen during the later years of his principate. Unfortunately both the reckoning of Nero's tribunicia potestas, and the date when he assumed the praenomen imperator have been disputed.
Nero celebrated the renewal of his tribunician power on 4 December,
3
fifty two days after his dies imperii of 13 October.
4
He counted it from 4 December 54, and added one to each TRP number on 4 December in each succeeding year. Apart from this unusual starting date, there is no need to assume any irregular reckoning.
The supposed difficulty in calculating Nero's TRP has been the apparently contradictory entries in two surviving fragments of the Arval Acta. For 3 January 59 Nero's titles are given as TRP V …,
5
but both the general heading for 60 and the specific entry for 3 January of that year have TRP VII IMP VII,
6
whereas on a normal reckoning one would expect to find TRP VI IMP VII. This gave rise to Mommsen's view that during 59 Nero changed his TRP renewal day to 10 December (the day of the consilia) and subsequently counted TRP I
7
We now know that the Arval Acta commemorated Nero's dies imperii on 13 October in 58
4
and the bestowal of his tribunicia potestas on 4 December in both 57 and 58
3
—the sole years for which the relevant parts of the Acta survive. Any alterations, therefore, in numbering Nero's TRP cannot have been occasioned by a change in the starting date of the tribunician year. The 4 December was already in use by 57, whereas the discrepancy in the numbering of Nero's TRP does not appear until after the entry for 59.
The other epigraphic and numismatic evidence
8
supports a straightforward reckoning of Nero's TRP from 4 December 54. Most inscriptions merely establish a connection between a particular TRP date and the number of an imperial salutation. Three inscriptions, however, have an additional external date. The military diploma in 9
is unfortunately indecisive. Although it gives a consular dating AD VI NON IVL CN PEDANIO SALINATORE L VELLEIO PATERCVLO COS besides TRIB POT VII IMP VII COS IIII in Nero's titles, the date of their suffect consulship is uncertain.
10
But the other two inscriptions are more helpful. Lucretianus' dedication from Luna
11
shows Nero as TRIB POTEST VIIII IMP VIIII and Poppaea as Poppaea Aug Neronis Caesaris Aug Germ. Poppaea gave birth to a daughter, Claudia, in 63 and both she and the child
12
The Luna dedication thus supports the straight calculation which would make TRP VIIII December 62/63. On Mommsen's system TRP VIIII would have to be December 61/62 which is a year too early. The Boeotian inscription from Acraephia recording Nero's declaration of liberty to Greece
13
and Epameinondas' speech of thanks, has δημαρχικῆς ἐξουσίας τὸ τρισκαιδἐκατον. Hammond has shown that the assembly took place on 28 November 67,
14
and this again supports the straight calculation which would make TRP XIII December 66/67.
Nero's gold and silver coinage forms a regular series from TRP to TRP X without interruption, and gives no suggestion of any change in tribunician reckoning. The aurei and denarii of 60 have the normal COS IIII TRP VI.
15
This issue seems to be the production of a complete year, and its TRP date directly contradicts the entry in the Arval Acta of COS IIII TRP VII for 3 January of the same year.
In other circumstances one might have allowed the evidence of the Arval Acta, the record of a public college quite closely connected with the Imperial House, against the authority of a dedication from Luna and of an inscription from Boeotia; but the Luna dedication and Acraephia inscription are supported by the clear evidence of the COS IIII TRP VI aurei and denarii from the mint of
A.D. 57
16
l. 14. ob tribuniciae (sic) potestat. Neronis Claudi …
l. 23/4. immolavit/in sacram viam (sic) memoriae Cn ….
A.D. 58/9
17
l. 58. L. Piso L. f. magiter (sic)
l. 62/3. M. Apronius Saturnius (sic—for Saturninus)
A.D. 59/60
18
a. l. 15. C. Vipstanus (sic) Apronianus cos P Memmiu (sic)
l. 26. August Germanicii (sic) Iovi
d. l. 16. Caesari (sic) Aug Germanico (to agree with consule).
The imperial titles for 3 January 59, moreover, are given as TRIB POT V IMP VI COS III DESIG IIII;
19
a designation to COS IIII so far ahead as 3 January is most unlikely in view of the constitutional show which Nero's principate was anxious to maintain at this period
20
and it is likely that an entry proper to the closing months alone of the year has been put in full for 3 January. The entry COS IIII TRP VII for 3 January 60 appears to be a closely comparable error. When the Acta for 60 were formally written up at the end of the year, the engraver apparently inserted the current year's date COS IIII TRP VII (December 60/61), for January 60—an error which it would be extremely easy to make by assimilation to the neighboring IMP VII.
A. Degrassi, I fasti consolari dell'impero romano (
Cat. 3, 9ff., 37, 42 ff.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (hereafter CIL) VI, 2039, 2041.
CIL VI, 2041.
CIL VI, 2041.
CIL VI, 2042.
Theodor Mommsen, Hermes 2 (1856), p. 56 and Römisches Staatsrecht II (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1887), pp. 796ff. Mommsen has been followed by B. W. Henderson, Life and Principate of the Emperor Nero (Comptesrendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belle-lettres (CRAI) 1912, p. 385; The Coinage of Nero (Cours d'épigraphie latine (4th ed., Philologus 32 (1873), pp. 1–91; Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit II (Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae (ILS); H. Mattingly, "The Date of the 'Tribunicia Potestas' of Nero and the Coins," NC 1919, pp. 199–200 and "'TRIBVNICIA POTESTATE.'" JRS 1930, pp. 78–91 and Memoirs of the American Academy in
See Table 1, pp. 6–7 below.
CIL XVI, 4. (= ILS 1987).
Degrassi, I fasti, pp. 16–17.
CIL XI, 6955.
Tacitus, Annals xv.23. On the right hand edge of the stone of this dedication are the remains of the D and N, one above the other, which seem to stand for D(ivae Claudiae …) N(eronis …)—and provide an additional argument for dating the inscription to a.d. 63. It is interesting to note that Lucretianus was apparently very careful to record the imperial titulature correctly. His second dedication dated TRP XIII gave Nero the praenomen IMP, whereas his dedication of a.d. 63 did not. The numismatic evidence shows that Nero assumed the praenomen IMP during the course of TRP XII.
Inscriptiones Graecae (IG) VII, 2713.
Hammond, "Tribunician Day," p. 28, following M. Holleaux, BCH 1888, pp. 510–28 and more fully in his Discours prononcé par Néron à Covinthe en rendant aux Grecs la liberté, 1889; and Dittenberger, IG VII, 479.
Cat. 9, 42.
The other important chronological indication is Nero's use of IMP as a praenomen
21
from 66. All the known inscriptions dated TRP XII (December 65/66) and later have the praenomen IMP,
22
whereas in the proceedings up to and including 60 (the last year before 66 where Nero's titles are recorded) Nero is never given the praenomen. Titinius' dedication at Luna dated TRP XIII IMP XI COS IIII (December 66/67)
23
is to Diva Poppaea and Imp Nero, whereas his earlier dedication in TRP VIIII (62/63)
24
repeatedly gives Nero's titles without the praenomen. The Acraephia inscription
25
dated TRP XIII gives Nero the praenomen αὐτοκράτωρ; and the Sardinian milestone dated TRP XIII IMP XI
26
has the praenomen IMP. An apparent exception, the stone from Casino
27
(no longer extant), seems to have been incorrectly transcribed. It is reported without the praenomen and dated TR POT XIII IMP VIII (sic). But this is an impossible combination which cannot be accepted, and TR POT VIII IMP VIII, a conjunction known from another inscription,
28
is the obvious emendation.
Sestertii and dupondii with TRP XIII all have the praenominal IMP and so do the rare coins dated TRP XIV. But the praenomen was never used on the aurei and denarii dated TRP—TRP X,
29
nor on the cuirassed bust sestertii.
30
The date on these has been variously read as TR POT XI PPP,
31
TR POT XII PP,
32
TR POT XI PIP,
33
TR POT XI PPI,
34
and TR POT XIIII;
35
but all the specimens which the author has examined are struck from the same obverse die with TR POT XI PPP.
36
The dated and undated coinage, moreover, shows clearly that once adopted, the use of the praenomen remained the regular form. The most mature portraits of Nero, with a thick treatment of the neck and a heavily developed jowl, are always found on coins with the praenomen.
The terminus post quem for the assumption of the praenomen is given by the cuirassed bust sestertii dated TRPOTXIPPP and the three inscriptions dated TRPXI. The terminus ante quem is fixed by the entries in the Arval Acta for 66, with the caveat, perhaps, that the titulature may have been correct only for the end of the year when the record was completed. Within these limits it is difficult to be more precise. Either the Vinician conspiracy of 66,
37
or the ceremonial reception of Tiridates at 38
are equally possible occasions. But although the precise context remains obscure, the praenomen is most important chronologically and enables us to distinguish the later groups in the undated coinages.
CIL VI, 2039.
CIL VI, 2041.
CIL VI, 2042.
CIL VI, 2041.
C. H. V. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy (
Later emperors regularly included the praenomen in their titulature from their accession, but this practice did not go back further than Vespasian. Cf. History of the Title Imperator under the Roman Empire (Chicago, 1920).
CIL VI, 2044.
CIL XI, 1331.
CIL XI, 6955.
IG VII, 2713.
CIL X, 8014.
CIL X, 5171.
CIL XI, 1331.
Cat. 2–21, 36–53.
Cat. 135–36.
AttiMemIIN 4 (1921), pp. 47–62.
BMC RE I, p. 215, note on no. 111.
BMCRE I, no. 112.
BMCRE I, no. 111.
Cohen, Description historique des monnaies frappées sous l'empire romain (2nd ed.,
Ingemar König's recent study, "Der Titel «Proconsul» von SM 1971, pp. 42–53 republishes and illustrates six of these sestertii.
McFayden, Imperator, pp. 58–59.
Suetonius, Nero 13.2.
Some varieties of obverse and reverse legend and type are characteristic of the mints at which the coinage was struck, and the chronological pattern of the issues cannot be determined until the basic mint structure is appreciated. The evidence of finds shows clearly that aes coinages.
From these western issues we must be careful to distinguish the coinages struck by a wide range of mints in the eastern provinces. There is little difficulty over the product of city mints which employed Greek legends or of colonies which added to their Latin legends the initial letters of the name of the colony.
1
Rather less obvious are the coins with Latin legends struck by the imperial mints at Caesarea
2
and Antioch
3
and by the military mint in 4
but each of these series is characterized by a distinctive range of reverse types.
Nero's coinage of aurei and denarii in both the dated and the undated series is remarkably uniform in style, type and content. Coins of the same uniform character seem to have circulated throughout the empire, in
This gold and silver coinage forms a remarkably compact group, and the portrait imagines used by its die engravers are basically the same as those used for the aes of the mint of Plate I, 19-20) is very close to that of the Roman aes without SC (Plates V–VI, 177ff.); the truncation of the early undated gold and silver (Plate I, 22, 23) is close to that on the Roman aes with SC struck in 64–66 (Plate VII, 200, 205); and the truncation of the gold and silver with the praenomen IMP (Plate II, 31, 65, 66) is very similar to that of Roman aes with the praenomen IMP (Plate IX, 238, 240). None of these has anything in common with the characteristic Plate XIII, 419ff.). The common form of bust truncation seems to have been an external factor derived from common imagines used by all the engravers at a mint. The use of common imagines shared with the Roman aes clearly points to 5
There is good evidence for the existence of the mint at tresviri monetales aere argento auro fiando feriundo, which is found on inscriptions down to third century a.d.,
6
and in the series of mint inscriptions from 7
8
especially those in northwest 9
at this period. The large revenue from these imperial mines would no doubt usually be turned into precious coin to meet imperial expenditure. The principal items of expenditure would be central state administration, public works and buildings, doles, donatives, the army and provincial government. The financial arrangements, however, did not repeatedly involve the transportation of large sums of money. Each province seems to have had its own provincial treasury and only the surpluses or deficits would be transferred at the end of each accounting period.
10
Apart from the maintenance of the frontier armies, the heaviest recurrent expenses, not counterbalanced by comparable local sources of revenue, must have been those for imperial activities at 11
and 12
Most of the precious metal coins struck from bullion stocks must have been put into circulation at 13
It is of course theoretically possible that, even though the gold and silver dies were engraved centrally, and the major part of the precious coinage was struck in 14
But there is no clear evidence
15
mentioning a soldier of cohors XVII Lugdunensis ad monetam, attributed to the time of Claudius or Nero, can quite well refer to the aes mint which continued to function at 16
There is no need to refer it to the continued presence of the gold and silver mint, known to be at a.d. 18.
17
Nor do finds of ancient dies support the hypothesis of subordinate mints. Only three such finds of dies are known for Nero.
18
One in the Museum at Arlon, found locally, is certainly the product of an ancient forger, as it is a metal mould for casting 44 denarii at a time. The other two, both in the Bibliothèque Nationale, 19
Most of them are in good style and some have argued that they may have been produced by official mint(s) as a measure of illicit profit for the government.
20
But whatever one's verdict on plated denarii of Claudius and earlier emperors, it is now clear that Nero's plated silver was the product of unofficial forgers. The analysis of Nero's coinages has closely defined the issues of denarii and the obverse and reverse types used in each issue. Had the plated denarii been produced under official auspices they would undoubtedly have been made in the same mint organization with the same combinations of types as the regular
21
there can be little doubt that the manufacture of plated denarii was the work of forgers. The places at which finds of early imperial dies have been discovered are singularly out of the way.
22
None has been found in 23
but even this die may well have fallen into the hands of forgers by appropriation from the mint after it had been used to strike official coins. And it seems most likely that the dies recovered from these scattered find spots were the property of ancient forgers.
Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Communale di Roma
56 (1930), pp. 1ff.
Fiorelli, Pompeianarum Antiquitalum Historia. I.3, pp. 250–51.
Opgravingen op het dompe in te Utrecht, Haarlem 1934, pp. 49ff.
NC 1912, pp. 265–312.
Fonds Vacquer à la Bibliothèque de la ville de
NZ vol. 34, pp. 29ff.
Mitteilungen C. C. Steiermark 2, 173; 3, 157; 5, 109.
BlM 1930–33, pp. 353–381.
M. Thirion, Le lrésor de Liherchies. Aurei des Ier et IIe sièdes (
Annuaire du Musée National Bulgare 1934 Supplément.
NC 1934, pp. 1–30.
MSS. list in British Museum.
ZfN 1912, pp. 189–253.
Sydenham, Nero, pp. 132–169.
Sydenham, The Coinage of Caesarea in Cappadocia (
Die syrische Provinzialprägung von Augustus bis Traian, (Stuttgart, 1931), pp. 63ff.
a.d. 68" NC 1960, pp. 103–112.
My argument is not open to the sort of objection that NC 1955, p. 44) to aes which we believe to be Roman''—for it merely points to the existence of imagines of two distinct types and identifies the type used on the aurei and denarii.
La monnaie dans l'antiquité III (
CIL VI, 42, 43, 44, 239, 791, 1145, 1607, etc.
Tenney Frank, An Economic Survey of Ancient
ltimore
Frank, Survey III, pp. 166ff.
Cf. J RS 1950, pp. 22–29. In this discussion I use the generic term "treasury" to cover the activities of both aerarium and fiscus.
Nero's building operations were extensive (see Platner and Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient
Nero, 10.1; 11; 30; Tacitus, Annals 12.58.
Tenny Frank, An Economic History of
The capital had a permanently adverse balance of trade. Cf. Frank, Survey V (1940), pp. 281–82.
A suggestion made by Sutherland in a review of Problems Historical and Numismatic in the Reign of
NC 1952, p. 145. Cf. NC 1955, pp. 53–54.
CIL XIII, 1499, and Mommsen, Hermes 16 (1881), p. 645.
BMC RE II, p. lviiif. for Vespasian's aes mint at
Strabo 4.3.2. C 192.
C. C. Vermeule, Some Notes on Ancient Dies and Coining Methods (
For plated denarii of Nero see pp. 35 and 243 below.
NC 1940, p. 194, believed that we should regard plated coins as part of the governmental issues, and so apparently does Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, p. 201; but Mattingly BMCRE I, p. xlivf., is doubtful about their official origin. Sydenham, "On Roman Plated Coins," NC 1940, pp. 2ooff., thought the St. Swithin's Lane hoard was the product of a forger but that plated denarii were also produced by the mint. But NC 1968, pp. 55–59, argues convincingly against this, and shows that except in irregular coinages produced in periods of civil war, plated coins must have been forgeries.
The western aes of Nero falls into two basic types.
24
The first is characterized by a small globe at the point of Nero's bust on the obverse, and a characteristic M form of bust truncation (see Plates XIII, 432; XIV, 452). The style of portraiture of this group is quite distinctive and the varieties of obverse legend and reverse
The second type has no globe and a straighter form of bust termination (see Plate II, 71, 74). The style of portraiture is again distinct, and the analysis of well preserved coins enables us to establish the distinctive forms of obverse legends and reverse types that characterize this group (see Cat. 70–335).
The distribution of these two types in the years immediately after their issue is the basic evidence for the localization of the mints at which the two types were struck. It is not however sufficient merely to list the localities at which examples of each type are said to have been found, as this can sometimes obscure the original pattern of distribution. Single coins may have been lost at any time during the period of their continued circulation; and unusual types are liable to attract attention because they are unusual, whereas the ordinary pass unnoticed. It is therefore important to distinguish the quality of different categories of evidence, and to determine the general character of circulation in an area from the recurrent statistical pattern observed at a number of localities.
The best evidence consists of finds which accurately reflect currency circulating at a known point of time, because they can be given a secure
terminus ante quem
.
For regions where this quality of evidence is not available, some idea of distribution may be found by noting casual finds recorded in
So that appropriate weight can be given to each category of evidence, finds in the following paragraphs have been classified as:
A—A hoard or excavation finds with terminus ante quem of a.d. 80 or before.
B—The aggregate of coins from other excavations or deposits.
C—Casual finds.
D—Unprovenanced coins probably found locally.
For localities where there is adequate evidence from finds classified A and B, finds of other categories which cannot contribute anything further to the picture of distribution have not been cited. Where it is necessary to cite casual finds, the evidence of groups of coins which have greater statistical validity has been preferred to that of single finds.
Finds of sestertii, dupondii and asses in Britain, Upper and Lower
This section is intended merely to indicate the pattern of circulation for each locality—not to constitute an exhaustive list of finds. It would be possible to add further entries for many localities, but they could hardly affect very significantly the overall picture.
Crawford, "Plated Coins," pp. 56–57, shows that a plated Republican denarius in Hannover was struck from dies, mechanically copied from a pure silver coin.
Vermeule, Ancient Dies, pp. 29–30.
RN 1946, "Procès Verbaux," pp. ii–viii, though of course others too may have been "official" dies.
BMCRE I, p. clxiiif.
Cf. Finds of Greek Coins in the
Isles (Greek and Roman Coins and the Study of History (
NC 1903, pp. 99–102.
Totals from Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of A ntiquaries of London
, Nos. 6, 7, 10 and 16.
Now in Reading Museum.
Now in Rowley's House Museum, Shrewsbury.
Rep ResCommSocAntLond, no. 15.
Rep ResCommSocAntLond, no. 11.
NC 1841–42, pp. 147–168. The figures are for those coins now in the
NC 1864, pp. 216–23.
Ant J 1962, pp. 40–41.
Local finds in Rijksmuseum
BonnerJb 1904, pp. 263–67, and now republished by Novaesium III Die antiken Fundmünzen der Ausgrabungen in Neuss (
Bon ner Jb 1904, p. 450.
Information from Wilhelmina Hagen.
Information from Wilhelmina Hagen.
MainzerZ 1911, pp. 71–72; 1912, p. 84; 1913–14, p. 66; 1918, p. 25; 1929, pp. 66f.
Die Münzfunde von Vindonissa (
Bonner Jb 1897, pp. 89–91.
RBN 1956, pp. 55–80.
RN 1969, pp. 76–130.
St. Germain-en-Laye Musée.
Musée de Besançon. I am indebted to Lucien Lerat and Yves Jeannin for giving me detailed information about the coins in the Besançon Museum and their provenances.
Musée de Besançon.
J ahrbuch der Gesellschaft für lothringische Geschichte 1894, p. 322.
J bGeslothGesch 1899, p. 326.
Musée de Besançon.
Bulletin de la Société Archéologique de Sens 21 (1905), pp. 235–49.
NC 1967, pp. 43–46.
Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie, Sciences, Arts et Belles-lettres de la Mayenne, 1865, pp. 9ff, 32–36. Through the kindness of
Musée Départmental,
Musée Départmental,
Seen by NC 1955, pp. 21–37.
Cf. P. F. Fournier "Les travaux de 1956 au sommet du Puy de Dôme," Bulletin Historique et Scientifique de l'Auvergne 1956, pp. 196–201. Through the kindness of the late Mlle Fabre of the Bibliothèque Nationale, I have been permitted to examine this hoard, which has now been published by RN 1964, pp. 151–57.
P. F. Fournier, Bulletin Historique et Scientifique de l'Auvergne 1939, p. 3.
Hôtel de Ville, Saintes.
Le Musée, Poitiers.
Orange Musée from excavations in the theatre.
Vaison dans l'antiquite II (Avignon, 1926), pp. 78–79.
St. Remy-en-Provence Musée from Glanum, and Fouilles de Glanum.—Gallia Suppl. 1 (
Musée des Antiquités Nationale, St. Germain-en-Laye.
Vienne Musée.
Formerly in Maison Carrée,
Seen by
La Bibliothèque, Valence.
Münzkabinett,
Die Fundmünzen der Römischen Zeit in Deutschland 1962 (FMRD) I.7. Schwaben 7001.
FMRD I.7. Schwaben 7182.
H.-J. Kellner, Die römischen Fundmünzen auf dem nördlichen Teil von Rätien.
FMRD I.7. Schwaben 7044.
FMRD I.7. Schwaben 7069.
Vorarlberger Landesmuseum,
Landesmuseum für Kärnten, Klagenfurt.
Fundberichte aus Österreich II, p. 296.
Repertorium der steierischen Münzkunde II (
Repertorium II, pp. 12, 14–15.
Museum Lauriacum, Enns.
Museum Carnuntinum, Bad Deutsch Altenberg.
Sammlung Ludwigsdorff.
Pichler, Repertorium II, pp. 13–14.
Šime Ljubić, Popis Arkeologičkoga Odjela Nar. Zem. Muzeja u Zagrebu, pp. 132ff.
Pichler, Repertorium II, pp. 12–15.
1925/30 excavations in Forum, now in Museo Arqueológico,
Bolletino Arqueológico del Sudeste Español 2 (1945), p. 204.
Museo Arqueológico,
Felipe Mateu y Llopis, "Hallazgos Monetarios XII," No. 752, NumHisp 1955, pp. 130–31.
Mateu y Llopis, "Hallazgos Monetarios XII," No. 794, NumHisp 1955, p. 137.
Private coll., Santander.
Private coll., Santander.
Mateu y Llopis, "Hallazgos Monetarios VII," No. 600, NumHisp 1952, pp. 253–54.
Museo Arqueológico Provincial,
Museo Arqueológico Nacional,
Museo Arqueológico,
Now in Museo Arqueológico,
Casa da Moeda,
Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis,
Private coll.,
Annalen des Vereins für Nassauische A Itertumskunde 34 (1904), p. 27.
L. Jacoby, Das Römerkastell Saalburg bei Homburg, pp. 365ff.
Information from Wilhelmina Hagen.
AnnVerNassauAltertumskunde 26 (1896) and 37 (1907), pp. 4ff.
Mitteilungen über römische Funde in Heddernheim 3 (Frankfurt am Main, 1900), pp. 10–61 and 4 (1907), p. 54.
Der Obergermanisch-Rätische Limes 55 (
Funde römischer Münzen im Großherzogtum Baden 1 (Donaueschingen, 1887), p. 14, 35.
Der Obergermanisch-Rätische Limes 36 (1937), p. 22.
Der Obergermanisch-Rätische Limes 32 (Heidelberg, 1909).
Der Obergermanisch-Rätische Limes 18 (Heidelberg, 1903).
Bissinger, Baden, pp. 15–16 and (2nd ed.
Seen in trade by the author.
Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire 1964, pp. 51–90.
Nero's aes consisted of asses, semisses and quadrantes in copper, and of sestertii and dupondii in orichalcum, with a limited issue of asses, semisses and quadrantes also in orichalcum. Orichalcum was originally a natural alloy, but by the middle of the first century a.d. the Romans made the alloy artificially by heating copper in a bed of calamine. The raw materials needed for the aes coinages were thus ordinary copper, copper suitable for processing into orichalcum, and calamine needed for the processing.
The principal sources for copper in the middle of the first century a.d. were the imperial mines in 123
In
125
read in conjunction with the Lex Metalli Vipascensis
126
shows clearly that the copper, silver and iron mines in established mining districts of forma revised by Hadrian shows that the original of this lex must have been of earlier date. In Cyprus the mines seem to have been nationalized when the tribune Clodius annexed the island in 58 b.c.;
127
128
and the mines near Soli were still under state ownership when Galen visited them in the second century a.d.
129
Spanish copper, called "Marianum" or "Cordubense," was especially important for the coinage, as it readily absorbed calamine and reproduced the excellence of orichalcum in making sestertii and dupondii.
130
The extensive copper workings in Cyprus were apparently less highly valued once better copper (and orichalcum) had been found in other countries, but Pliny explicitly tells us that Cypriot copper was used for the production of asses.
131
There do not seem to have been any other important copper workings in the Roman Empire at this period. The copper from Livia's mine in Gaul had enjoyed a high reputation but the supply soon gave out;
132
Sallustius' copper from Haute-Savoie was highly esteemed "next to orichalcum," but supplies only lasted for a short time;
133
and although there were also Roman copper mines near 134
135
and although copper was worked further north during the Roman occupation at 136
these forward areas were not under secure Roman control during Nero's principate and can hardly have been sources for the copper required by the mint. Workings of copper in Upper and Lower 137
but the copper workings in the ancient mines at the mouth of the Ems
138
lay beyond Roman territory under Nero. Illyria provides hardly any evidence of Roman mining and Dacia was outside Roman control at this period. There were extensive ancient copper workings at Majdanpek in the mountains of 139
The principal sources of calamine, the second mineral required in the production of orichalcum,
140
are also mentioned by 141
a reference to the important mine at Stollberg which subsequently became the principal center of bronze production in the Empire.
142
These deposits were discovered some time between a.d. 57 and 77.
143
RIN 1897, p. 272.
From a group of coins in the Museo Nazionale, Naples.
Now in Muzeo Nazionale delle Terme,
Ostia Museum.
Excavations at Minturnae 1 (
Museo Capitolino,
Museo Archeologico,
NC 1970, pp. 96–97 and NC 1974, pp. 42–52.
Roman Mines in Europe (Oxford, 1935), p. 60; and Metallurgy in Antiquity (Mines, Isidore, Etym. 16. 20.3. A detailed explanation of the manufacture of orichalcum in Roman times is given in Earle Orichalcum and Related Ancient Alloys, ANSNNM 151 (
Davies, Mines, pp. 94 ff.
Tacitus, Annals vi, 19.
Fontes iuris romani antiqui (7th rev. ed. Tübingen, 1909), pp. 289–93. See also discussion of these documents in Frank, Survey III, pp. 167–74.
Dio 38.30.5.
Josephus, Antiquities 16.5.5.
Galen 9.214.
Pliny, NH 34.1.2: "Summa gloria nunc in Marianum conversa, quod et Cordubense dicitur. Hoc a Liviano cadmeam maxime sorbet et aurichalci bonitatem imitatur in sestertiis dupondiariisque."
Pliny, NH 34.2: "Cyprio suo assibus contentis."
Pliny, NH 34.1.
Pliny, NH 34.1.
CIL XIII, 2901.
BellGall v.12.4.
Davies, Mines, pp. 155ff.
Davies, Mines, pp. 177–78; the inscription CIL XIII, 4238 was found at Blauberg.
Davies, Mines, pp. 179f.
Davies, Mines, pp. 218ff.
Cf. note 131 above.
Pliny, NH 34.2.2.
Willers, "Neue Untersuchungen über die römische Bronze-Industrie von Capua und von Niedergermanien," Jahrbuch des provinzialen Museums zu Hannover 1906–7, p. 64.
Willers dates the discovery between a.d. 57, when a.d. 74.
Aes of the non-globe type circulated almost exclusively in tresviri monetales, which continues to be found on inscriptions down to the third century a.d.,
144
and in the series of mint inscriptions from 145
The city was the obvious center for supplying coinage to 146
) must have created a major demand for small change. In so far as the mint used freshly mined metal, there is no reason to doubt Pliny's statement that it used copper from Cyprus for its asses, and copper from 147
the alloy itself being made by heating the copper in a bed of calamine which presumably came from the 148
Aes of the globe type enjoyed an almost exclusive circulation in Gaul, Britain, the aes which circulated primarily in the same western provinces.
149
Sydenham
150
and Laffranchi
151
have suggested that "westernstyle" groups can be distinguished among the aes, although the detailed evidence of site finds has not yet been analyzed to settle finally whether or not their criteria are sound.
152
This mint seems to have been the successor to the mint at aes mint, in a perfectly safe area yet conveniently situated to supply the small change needed by the frontier armies of the Rhine, Britain and Upper Danube, and equally accessible to the principal sources of copper.
Under Nero freshly mined copper for the globe type sestertii and dupondii in orichalcum would almost certainly come from aes, Nero's mint was certainly not situated there. We have seen above that finds of Nero's aes are not common in aes of Nero's globe type. For similar reasons the Danubian provinces also can be excluded, and neither Britain nor
155
It lies at the center of the river communications of the country and had been made the center of Agrippa's road system. It was conveniently near the Rhine-Danube reentrant and all the normal routes from South 156
b.c., and signed them with the name of the town.
157
We have Strabo's explicit statement for the existence there of a mint for gold and silver under Tiberius.158 It was the mint which produced the extensive Altar series under 159
Its position as a mint city is further attested by several inscriptions from the immediate environs,
160
and by the presence of an urban cohort designated "ad monetam."
161
Under
162
a.d. 21 when Acilius Aviola used it to check the revolt of the Andecavi.
163
Cohort XVIII formed the garrison in 69
164
and I Flavia Urbana took its place by 73.
165
This 166
There is therefore good reason for attributing the globe type aes of the mid-first century to aes coinage of the Altar series.
167
F. Lenormant, La monnaie III, pp. 185 ff.
CIL VI, 42, 43, 44, 239, 791, 1145, 1607 etc.
Frank, Survey V, p. 140.
NH 34.1.2.
In "The Quality of Nero's Orichalchum,'' SM 1966, pp. 101-105, I have commented on the lower percentage of zinc in several of Nero's orichalcum coins of the non-globe mint, and suggested that many of the coins at
See BMC RE II, pp. lviii ff.
Sydenham, Nero, pp. 30–31 and "The Mint of NC 1917, pp. 82–83.
L. Laffranchi, "La monetazione imperatoria e senatoria di Claudio 1º durante il Quadriennio 41–44 d.º Cr.º," RIN 1949, pp. 41–48, though Laffranchi there suggests that the western European mint may be in
S. Jameson, "The Date of the Asses of M. Agrippa," NC 1966, pp. 95–124, on the other hand, argues that all three groups of Agrippa asses that she distinguishes were struck in
RIC, p. 91, nos. 359–371.
RIC, p. 130, nos. 70–71.
Strabo iv.6.11. Cf.
M. P. Charlesworth, Trade-routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire (2nd ed. Cambridge, 1926), pp. 183ff. and 192ff. H. R. W. Smith's objections in Problems Historical and Numismatic of the Reign of
sole gold and silver mint in the early empire; he did not attempt to deny that CIL XIII) greatly undermine the force of this point as do the extensive Roman quays along the river at Roman Gaul [
Sydenham, "NC 1917, p. 55.
Strabo 4.3.2.
Sydenham, NC 1917, p. 86.
CIL XIII, 1499, 1810, 1820
CIL XIII, 1499.
See BMCRE I Intro., and Sutherland Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy. For my objections to M. F. Grant's point of view in NC 1955, pp. 39–54 see p. 12 above.
Tacitus, Annals iii.41.
Tacitus, Histories i.64.
CIL XII, 2601.
See Mommsen in Hermes 16 (1881), p. 645, n. 4.
I have compared the relative proportion of altar to moneyers' and imperial aes under aes under Nero in finds from Gaul and NC 1967, pp. 43–47.
For the first ten years of Nero's principate the gold and silver struck at Plate I, 2) and the third with jugate busts of Nero and Agrippina (Plate I, 3).
In TRP II a new obverse type was introduced (Plate 1, 4) which remained basically unchanged throughout the rest of the dated gold and silver coinage. Its legend was NERO CAESAR AVG IMP, and Nero's head was shown facing right with the hair drawn down over his forehead. During the course of these dated issues slightly older portraits of Nero were gradually substituted, and in the issue of the ninth tribunician year Nero's hair was shown for the first time raised in tiers above his forehead, the "in gradus formata" style described by Suetonius.
1
The reverse type of both the aurei and the denarii dated TRP II was EX SC within an oak wreath, the corona civica, and an outside legend PONTIF MAX TRP II PP completed Nero's titles from the obverse. In this year there was a rare issue of gold quinarii with the usual quinarius reverse type of Victoria. The aurei and denarii dated TRP III, III and V retained the same obverse and reverse types and merely altered the tribunician year in the reverse legend. All coins dated TRP VI included in their reverse legend COS IIII Nero's fourth consulship which began January 1, 60.
2
In the issues dated TRP VII three new reverse types of Virtus, Ceres and Roma (Plate 1, 11, 12, 13) were introduced to replace that of the Corona Civica. Coins of the new Virtus and Ceres types seem to be far commoner than either the old Corona Civica or the
3
Indeed it is only when examples of the Corona Civica type and Roma type are taken together that their numbers equal those of either the Virtus or of the Ceres type dated TRP VII. It is interesting to note that the reverse legend of the Corona Civica type reads counterclockwise and so did that of the new Roma type, whereas the reverse legends of the Virtus and Ceres types read clockwise. This might possibly suggest that the new Virtus and Ceres types were introduced at the beginning of the year and struck alongside the Corona Civica types, and that the Roma type was introduced to replace the Corona Civica type later in the year. In the TRP VIII issue the three types of Virtus, Roma and Ceres were struck in both gold and silver; in the TRP VIIII issue all three types were again struck in gold, but Virtus and Roma alone in silver; in the TRP X issue only two types, Virtus and Roma, were struck, in both gold and silver.
4
Cat. 1–21, 35–53. Plate I.
Suetonius, Nero 51.
Degrassi, I fasti, p. 16.
The undated gold and silver is a coinage struck on a reduced weight standard, on which the portraits are all later than on the dated series. The legends NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS and NERO CAESAR, both of which lack the praenomen IMP, must belong to the period before mid-a.d. 66. No significant chronological distinction can however be drawn between these two forms. Except
Issue 1 of the undated gold and silver coinage on the reformed standard had the obverse legends NERO CAESAR, and NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS. In gold there were eight distinct reverse types:
The first six of these types were regularly struck in silver too during this issue; but while the types of Janus temple and of Concordia Augusta are known in silver, they are extremely rare, are not represented in hoards, and were certainly not substantive denarius types. In this we seem to have evidence of an initial production of gold in two reverse types (accompanied by a token emission of silver) continuing the "two reverse type" pattern of the gold in TRP X, before the productive capacity was expanded. Among the other aurei and denarii with this obverse legend, the reverse types of Jupiter Custos and Salus are by far the commonest. These two subsequently became the sole substantive reverse types in issues 2 and 3 a, and it seems fairly certain that they continued to be struck in Issue 1, after the other reverse types were discontinued. We can therefore distinguish three phases within the issue:
1a. Janus and Concordia types, with substantive issues of aurei (but accompanied by a token issue of denarii).
1b. The six reverse types of
1c. The continuing issue of Jupiter Custos and Salus types in both gold and silver.
Cat.
22–29, 54–61, PLATES I–II.
Issue 2 had the obverse legend IMP NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS. Its aurei were struck in two reverse types, Jupiter Custos and Salus, both of which were taken over directly from the preceding issue. Besides these two types of Jupiter Custos and Salus, the denarii also used the seated Roma type from the preceding issue, but it is extremely rare and cannot have been struck in any numbers.
Cat. 30, 31, 62–64. Plate II.
Issue 3 had the obverse legend IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PP. The aurei with this obverse legend continued to use the types of Jupiter Custos and Salus unchanged from the previous two issues. The denarii followed the aurei in using these two types, but they also had three further types which were struck solely in silver: a new anepigraphic type of an eagle between two standards and modified forms of both Salus and Roma types, now with their legends across the reverse field and not in the exergue. We can therefore distinguish two stages:
3a. Aurei and denarii with the reverse types of Jupiter Custos and Salus continued without change from Issues 1 and 2.
Cat. 32, 33, 65, 66. Plate II.
3b. Denarii alone in two substantive types of Salus with its legend across the field rather than in the exergue and of the new eagle and standards.
Cat. 67–69. Plate II.
Throughout Nero's reign the issues of gold and silver ran closely parallel to each other; but a number of minor discrepancies between them clearly suggests that the denarii were in fact struck immediately
The relative proportion of the aureus types in TRP VII can be seen in the numbers represented in the large hoard from Pudukota (NC 1898, pp. 304–20); in other hoards which contain aurei of Nero TRP VII from Pompeianarum Antiquitatum Historia I.3 [Naples, 1860], pp. 250–51); Opgravingen op het dompe in te Utrecht
1934, pp. 49ff.); Pontalbon (
For a list of these varieties under Nero see the catalogue below.
It is important to distinguish from the main series a group of unofficial plated denarii,
5
as the inclusion of some of these in older catalogues has tended to obscure the pattern of the silver issues. These plated forgeries are known in both the dated and the undated series. The obverse and reverse types were almost always those used for the regular denarii. Their dies were often in quite good style and may sometimes have been official dies illegally appropriated from the mint; but the forgers did not hesitate to use obverse and reverse dies in combinations that were quite unknown on the regular coinage. One plated denarius muled an obverse of Nero with the common PONTIF MAXIM reverse type of 6
For a fuller discussion of Nero's plated denarii see Chapter 2 and its references.
The varieties of plated denarii bearing Nero's titulature are listed on p. 243.
The aes of Nero without SC has long been a puzzle. Recent research has thrown considerable doubt on the older view that down to the time of Gallienus the Roman Imperial coinage was controlled by a dyarchy of Senate and Emperor, and that SC and its absence denoted the product of a Senatorial and Imperial mint respectively.
1
It has become increasingly plain that the distinction was rather one of form than of final intent.
2
Nonetheless SC was given a prominent place on the aes coinage of the Julio-Claudian period and Nero was the first emperor to omit it from any considerable number of his bronze and copper coins, an omission which is the more remarkable in view of the way he introduced a special senatorial reference EXSC on the gold and silver at the beginning of his principate.
3
A careful examination and analysis of the coins which seem to lack SC enables us to define more closely the range and scope of the issues which genuinely omitted it. When worn and tooled examples are excluded, it is clear that the aes is invariably the product of the mint of
The earliest group consists of asses in copper without SC of the Apollo and Genius reverse types. All the copper asses of these types at the mint of
Cat. 242
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head bare r.
Rev.: Nero laureate in flowing robes of Apollo Citharoedus walking r., l. holding lyre, r. playing it. No legend or SC.
Plate IX
Cat. 243
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head bare r.
Rev.: As 242.
Cat. 244
Obv.: As 221 but head bare l.
Rev.: As 243.
Cat. 245
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP Head bare r.
Rev.: As 242.
Cat. 246
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC Head bare r.
Rev.: As 242 but with legend PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP
Plate IX
Cat. 247
Obv.: As 246 but head bare l.
Rev.: As 246.
Cat. 248
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMAN Head bare r.
Rev.: As 246.
Cat. 249
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMA
Head bare r.
Rev.: As 246.
Cat. 250
Obv.: As 249 but head bare l.
Rev.: As 246.
Plate IX
Cat. 251
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head bare l.
Rev.: GENIO AVGVSTI
Genius standing l. by lighted altar, holding patera and cornucopiae.
Cat. 252
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head bare r.
Rev.: As 251.
Cat. 253
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP P Head bare r.
Rev.: As 251.
Cat. 254
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP Head bare r.
Rev.: As 246.
Cat. 255
Obv.: As 254.
Rev.: As 251.
Plate IX
18
but they are undoubtedly copper asses. Specimens which are not patinated have the normal red color of copper, and spectrographic analysis has confirmed this for the British Museum example. (Nero's dupondii at both
The Apollo and Genius copper asses without SC are thoroughly Roman in style and undoubtedly circulated in the neighborhood of 19
Information about coin finds in the western provinces
20
The issue of these copper asses was not especially small. I have found 34 obverse dies used in conjunction with five reverse dies of the anepigraphic Apollo type, 8 of the GENIO AVGVSTI, and 19 of the Apollo PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP type. There are very few die links and none which connects different forms of obverse legend or different reverse types; pieces from identical dies are comparatively unusual; and there are almost as many obverse as reverse dies.
The evidence of portraiture shows conclusively that the copper asses without SC were struck before the ordinary copper asses of the mint of 21
the hair is always "in gradus formata."
22
It is distinctly raised from his forehead and all the curls fringing the forehead as far back as the ear are shown with this forward curve. The portrait is close to that on the aurei and denarii dated TRP VIII and VIIII (a.d. 61/62 to 62/63)
23
and probably not so late as on those dated TRP X (a.d. 63/64).
24
The treatment of the rest of the hair has many points of contact with the later dated aurei and denarii. It is generally flat,
25
sometimes with a striking zonal treatment with thick rope-like strands.
26
This seems inspired by the dated gold and silver of a.d. 61/62 to a.d. 63/64
27
but is less advanced than the spirited rendering of the earliest undated gold
28
or the copper asses with SC.
29
The bust truncation often has, in
30
the characteristic form of the dated gold and silver.
31
These copper asses without SC, moreover, clearly preceded the orichalcum As series with the same reverse types of Genius and Apollo (both with and without SC). There is a striking development of portraiture within the orichalcum As series,
32
but no comparable progression in the issue of copper asses without SC; and although the copper asses have many portraits that are quite close to those on the earlier orichalcum asses, they show nothing comparable to the later orichalcum portraits. The characteristic bust truncation of the dated aurei and denarii can be seen on several copper asses, but where there are traces in the orichalcum series it is only present in a residual and minor degree. The treatment of the hair on the orichalcum asses is generally in higher relief and shows more naturalism; and aes production some time after the mint of 33
Cf. Michael Grant, From Imperium to Auctoritas (Cambridge, 1946), p. 121.
H. Mattingly, The Emperor and His Clients (Todd Memorial Lecture,
Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, pp. 152 ff.
BMCRE I, pl. 48, 6.
BMCRE I, pl. 44, 10.
F. Gnecchi, I Medaglioni Romani (
Anne S. Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet I (
RIN 1913, p. 22 and pl. 1, 4.
Found in the Tiber, now in the Terme Museum,
BMCRE I, pl. 44, 7.
Bought in
BMCRE I, pl. 44, 9.
BMCRE I, pl. 44, 8.
RIN 1913, pp. 21 f., and pl. 1, 4.
RIC Hunter I, pl. 22, 72.
Probably found in
Found during excavations in RIN 1909, p. 20, 5, and Gnecchi, Medaglioni, pl. 141, 10.
RIC I, p. 171.
Cat. 246, 248, 252.
Copper asses of the Apollo and Genius' types have frequently been found in the western provinces, but they are the product of the distinctive
Plate IX, 242, 246, 255.
Suetonius, Nero 51.
Plate I, 8, 14, 19.
Plate I, 20.
Plate IX, 242–55.
E.g. Plate IX, 242.
Plate I, 14, 19, 20.
Plate I, 22 ff.
Plates X, 278; XI, 283–301.
The parallel issue of copper semisses without SC consists of the following:
Cat. 303
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r.
Rev.: No legend. Roma helmeted and draped seated l. on cuirass, r. holding wreath and resting l. hand on parazonium.
Cat. 304
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC Head laur. r.
Rev.: As 303 but with legend PON MAX TRP IMP PP
Plate XII
Cat. 305
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM Head laur. r.
Rev.: As 304.
Cat. 306
Obv.: As 303.
Rev.: CERTAMEN QVINQ ROM CO
Gaming table ornamented by two griffins. On it, urn l. and wreath r. Against its central leg rests a round shield.
Cat. 307
Obv.: As 303.
Rev.: As 306 but CERTAM QVINQ ROM CO
Plate XII
These copper semisses without SC are easily distinguished from the normal orichalcum semisses at 41
Nero's hair is always shown "in gradus," but sometimes the tier is only at its first stage and has not been formalized into the distinctive forward curving arch.
42
The influence of the dated gold and silver
43
can usually be detected in the bust truncation and sometimes Nero's head is small and fails to make full use of the obverse field within the legend.
44
A further indication of their approximately contemporary date is given by two overstrikes in the British Museum
45
and in Stockholm. Both seem to be copper asses of Nero without SC overstruck by the same pair of dies. In each case the reverse overstriking die is of the Genius type used for asses without SC, and the obverse overstriking die is of the type used at 46
and implied that it belonged to the opening phase of the new mint. He wrote 'The obverse die is very small and the head is in the Roman style: the reverse is of normal size and of
Mattingly's attribution to 47
He did not realize that there was a series of copper asses at
Nero instituted the Certamen Quinquennale in a.d. 60,
48
but that date merely gives a terminus post quem for the certamen semisses; and the use of the type was not restricted to the years in which the certamen was celebrated.
49
Plate IX, 242–55.
Plate I, 2–19.
Plate X, 260–76.
See below p. 99.
RIN 1913, p. 22 and pl. 1, 3.
RIC Hunter I, pl. 22, 82.
BMCRE I, pl. 45, 4.
Gnecchi, Medaglioni, pl. 141, 12.
The weight of this and of the seven following examples are given by G. Elmer, "Die Kleinkupferprägung von NZ 1934, p. 20.
BMCRE I, pl. 45, 3.
The weights of this and of the two following examples are given by Elmer, NZ 1934, P. 20.
Plate IX, 242–55.
The semisses Ars Classica Sale xv, 1438, and BM 259 cited above.
Plate I, 19–20.
As the semis BM 259 (BMCRE I, pl. 45, 3).
Plate XXII, a.
BMCRE I, p. 273, 372 and note.
BMCRE I, p. 243, note*.
Tacitus, Annals XIV. 20.
See my note, "The Numismatic Evidence for the Neronia." Classical Quarterly 1958, pp. 192–94.
The parallel issue of copper quadrantes without SC consists of the following:
Cat. 336
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM
A helmet placed r. on column; against the cippus rests round shield; behind, spear slanting upward to r.
Rev.: PON M TR P IMP PP
A laurel branch.
Cat. 337
50
Obv.: As 336 but legend NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG
Rev.: As 336 but legend GER PON MAX TRP IMP PP
Plate XII
The coin in the Capitol Museum came from excavations in a.d. 66. The pattern of their issues generally shows the same development as that of the asses at
Gnecchi, Medaglioni, pl. 142, 3.
The second group of aes without SC consisted of sestertii, dupondii, laureate and radiate head asses and quadrantes, all in orichalcum. The different denominations of this group seem to belong to the same general period, and to have been struck fairly soon after the issue of asses and semisses without SC in copper.
An examination of the dies of the sestertii without SC has made it possible to define far more clearly the extent of the group. It is necessary, of course, to exclude all sestertii on which the letters SC have been deliberately tooled out and those where the SC may have disappeared through wear and corrosion. Among the sestertii that seem genuinely to omit SC, it is usually possible to substantiate the same reverse die from several coins, none of which has any trace at all of SC. Several of these reverse dies belong to a die-linked chain in which all the reverse dies similarly omit SC. There is inevitably an element of uncertainty when a reverse die without SC is known merely from a single coin and is not die-linked to other sestertii without SC; but dies of all the main reverse types of sestertii omitting SC—Adlocutio, Annona, Congiarium and Decursio (showing Nero riding right accompanied by two foot soldiers)—are firmly placed in die-linked groups.
Cat. 70
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r. aegis.
Rev.: ADLOCVT COH (in exergue)
Nero standing l. on platform accompanied by praetorian prefect, addressing three soldiers, two of whom hold standards.
Cat. 71
Obv.: As 70.
Rev.: ANNONA AVGVSTI CERES
Ceres seated l. holding torch and ears of corn; before her Annona standing holding a cornucopiae.
Plate II
Cat. 72
Obv.: As 70.
Rev.: CONG II DAT POP
To l., a high platform on which Nero sits; in front, a seated official distributes largess to man ascending ladder.
Cat. 73
Obv.: As 70.
Rev.: CONG II DAT POP
To r. a low platform on which Nero sits l.; beside him, the prefect standing; in front, soldier distributes largess to a citizen.
Cat. 74
Obv.: As 70.
Rev.: DECVRSIO (in exergue)
Nero on horseback galloping r., preceded and followed by a foot soldier.
Plate II
Cat. 75
Obv.: As 70.
Rev.: DECVRSIO (in exergue)
Nero on horseback galloping r. followed by horseman holding vexillum.
Cat. 76
Obv.: As 70 but head laur. l.
Rev.: As 70.
Plate II
Cat. 77
Obv.: As 76.
Rev.: As 71.
Cat. 78
Οbν.: As 76.
Rev.: As 74.
Plate III
Cat. 79
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r. aegis.
Rev.: As 74.
Cat. 80
Obv.: As 79.
Rev.: As 75.
Cat. 81
Obv.: As 79 but head laur. l.
Rev.: As 70.
Cat. 82
Obv.: As 81.
Rev.: As 72 but CONG II DAT POP R
Cat. 83
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r.
Rev.: As 74.
Most of the sestertii without SC are unprovenanced, although one of the DECVRSIO type showing Nero accompanied by two foot soldiers was found at Ostia.
54
There is, however, no doubt from general considerations of their style and idiom that they were products of the mint of
The condition and state of wear of several pieces clearly show that the group passed into general circulation as ordinary sestertii, whatever the original purpose of the issue had been.
The reverse types of these sestertii without SC were all early types at the mint of a.d. 66 when Nero took the praenomen "imperator" into his titulature.
Fig. 1. Sestertii Without SC Rome Issue II
Sestertii without SC nearly always had the comparatively rare forms of obverse legend: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP and NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP
The most common form of obverse legend on SC sestertii without the praenomen IMP at the Roman mint: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP occurs only once, and the fairly common form: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP is never found on sestertii that omit SC.
The portraits on the sestertii without SC are invariably early for the aes, but seem to be closer to the orichalcum asses without SC than to that of the copper asses without SC. The obverse portraits in right profile always showed Nero's hair "in gradus formata," sometimes in a pronounced forward arch, but at other times with the front curl bending upward back over itself in a less advanced way.
55
Some obverse dies showed Nero's hair in thick rope-like strands, a treatment closely paralleled in the obverse of an orichalcum As without SC.
Sometimes the engraver did not make full use of the field for his obverse portrait; and sometimes the letters of the obverse legend were badly spaced and crowded at the end. This strongly suggests the product of an engraver unaccustomed to work in the dimensions of a sestertius die and with no satisfactory models to copy. One obverse die used with two reverse dies omitting SC was also used on a uniface piece.
56
All this very strongly suggests an early place in Nero's aes issues.
The weight standard of these sestertii without SC affords further evidence of their early date. The sestertius standard dropped steadily during the later Julio-Claudian period. The weights of the sestertii without SC cover a fairly wide range but fall between 26 and 28.5 gm., below the main Claudian range (28 to 30.5 gm.) and above Nero's sestertii with the praenomen IMP (24.5 to 26 gm.), but in the upper reaches of Nero's main sestertius series with SC at 57
RIC Hunter I, pl. 21, 55.
BMCRE I, pl. 42, 5.
BMCRE I, pl. 48, 3.
Now in the Museum at Ostia. There are no signs of SC on its reverse. Although the coin is somewhat corroded it almost certainly never had SC, as sestertii of this type without SC are not uncommon whereas those with SC are extremely rare.
Plate II, 71.
Helbing Sale October 24, 1927, 3429.
See table of sestertius weights, Appendix II, Table 5.
The parallel issue of dupondii without SC is known from the following:
Cat. 177
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head bare r.
Rev.: VICTORIA AVGVSTI No SC or mark of value.
Victoria draped, flying l., r. holding wreath, l. a palm.
Plate V
Cat. 178
Obv.: As 177 but head bare l.
Rev.: As 177.
Cat. 179
Obv.: As 177 but head laur. r.
Rev.: As 177.
Plate VI
Cat. 180
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r.
Rev.: No legend, SC or mark of value.
Front view of Macellum Magnum.
Plate VI
Plate VI
Cat. 181
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 177.
Plate VI
Cat. 182
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP P Head rad. l.
Rev.: As 177.
Cat. 183
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head rad. l.
Rev.: SECVRITAS AVGVSTI No SC or mark of value.
Securitas std. r. on throne, l. holding sceptre, r. elbow resting on back of throne.
Plate VI
Cat. 184
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP P Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 180.
Plate VI
Plate VI
Cat. 185
Obv.: As 184.
Rev.: As 177.
Plate VII
Cat. 186
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 180.
Plate VII
Cat. 187
Obv.: As 186.
Rev.: As 183.
Plate VII
Cat. 188
Obv.: As 186.
Rev.: As 177.
Plate VII
There is no evidence from site finds to establish the areas in which the dupondii without SC circulated, but their affinities of type and style clearly show that they were the product of the mint of
The VICTORIA AVGVSTI type shows victory flying left (with no indication of a ground line) holding a wreath and a palm and with her right leg well forward and clear of her drapery.
63
This is the representation of victory to left which was invariably used in the normal SC dupondius series at 64
The 65
SECVRITAS AVGVSTI is represented in two distinct ways on the dupondii without SC. Sometimes she is fully draped in a thin chiton, the presence of which can easily be seen, even on worn specimens, by the folds of its overlap.
66
On others she is shown naked to the waist, round which her garments are drawn in heavy folds.
67
Both representations were used on SC dupondii at 68
but only the first was employed at
On the anepigraphic Macellum dupondii the steps are always shown inside a regular rectangular encasement, and the steps themselves are flanked at each side by an unmistakable baluster.
69
In slightly varied forms this was the regular representation of the steps at 70
At 71
The position of the balusters was still indicated, but the engravers seem to have lost all clear idea of their function.
On the dupondii without SC seven of the ten obverse dies show Nero's head radiate. In the main SC series
The portraits on the dupondii without SC are the youngest ones on that denomination under Nero. They all show Nero's hair "in gradus formata" along the whole line of his forehead and must be
72
The two laureate heads retain a zonal treatment of the hair similar to that on the copper asses without SC; the bare head has many points in common with that issue; and the radiate heads are generally close to the portraits on the sestertii without SC. On all the obverse dies there are distinct traces of the lingering influence of the old bust truncation of the dated aurei and denarii.
73
The metal in every case seems to be the normal orichalcum, which was used for the main SC dupondius series, and spectrographic analysis has confirmed this for the pieces in the 74
The weight range of the later dupondii with SC alone is slightly lower again than that of dupondii with SC and the mark of value īī. There is evidence of a rise in the value of orichalcum in these years, and during the issue of orichalcum asses there was a marked lowering of the weight standard, later portraits always occurring on asses of lower weight. The natural explanation of the slightly higher weight range of the dupondii without SC, is that they are slightly earlier than the main Roman issue with SC and the mark of value īī. Mattingly's figure of 18.46 gm. (284.86 grains) as the average weight of 5 dupondii without SC seems to be an unfortunate misprint.
75
His average is considerably higher than the individual weights of any of the five coins which he can have used. The average of the three pieces described in the Catalogue is 16.47 gm.; and if we
Equally significant are the reverse types. Dupondii without SC never have the praenomen imperator
76
themselves, nor are the same types subsequently used in an SC series with the praenomen. This is further evidence that these types are indeed the early dupondius types of the mint of
BMCRE I, pl. 43, 6.
BMCRE I, pl. 43, 7.
BMCRE I, pl. 44, 3.
RIC Hunter I, pl. 22, 64.
Gnecchi, Medaglioni, pl. 142, 4.
Plate VI, 181.
Plate VII, 205.
Plate XV, 495.
Plate VI, 183.
Plate VII, 187.
Plate VII, 198.
Plate VI, 180.
Plate VIII, 207.
Plate XIV, 490, 493.
Plate XIV, 490 ff.
Plate I, 19 –20.
See table of dupondius weights Appendix II, Table 5.
BMCRE I, p. iv.
Closely associated with the other orichalcum denominations without SC are the orichalcum asses without SC:
Cat. 257
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS Head laur. r.
Rev.: PONTIF MAX TR POT IMP PP No SC or mark of value. Nero laur. advancing r. in the flowing robes of Apollo citharoedus, l. hand holding a lyre and r. playing it.
Plate IX
Plate X
Plate X
Cat. 258
Obv.: As 257.
Rev.: GENIO AVGVSTI No SC or mark of value.
Genius standing l.; l. holding cornucopiae, r. patera.
Plate X
Cat. 259
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 257.
Cat. 260
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANIC
Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 257.
Plate X
Cat. 261
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP Head rad. r.
Rev.: As 258.
Plate X
Fig. 2. Orichalcum Asses Without SC Rome Issue II
The laureate head asses without SC
78
constitute a closely dielinked group. The radiate head asses without SC
79
are not linked with this group but seem to be associated closely with it. As a group, the orichalcum asses without SC follow the copper asses without SC and precede the main issue of orichalcum asses with SC and the mark of value ī. The stage of their development is shown by the advance in treatment between A341 and A342, two die-linked obverse dies. A341 still shows Nero's hair in strong rope-like strands as on some of the copper asses without SC. But A342,
80
while not much more developed in age, heralds the new approach of the main aes series
81
in its careful rendering of Nero's curls.
During the course of the main series of orichalcum asses with SC and ī there was a reduction in the weight standard of the denomination, and coins of lower weight are invariably found with the later portraits. Plotted against the weights of the main series, the orichalcum asses without SC are all comparatively high, and must belong to the period before the weight standard was reduced.
82
As with the other denominations, the combined evidence of portraiture and weight suggests clearly that the orichalcum asses without SC preceded the main series.
It is interesting to note that the group without SC seems to be quite separate from the main issue with SC and ī; and no die links have yet been noted between the two groups. Quite a number of coins, however, were struck without SC,
83
and some obverse dies remained in use after the development of a die flaw. The flaw in A343 can be seen clearly on the example in Copenhagen and at a later stage on the coins in the BM, 84
The flaw which can be seen on the coins in
The praenomen was assumed during TRP XII (a.d. 66/67) and regularly used thereafter by Nero; see pp. 4–7.
RIC Hunter I, pl. 22, 65.
Plate X, 257–58.
Plate X, 260, 261.
Plate X, 257.
Plate X, 262, 267.
The rare quadrantes in orichalcum without SC and without any mark of value should also be attributed to this second group:
Cat. 338
Obv.: NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG GER
Helmet placed r. on column; against the cippus rests a round shield; behind, spear slanting upward to r.
Rev.: PON M TRP IMP PP
Laurel branch.
Plate XII
Cat. 339
Obv.: As 338 but legend NERO CLA CAE AVG GERM
Rev.: As 338 but legend PM TR P IMP PP
Cat. 340
Obv.: As 338 but legend NERO CLA CAE AVG GER
Rev.: As 339.
Cat. 340a
Obv.: Nero-Owl NERO CL CAE AVG GER
Rev.: As 339.
ANS
See Appendix II, Table 7, table of orichalcum as weights.
Altogether 5 obverse and 12 reverse dies have been noted.
Plate X, 260.
Various explanations have been offered for Nero's aes without SC. Gnecchi regarded them as medallions; Grant has called them forerunners of medallions; and Mattingly and Sydenham have suggested that some are patterns for the
Gnecchi's
85
view is: 1) the pieces can be distinguished from the senatorial issues only by the lack of SC; 2) the omission of SC shows them to be products of the imperial mint; 3) in this respect they are prototypes of imperial medallions
86
and were given to the people on the occasion of congiaria, feasts, games, etc.
Gnecchi started from the assumption that the mint was basically divided into a senatorial officina issuing bronze and an imperial one which issued gold and silver; and his description of the aes without SC as "imperial" presupposes the old dyarchic constitutional theory, which the researches of recent historians have done much to undermine.
87
Gnecchi's suggestion that the coins without SC were given
aes without SC was given on these occasions. Indeed other considerations make it most unlikely that this was its purpose under Nero. Coins without SC are found in all denominations down to semisses and quadrantes. It is difficult to see the point of presentation farthings! Although aes was issued at a.d. 57,
88
long before Nero began to issue aes either with or without SC.
Grant
89
has modified this view to avoid some of Gnecchi's worst difficulties. While he only discusses the dupondii in detail, he apparently intends his explanation to cover all the denominations of Nero without SC. He claims that these dupondii are distinguished from the ordinary series by other features than the mere omission of SC: 1) they are extremely rare, "Such aes issues apart from the omission of SC are usually identical in type, and (as analysis has now shown) alloy, with further aes pieces which were clearly issued in millions [sic]. Thus dupondii with the present type [VICTORIA AVGVSTI] and SC are very common indeed, and must have been issued in enormous quantities (at more than one mint), … whereas the coin illustrated here [VICTORIA AVGVSTI] without SC is of considerable rarity;" 2) the weights of pieces without SC are considerably higher. Grant quotes the average weight of dupondii at
These unorthodox features, Grant claims, justify the description of ''pre-medallions"—a term which he applies to other coins of limited circulation. Finally he suggests an occasion for their issue which avoids the difficulties to which Gnecchi's view gave rise, by connecting them with the decennalia of Nero and the fiftieth anniversary of the death of
Grant's account of the additional features which distinguish the dupondii without SC is, however, open to serious objections. Dupondii without SC are undoubtedly rare, but Grant overstates their rarity in comparison with dupondii of the same type with SC. The dupondii without SC were struck at
Grant's strongest argument should be the completely different weight standard which he claims for the dupondii without SC. But his figures are based on those given by Mattingly which, are at least 34 grains too high—the result, apparently, of a misprint.
90
As has been indicated, the weight range of Nero's dupondii without SC is virtually the same as that of the pieces of Claudius, and only slightly higher than the earliest group of Neronian dupondii with SC and the mark of value īī. There is in fact a considerable overlap; their weights do not remove the dupondii without SC into a category apart; and the slight difference merely indicates a slightly earlier date for their issue.
Grant's third distinctive feature is "a superiority, or at any rate a distinctiveness, of portraiture and of style." But equally fine portraits of equally fine style can be seen in many coins of the main dupondius series with SC, and thus style here is not in itself a sufficient criterion. There is indeed a distinctiveness about some of the portraits, but this is probably due to the slightly earlier and experimental nature of the pieces.
The only differentiating features, then, which it seems can legitimately be ascribed to the dupondii without SC are a comparative rarity, a slightly higher weight range than the normal dupondii, and a certain distinctiveness in portraiture. Only the last two represent an advance on Gnecchi's position, and they hardly justify more than the assertion that the coins are slightly earlier than the main series with SC. It is still possible to assert, as Gnecchi did, that they are precursors of medallions, but the only reason that can legitimately be offered is that they lack SC.
Mattingly has suggested of these coins without SC, that "some of them were patterns for the 91
The last group has been rigorously excluded; the difficulties in regarding any of the coins as presentation pieces have been discussed above; and an analysis of the aes without SC leaves little ground for supposing that any of them was used as a pattern by the reconstituted
The principal forms of legend on the aes without SC were used exclusively at the mint of
The copper asses and semisses without SC show Nero's head bare, as do the copper asses and semisses at
The characteristic forms of reverse type on the aes without SC were all subsequently used in the series with SC at Plate II, 74; III, 78) but never at Plate XIV, 490, 493; XVI, 501) always had the legend MAC AVG, whereas that of the issue without SC was anepigraphic (Plate VI, 180, 184; VII, 186).
As both the groups of aes without SC preceded the main aes issues at aes without SC constituted two small issues.
The explanations of Gnecchi, Grant and Mattingly are all based on the assumption that S(enatus) C(onsulto) means 'struck by order of the Senate" and seek to explain how Nero's aes without SC could have been struck without this authorization. But in a recent study Kraft
92
has questioned the validity of this assumption. He notes that by the 6o's b.c. there was a clear and specific relation between SC and the type of the coins on which SC is found, that there was a personalized application of these new principles in Octavian's favor. He asks why SC is found regularly on the aes of the Augustan moneyers but not on their gold and silver, unless SC refers specifically to the type content of the aes. He analyzes the few issues of aes of the Julio-Claudians that lack SC, such as the SPQR OB CIVES SERVATOS SPQR MEMORIAE AGRIPPINAE and EXSC corona civica
aes lay in the honors with which it was associated, not in the authorization as such of the coinage; and he concludes that SC means "honour in the form of the corona civica, etc., bestowed on the Emperor by decree of the Senate."
Kraft's arguments seem to be heavily supported for the Augustan period by Sutherland's further study of the symbolism of the aes coinages of aes of the reopened mint of 94
It is particularly difficult to accept Kraft's thesis for the varied reverse types of the later Julio-Claudian coinages. During this period, some reverse types have a specifically senatorial reference relating to the type such as DIVO AVGVSTO SPQR on the sestertii of aes denominations normally had the senatorial reference whatever their reverse types might be; and the gold and silver never had the senatorial references SC even when it used the same types as the aes. Under Claudius, for example, CONSTANTIAE AVGVSTI is used as a type on all three metals, but only the aes uses the type with SC. Again in
aes denominations use the types with SC.
95
In this important respect the aes denominations are differentiated sharply from the gold and silver. If there is no other senatorial reference arising out of the type, the aes denominations deliberately introduce a reference to the Senate in the form of SC.
The notable exception is the aes of Nero without SC. The reverse types of these issues: Adlocutio, Annona, Congiarium and Decursio on the sestertii; Macellum, Securitas and Victoria on the dupondii; Apollo and Genius on the asses; aes issues with the same types.
We can therefore accept Kraft's view about the original significance of SC under 96
of Kraft—that there was subsequently a change of use and the original reference of the SC may itself have been ambiguous. There is still a "concordia" of emperor and senate, but it is not only the general concordia expressed by the grant of the civic oak, but a more special concordia concerned with the issue of token coinage.
This does not however mean a return to the old view that SC appears by right, and is proof of the Senate's authority to issue aes at 97
Quite apart from Kraft's objections, there are several other indications that the senatorial reference on the aes was one of courtesy alone, and not of specific right. Perhaps the most significant is the fact that under Nero at least if not previously, the aes seems to have been struck in officinae that were at other times engaged in the production of gold and silver.
98
The imperial character of the aes with SC is underlined in other ways. On the restored aes
99
the formula always referred directly to the act of the Emperor in restoring the pieces though SC was generally appended. Many validating countermarks were decidedly imperial:
100
AVG; IMP; IMP AVG; TIB; NCAPR; ΓΑΛΒΑ; the 101
or Titus' ANNONA AVG
102
warranted the complete omission of any reference to the Senate, although the pieces clearly belonged to the same mint as the rest of the aes. The reverse type of SC inside a wreath is regularly used on the aes issues of Antioch on the Orontes
103
in the chief imperial province of the east, and its reference must still be to the Roman Senate. Nero's western aes struck in an imperial province at 104
and so too were the issues of Galba in 105
The prominence given to SC certainly decreased markedly during the Julio-Claudian period. Whereas the
Nero's aes without SC was the first aes to be struck at a.d. 63/64, shortly before he dropped the complimentary EXSC from the gold and silver and at a time when his relations with the senate had become considerably strained should, I believe, be regarded as a deliberate and calculated attempt to abandon a complimentary formula the reality of which had disappeared and the importance of which had considerably waned.
On Nero's gold and silver there is a comparable development. The issues of a.d. 54/55 to 59/60 have the type of the corona civica and the senatorial reference EXSC (Plate I, 2, 4, 10). The formula continues when the types are changed to Ceres, a.d. 60/61 (Plate I, 11–14, 19, 20) but it is ultimately dropped in the reformed issues from a.d. 64 onward (Plate I, 22ff.). Kraft refers EXSC to the type, the corona civica, and when the type is changed he regards the continued use of EXSC as a "vestigial organ." Mattingly inverts the argument and suggests that EXSC cannot refer only to the corona civica because of its persistence when the new types were introduced. He sees a deliberate ambiguity suggesting "civilitas"—that the Senate had some part in the dated gold and silver issues. The distinction is a fine one, but the point is clear. A senatorial reference derived in part from the type persists as a complimentary reference when the type is changed, and is ultimately dropped. It is dropped about the same time as the issues of Nero's earliest aes—the two issues that omit SC.
Issue I of Nero's aes, the first complete aes issue in a range of types to omit SC during the Julio-Claudian period, consisted of copper asses and semisses—denominations which were indistinguishable from those already in circulation, and in which the only innovation was the omission of the traditional senatorial reference. But Issue II, similarly without SC, made a drastic break with previous
aes denominations. This was closely followed by Issue III which struck the same range of denominations in orichalcum with the same range of reverse types, but now had SC on all denominations and marks of value on the dupondii, asses, semisses and quadrantes. All the later issues of Nero's aes at both aes seems to be occasioned by a need to associate the Senate with the new and unfamiliar monetary system. It is probably no coincidence that SC was restored to Nero's aes in the same issue as the marks of value were introduced.
Gnecchi, Medaglioni, pp. xxxii ff.
Gnecchi, Medaglioni p. xxxiii defines medallions as "i pezzi scelti in ogn; metallo emissi all infuori o al disopra semplice ed ordinaria monetazione."
Cambridge Ancient History X, 5.
Tacitus, Annals xiii 31; Suetonius, Nero 10; cf. Denis van Berchem Les distributions de blé et d'argent à la plèbe romaine sous l'empire (Geneva, 1939), pp. 148–49.
Roman Imperial Money (Roman Medallions, NS 5 (
See above p. 59.
BMCRE I, Intro., p. 1.
Konrad Kraft, "S(enatus) C(onsulto)," JNG 1952, pp. 7–49.
Aes Coinages under RN 1965, pp. 94–109.
Aase Bay, "The Letters SC on Augustan Aes Coinage, JRS 1972, pp. 111–22.
RIC Claudius, 1–7 for the aurei and denarii; 68 for the asses. See Cat. 25f. (aurei), 56f. (denarii), 129ff. (sestertii), 196ff. (dupondii).
NC 1963, pp. 255–56.
As in Mattingly's earlier view, in BMCRE I, p. xvi "the control was certainly given to the Senate as witness its imposing mark of authority SC."
See Chapter 8.
BMCRE II, pp. 281 ff. A common form of legend is IMP T VESP AVG REST SC.
BMCRE I, pp. xxxviii–xliii.
BMCRE I Caligula, 33ff. Other than the pattern type Numa head asses of BMCRE I 28), these sestertii of Gaius were the only aes before Nero that omitted all reference to the Senate. They are not different in style from the normal sestertii of Caligula with SC and must be the products of the same mint at
BMCRE II Titus, 152ff.
Die syrische Provinzialprägung, pp. 34–35.
Cf. Sutherland, Coinage in Roman Imperial Policy, p. 165.
Cf. Roman Coins (
The identification of the aes without SC as the first two issues of aes at a.d. 66 provides the key for the arrangement of the issues of the aes at 1
Six principal stages can be distinguished, and each can be set in order in a progressive sequence. Each succeeding stage retains many features from the preceding issue, but is distinguishable from it by some major change or innovation.
Issue I consists of the copper asses, semisses and quadrantes without SC.
Issue II introduces the general orichalcum coinage of sestertii, dupondii asses and quadrantes—all without SC.
Issue III is a continuation of the general orichalcum coinage, but is distinguished by the addition of SC to all denominations and marks of value to the dupondii, asses, semisses and quadrantes.
Issue IV still has IMP as a cognomen, but is marked by its return to the more customary pattern of denominations with sestertii and dupondii in orichalcum, asses and quadrantes in copper, all without marks of value.
Issue V has sestertii and dupondii in orichalcum, and asses in copper with the same reverse types as in Issue IV, but is distinguished from that issue by the use of IMP as a praenomen.
Issue VI has the same range of denominations, but is distinguished by the use of the date TRP XIII on the sestertii and dupondii and by the use of a distinctive obverse legend on the copper asses.
Within each of these six aes issues and their principal subdivisions there are several minor variations in the form of obverse legend. Some elements in the titulature are abbreviated in different ways in the same issue, e.g.,
The complete list of varieties (with an indication of the substantive varieties in each issue) for all denominations will be found in the catalogue below.
Issue II was the first to include sestertii—those without SC. The principal reverse types were Adlocutio, Annona, Congiarium and Decursio. The three forms of obverse legend:
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP;
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP
and less commonly
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP
do not seem to have had any special chronological significance.
Cat.
70–83. PLATES II–III.
Issue III had the reverse types of the second issue, now with SC, and some additional types with SC of the Arch, Ostia harbor and a new Decursio. In other denominations Issue III is defined by the use of marks of value. These sestertii had no marks of value, but the issue is defined by the parallel issue of dupondii, which closely reflects changes in the sestertii during Issues IV, V and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP was the most common form and must have been used throughout Issue III. It is occasionally found in Issue II and was still the predominant form in Issue IV. NERO CLAVD1VS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP and NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP seem to be early varieties as they were the usual forms in Issue II but never occur after Issue III. NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP on the other hand seems to be a later variant which at one time became the predominant form. It was never used on the sestertii without SC but was used extensively in this issue and is occasionally found with
Cat. 84–134. Plates III–IV.
Issue IV had the reverse types of 2
Two forms of the 3
Nero's
a.d. 64/65; and the coins should certainly be placed at or near the beginning of Issue IV. It is fairly clear that soon after the sestertius reverse types were changed, a new obverse type was also contemplated; but only one obverse die was cut and put into use before the project was abandoned.
Cat. 135–154. Plate IV.
Issue V had a changed obverse legend, which now included IMP as a praenomen. The usual obverse legend was IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TR P PP with the rarer variant IMP NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP PP. The two views of the temple of Janus and the two forms of the Roma reverse type were retained unchanged from the fourth issue.
Cat. 155–166. Plates IV–V.
Issue VI had a new legend with the tribunician date IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP XIII PP. Some coins retained the reverse type of Roma holding victory r. and spear l. from Issue V, but most coins in this issue had modified and different versions of both the Roma and Janus temple type.
Cat. 167–174. Plate V.
The latest issue of sestertii, never issued in any numbers and with no substantive varieties, seems to have consisted of the rare coins dated TRP XIV, with the reverse types of Roma shield l. that had been used in Issue VI and of Victory l. holding a statuette of Minerva and a palm branch, derived from the same image as the reverse of the first Roman sestertii of 4
Cat. 175, 176.
See p. 129 below.
I have made a further study of these coins in a forthcoming article "The Aes of Nero with Tribunician Dates."
Issue II was the first to include dupondii. These dupondii without SC had bare and laureate heads besides the radiate form that subsequently became the regular representation on the denomination at
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP;
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP P;
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP;
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP P;
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP
but no special chronological significance can be attached to these varieties.
Cat. 177–188. Plates V–VII.
Issue III is distinguished by the addition of SC and the mark of value īī on the reverse. The legend MAC AVG was added to the formerly anepigraphic Macellum type.
It continued to use the reverse types of Victoria l. and Securitas, and added the further type of Victoria r.
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP
was the usual form.
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP
and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP
were probably early variants, as they were often used in the series without SC but not after the new representation of Victoria flying right was introduced, nor with the later types of Roma and Janus temple. NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP seems to have been the predominant form in the middle period of the issue, and it was still used occasionally in Issue IV with the new Roma and Janus temple types.
Cat. 189–209. Plates VII–VIII.
Issue IV is distinguished by the absence of the mark of value and a change of reverse types. The two new types of Roma and Janus temple, introduced at this stage, continue in one form or another up to the end of Nero's reign. As on the sestertii, the two views of the temple of Janus had no chronological significance. Initially the form used on the sestertii for both the Roma and Janus temple types was employed. To this early group at the beginning of the issue belong the rare dupondii with the laureate head (Plate XXIII, 210–212). This experimental obverse for the dupondii at
Eventually the longer reverse legend PACE PR TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT was replaced by PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT on the dupondii, and the type of Roma holding a victory and parazonium was replaced by the distinctive dupondius type of Roma holding a wreath. The earlier forms of both these types are never found with the praenominal IMP, whereas the later forms continued to be used in the subsequent issue after mid-a.d. 66. The usual obverse legend was NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP with NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP as a rare variant.
The general argument for the sequence of the reverse type in this issue is reinforced by the evidence of the overstrike in Plate XXII, p). A dupondius of this issue with the earlier Janus temple type that has the longer legend, is overstruck by the later Roma type with the wreath and parazonium.
Cat. 210–227. Plate VIII.
Issue V had a changed obverse legend to incorporate the praenomen IMP. Toward the end of the issue there is a new version of the Roma type which had been used for some time previously on the sestertii—that of Roma seated left with a victory in her right hand, but holding a spear instead of the parazonium in her left. This variety shares an obverse die with the normal Roma type of Issue V. It usually has the obverse legend of that issue, IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP PP but one specimen has been noted with the legend IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP XIII PP and this clearly suggests that the type was in use immediately before the legends were changed at the beginning of Issue VI.
Cat. 228–237. Plate VIII.
Issue VI had the tribunician date TRP XIII using the obverse legend IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TR P XIII PP. The reverse types of Roma and Janus temple were still used but their details were changed slightly. The type of Roma holding a victory and spear, which had appeared on the dupondii at the end
Cat. 238–241. Plate IX.
Ibid.
Issue I consisted of the copper asses without SC. Nero's head was invariably bare. Initially the anepigraphic Apollo reverse type was used, and its three forms of obverse legend
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP;
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP; and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM
TRP IMP contained all the major elements of the imperial titulature. These anepigraphic Apollo asses are extremely rare and the reverse type was soon modified to place part of Nero's titles PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP as a reverse legend around the figure of Apollo. As the reverse legend of these asses now completed Nero's titulature, the obverse legends were shortened. Three forms were used:
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMAN and
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMA.
Little significance can be attached to these variations, though one suspects that the obverse legend may have been shortened during the course of the issue. A second reverse type of GENIO AVGVSTI (without SC) was also used; introduced apparently toward the end of the issue, since examples are extremely rare. Its normal obverse legend was NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP with the rare variant NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP. A single PONTIF MAX TR P IMP PP Apollo copper As without SC has the full obverse legend NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM
Cat. 242–256. Plate IX.
Issue II consisted of orichalcum asses with the same reverse types of Apollo and Genius, without SC or any marks of value. The evidence of portraiture and weight shows that this group must be regarded as the earliest emission of asses in orichalcum. Nero's head was either laureate or radiate. The obverse legends were
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS with a laureate portrait principally used with the Apollo type,
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANIC and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP IMP PP with a radiate head, and only found with the Genius type. The issue was struck from at least five obverse and twelve reverse dies.
Cat. 257–261. Plates IX–X.
Issue III consisted of the main series of orichalcum asses which had SC and the mark of value ī. During the course of this issue there was a marked lowering of the weight standard of the orichalcum As, and it is interesting to note that coins of lower weight are generally found with later portraits. But although it is clear that the weight standard was being reduced, individual coins are struck al marco not al peso, and it is impossible to establish a sequence within the issue from a consideration of weights alone. Moreover, as the whole issue was very restricted in time, it is equally difficult to establish a sequence within the issue based on the development of portraiture. There are two principal forms of obverse legend: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMAN ICVS and NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP, both variously abbreviated, but these have no chronological significance. The former is particularly appropriate to the Apollo reverse and the latter to the Genius reverse. They were in fact generally confined to their own reverse types, and exceptions due to muling are comparatively rare. The imperial head appears laureate and radiate. In Issue II the laureate head was used with the Apollo type and the radiate head with the Genius type. But in Issue III both forms were used with both types indifferently. It looks as though the two representa-
Cat. 262–276. Plate X.
Issue IV reverted to asses in copper which were struck in two new reverse types of Victory and Janus temple. They had no mark of value, but always had SC. As on the sestertii and dupondii, there were two distinct types of Janus temple but these have no chronological significance. Within this issue three chronological groups can be distinguished:
IV.A—the earliest coins with the long obverse legends
NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP, the Janus temple asses with the long form of reverse legend PACE PR TERRA MARIO PARTA IANVM CLVSIT.
IV.B—the middle group with the shortened obverse legend NERO CAESAR AVG GERM IMP.
IV.C—the latest group with the reverse legend of the Janus temple type abbreviated PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT. There must have been a parallel issue of victory asses in both phase IV.B and IV.C but there is no distinctive feature about their reverse types to distinguish them in the same way as the Janus temple type.
Cat. 277–293. Plate X–XI.
Issue V had the praenomen IMP and used IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERM retaining unchanged the reverse types from the latest group of the fourth issue.
Cat. 294–299. Plate XI.
Issue VI is marked by a new obverse legend IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERMANIC which is found with a slightly modified form of the Janus temple type. Its legend starts at 6 instead of 8 o'clock, as on the final issues of sestertii and dupondii of the Janus temple type dated TRP XIII.
Cat. 300–302. Plate XI.
Issue I included the rare semisses in copper without SC which followed closely the pattern of the copper asses without SC.
Cat. 303–307. Plate XII.
Issue III, which covered the general orichalcum coinage, included all the remaining semisses of Nero from
NERO CAES AVG IMP with less common variants,
NERO CAESAR AVG IMP and
NERO CAE AVG IMP. In the first stage of this issue the mark of value S was sometimes omitted from the reverse—no doubt the engravers found the very small dimensions of an orichalcum semis die extremely crowded—but in the later stages of the issue S was invariably included.
Cat. 303–335. Plate XII.
Nero's quadrantes have no obverse portraits and it is not possible to attribute them to the mints of 5
But Mattingly's suggestion is not substantiated by their distribution.
In
It is therefore virtually certain that both helmet and owl types in both copper and orichalcum were struck at the mint of
Mattingly further suggested
20
that if the larger coins too were assigned to a.d. 60 at the first celebration of the quinquennial games, but we cannot accept this alternative arrangement either. All the quadrantes must have been issued before mid-a.d. 66, as they never include the praenomen IMP among Nero's titles; and their issues closely followed the pattern of the asses at
The quadrans was certainly the lowest denomination to be issued by Nero. Elmer's view that there was a further denomination of a sescunx or half-quadrans with the same types as the quadrans but struck to half the weight standard,
21
is quite unjustified. Elmer recognized the existence of the orichalcum quadrantes which Gabrici first distinguished in 1895,
22
but thought that some of the small coins of the owl/branch and helmet/branch types (apparently those without any mark of value, though that is not clearly stated) constituted a further and lower denomination in copper—the sescunx. This view is open to a number of objections. The point at which Elmer divided the weights of these coins into quadrantes and half-quadrantes seems to be purely arbitrary. When the weights which he quoted are plotted in a frequency table there is not the slightest suggestion that the supposed halves had a point of concentration at or near half the point of concentration for the larger quadrantes. The mark of value ∴ show that the small coins which bear them were in fact quadrantes. Yet these coins with the mark of value are of the same size and weight standard and had the same
Issue I included quadrantes in copper without SC, parallel to the asses and semisses in copper without SC.
Cat. 336–337. Plate XII.
Issue II consisted of the orichalcum quadrantes without SC and seems to have belonged to the same issue as that of the orichalcum asses without SC.
Cat. 338–340. Plate XII.
Issue III consisted of the orichalcum quadrantes with SC and, usually, the mark of value—again parallel to the Roman asses and semisses in orichalcum with the mark of value ī and S respectively. The mark of value ∴, however, does not always appear to have been used on the quadrantes. The reverse field below the olive branch where the mark of value was normally placed is sometimes worn, corroded or even off flan on surviving examples. On clear specimens, however, quadrantes with the reverse legend GER PM TR P IMP PP invariably have the mark of value, whereas quadrantes with PM TRP IMP PP sometimes have it but sometimes clearly omit it. This second form of reverse legend was the one used subsequently on the fourth issue of quadrantes in copper with SC, and it was undoubtedly the latest form of reverse legend on the orichalcum quadrantes. It is thus clear that the mint ceased to mark its orichalcum quadrantes with the sign of value during the later stages of the third issue.
Cat. 341–356. Plate XII.
Issue IV, the final issue, consisted of quadrantes in copper with SC but with no mark of value. This group appears to have been struck at the same time as the copper asses with SC of the Victory and Janus temple types. Initially the quadrantes were struck in the same two types of the owl/branch and the helmet/branch which had been used on the orichalcum quadrantes with SC, and had the same reverse legend PM TRP IMP PP, but at a later stage a new type of the owl/helmet was introduced. The series of quadrantes came to an end before mid-66, as they all show Nero's titles without the praenominal IMP.
Cat. 357–362. Plate XII.
BMC RE I, p. clxxxif.
N Scav Ant 1955, P. 149.
Ostia Museum.
Antiquarium,
Museo Nazionale delle Terme,
Museo Capitolino,
C. E. King, "Quadrates from the River Tiber," NC 1975, pp. 85–87.
MSS. catalogue, Museo Archeologico,
AIIN
12–14 (1965–67), P. 178.
B. W. Frier and A. NC 1970, p. 96.
W. E. Metcalf, "Roman Coins from the River Liri. II," NC 1974, Ρ. 46. This coin cat. no. 362 has the obv. type of an owl and rev. type of a column.
NumHisp 1955 "Hallazgos Monetarios XII," 752, pp. 127–32.
Bissinger, Baden, 2nd ed. no. 116.
Kellner, Die römischen Fundmünzen aus dem nördlichen Teil von Rätien.
FRMD I.3, Mittelfranken 5040.
BMCRE I, p. clxxxii.
G. Elmer, "Die Kleinkupferprägung von NZ 1934, pp. 18–30.
RIN 1895, p. 364.
The identification of the first aes issues at aes without SC were intended as pattern coinage for the new mint, but the details of their types were thoroughly Roman and the issue must be regarded as the earliest aes of Nero struck in aes in all four denominations which combines features otherwise found exclusively at
The sestertii combining features of
Cat. 401
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP Head laur. r. with globe and aegis in front.
Rev.: ADLOCVT COH in exergue. SC l. and r. in field.
Nero standing l. on platform accompanied by Praetorian Prefect addressing three soldiers.
Cat. 402
Obv.: As 401.
Rev.: ANNONA AVGVSTI CERES. SC in exergue.
Ceres sitting l. holding torch and ears of corn; before her, Annona standing with a cornucopiae.
The globe is always found on sestertii at
The dupondii combining features otherwise found exclusively at
Cat. 490
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP P
Head rad. r., with globe at point of bust.
Rev.: MAC AVG. SC l. and r. of steps.
Front view of Macellum Magnum.
Plate XIV
Cat. 491
Obv.: As 490.
Rev.: SECVRITAS AVGVSTI. SC l. and r. in field, īī in exergue. Securitas seated r. on throne. l. holding scepter in hand,
Cat. 492
Obv.: As 490.
Rev.: VICTORIA AVGVSTI. SC l. and r. in field, īī in exergue. Draped Victory walking l., r. holding wreath, l. a palm. Beneath, line indicating the ground.
Plate XVI
Cat. 493
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP
Head rad. r. with globe at point of bust.
Rev.: As 490.
Plate XIV
Plate XIV
Cat. 494
Obv.: As 493.
Rev.: As 491.
Plate XV
Plate XV
Plate XV
Plate XVI
Cat. 495
Obv.: As 493.
Rev.: As 492.
Plate XV
Plate XV
Cat. 496
Obv.: As 493.
Rev.: VICTORIA AVGVSTI. SC l. and r. in field, īī in exergue. Victory draped flying l., r. holding a wreath, l. a palm; r. leg forward clear of drapery.
Plate XV
Plate XV
The obverse combines the radiate head, normal on dupondii at Plate XV, 496)—the form of Victoria flying left invariably used at Plate VII, 185). The other shows Victoria walking left on a ground line with drapery billowing back from her left leg— the distinct
Fourteen of these dupondii were found at Mayenne
9
and seven at Condé sur Aisne; one was found in
Altogether at least thirty-four reverse dies are used with eighteen obverse dies. In several cases different reverse types share obverse dies—a phenomenon which is seen repeatedly in all Nero's aes issues at both Plate XVI, 492 and XV, 495(1)).
Fig. 3. Dupondii Lugdunum Issue L-III
The dupondii themselves can be subdivided into three distinct chronological stages: 1) in the first group, the two reverse dies of VICTORIA AVGVSTI have the Roman type of Victory (P731 and P732). One of SECVRITAS AVGVSTI dies has the type of Securitas naked to the waist (P720) which is not otherwise found at aes at
The obverse portraits of the first two groups closely resemble those of the orichalcum asses at
after being recut. For prior use see Cat. 494 and 495.
Found at
This coin and the other examples in the Mayenne Musée were found in the river bed at Mayenne in 1864.
Found in York in 1925.
R. Ball Sale 6 (
Shown at the British Museum in 1957.
RN 1969, pp. 76–130.
Found in Ant J 1962, p. 40.
Probably found in Cirencester.
There are more dupondii at Mayenne with radiate head of Nero and a globe at the point of his bust truncation, but the others have been excluded from the die catalogue because of their worn state.
Although most of Nero's orichalcum asses were struck at
Cat. 537
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANI
Head laur. r. with a globe at point of bust truncation.
Rev.: PONTIF MAX TR POT IMP PP. SC l. and r. in field, ī in exergue.
Nero, laur. in the robes of Apollo citharoedus walking r., l. holding lyre r. playing it.
Cat. 538
Obv.: As 537.
Rev.: GENIO AVGVSTI. SC l. and r. in field, ī in exergue. Genius standing l., l. holding cornucopiae, r. patera over lighted altar.
Plate XVIII
Cat. 539
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANIC
Head laur. l.
Rev.: As 537.
Plate XVII
Cat. 540
Obv.: As 539.
Rev.: As 538.
Plate XVIII
The mark of value ī is regularly found on Nero's orichalcum asses at
The globe on the asses looks as though it may have been an ungainly final C of the obverse legend NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANIC which became attached to the front of the bust truncation and which was completed into a globe by the engraver for the sake of neatness. Its method of attachment is certainly different from that of the later
Found in Ant J 1962, p. 40.
Found at
Probably found in Cirencester.
Found in
Probably found in N. Britain.
A further hybrid group, also very rare, which closely follows the orichalcum asses at
Cat. 541
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS
Head bare r., with small globe at point of bust truncation.
Rev.: PONTIF MAX TR POT IMP PP. SC l. and r. in field, ī in exergue.
Nero, laur., in the flowing robes of Apollo citharoedus standing r., l. holding cithara, r. playing it.
Plate XVIII
Cat. 542
Obv.: As 541 but head bare l.
Rev.: As 541.
Plate XVIII
Fig. 4. Orichalcum and Copper Asses Lugdunum Issue L-III and Transitionalissue
These coins are quite regular in style and fabric and can hardly be dismissed as unorthodox imitations. They have the red hue of copper asses, and the metal of the British Museum specimen has been shown to be copper by spectrographic analysis. Except for these rare pieces, the mark of value is found on Nero's asses in orichalcum alone.
Nero's head is bare, as always on the 18
The reverse always has SC whereas
19
The only distinctly Roman feature of the coins is the mark of value on the reverse. This is, however, no justification for Mattingly's attribution to 20
when the characteristic truncation of the bust, the globe and the other details of style, type and content belong to
Although it is paralleled by the mark of value īī on some dupondii, the mark ī on these asses is essentially illogical at
Published by M. CENB 1965, pp. 14–15.
Found at Hunnerberg,
Local find acquired by the Rijksmuseum G.M.
Cf. Plate XVIII, 542, 544.
Cf. Plate XVIII, 542.
BMCRE I, p. 245, 237.
The orichalcum semisses of this group are:
Cat. 604
Obv.: NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG
Head laur. r. with globe at tip of bust.
Rev.: CER QVIN ROM CON. SC in exergue.
A table seen from front and right. On it, an urn l., a wreath r.
Plate XX
The usual semisses from
The general character of this earliest issue of aes at aes. The asses and semisses of this aes at
The aes at aes issued at aes at aes at
Issue L-III was the first issue of aes at
Issue L-IVA is marked by the return to the earlier Julio-Claudian pattern of aes denominations, with the sestertii and dupondii in orichalcum and the asses and semisses in copper. It is distinguished by early features, different for each denomination. The sestertii have a long angular bust truncation and a small globe; the dupondii retain the mark of value 17 from Issue L-III; the asses retain the obverse legends of asses of Issue L-III; and the semisses follow the obverse legends of the asses.
Issue L-IVB consists of the same range of denominations, still with IMP as a cognomen, but now characterized by fully developed
Issue L-V has the same range of denominations with the same reverse types but is distinguished by its use of IMP as a praenomen.
Issue L-VI can be distinguished on the sestertii and dupondii by subsequent modifications of some features of coins with the praenomen IMP. For example Securitas dupondii which have SC in the field in Issues L-III to L-V transfer it to the exergue in Issue L-VI. Within these issues there are additional varieties of obverse legends. There seems to have been a certain latitude allowed to individual engravers in the precise forms of terminal abbreviations employed. For example, NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP P and NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP were used in Issues L-III, L-IVA and L-IVB of the dupondii. IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P PP and IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR POT PP were both used in Issues L-V and L-VI of the dupondii. These minor varieties of abbreviation cannot therefore in themselves have had any chronological significance. There was, however, a general tendency, seen in the sequence of the semisses, increasingly to abbreviate the components of the imperial titulature. PONTIF MAX gave way to PONT MAX and further to P MAX.
A longer form of abbreviation may sometimes have been more appropriate to the broader flan of a larger denomination, and have been used later than a shorter abbreviation on a smaller coin. A curious overstrike in the British Museum
1
shows that IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TRP PP was used on asses before IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT MAX TRP PP was used on some sestertii. The overstrike has:
Obv.: (IMP NERO CAE)SAR AVG PONT MAX (TRPOT PP)
Head laureate l. globe.
Struck from a sestertius die over a reverse of the As type of victory carrying a shield.
Rev.: SC l. and r. in field.
A triumphal arch. Struck from a sestertius die over the obverse of an As reading (IMP NERO CAES)AR AVG P MAX (TRP PP) (Plate XXII, o).
There can be little doubt that it was an ordinary copper As of the Victory type overstruck by a pair of sestertius dies, perhaps as a trial striking.
This coin was found in the breakwater behind the Kaite opposite Isleworth Town in the gravel, August 1839, and was given to the British Museum by C.
Issue L-III is distinguished by the use of the aegis that was often used on sestertii at types of Adlocutio and Annona.
Cat. 401–402.
Issue L-IVA had no aegis and is distinguished by the small neat version of the
The reverse types of Adlocutio and Annona were continued from Issue L-III and the types of Decursio,
Cat. 403–414. Plates XII–XIII.
Issue L-IVB had a large globe attached to the bust of a more elegant and natural neck termination. The general treatment of the obverse portraits was more spirited, and showed much the same stage of development as the dupondii and asses of Issue L-IVB. To the reverse types of the second issue were added two new ones of the Harbor at Ostia, and the Temple of Janus. Both were ultimately
Cat. 415–429. Plate XIII.
Issue L-V is distinguished from the preceding issue by its use of the praenomen IMP. There were several varieties of obverse legend. From the dupondii and semisses it appears that the abbreviation of Potestate into POT or P had no chronological significance, but that in other respects the imperial titles were progressively abbreviated during the course of the issue. Sestertii with the longest form IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF MAX TRIB POT PP had a comparatively early portrait (Plate XIII, 432) not very different from those in the third issue. It was comparatively rare and soon gave way to the commoner form
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT MAX TR POT PP and its rare variant
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT MAX TR P PP.
Cat. 430–458. Plates XIII–XIV.
Issue L-VI has the imperial titles abbreviated further to IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR POT PP;
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P PP;
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P M TR POT PP and IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P M TR P PP.
Cat. 459–489. Plate XIV.
Issue L-III combined the radiate head normal on dupondii at
Cat. 490–496. Plates XIV–XVI.
Issue L-IVA had a laureate instead of the radiate crown on the obverse. Otherwise it continued to use the same obverse legends and reverse types as the first issue. The Securitas and Victoria types again had the mark of value īī and, as in the first issue, common obverse dies show that the Macellum type was struck concurrently with them.
Cat. 497–511. Plate XVI.
Issue L-IVB no longer had the marks of value in the exergue of its Securitas and Victoria types. Other features remained unchanged, and it used the same range of obverse legends as in Issue L-IVA.
Cat. 512–518. Plates XVI–XVII.
Issue L-V had a new range of obverse legends giving Nero IMP as a praenomen. The usual form was IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P PP. Occasionally the alternative from IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR POT PP was used instead, but this seems to have been a variant without any chronological significance. The reverse types of Securitas and Victoria were retained unchanged from the preceding issue.
Cat. 519–526. Plate XVII.
Issue L-VI had SC in the exergue of the Securitas type, not in the field. There are no Victoria dupondii with SC in the exergue, but it is clear that the ordinary Victoria type was struck concurrently with the new form of the Securitas type. Several Victoria dupondii share obverse dies with Securitas dupondii that have SC in the exergue; and in one case the development of an obverse die flaw proves that the Victoria dupondius (Plate XVII, 534) was struck later than the Securitas dupondius with SC in the exergue (Plate XVII, 533).
Cat. 527–536. Plate XVII.
Issue L-III consisted of the rare orichalcum asses with the mark of value ī and a globe or
Cat 537–540. Plates XVII–XVIII.
A transitional group between Issues L-III and L-IVA is distinguishable in the rare group of copper asses with the mark of value ī. These coins are struck in copper like the other asses of L-IVA but have the mark of value ī which is otherwise found only on the orichalcum asses of Issue L-III.
Cat. 541–542. Plate XVIII.
Issue L-IVA consisted of Apollo type copper asses, without a mark of value. It retained the obverse legend of the first issue NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS. The form NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICV was a rare variant due to careless spacing by an engraver. The rare asses of the Victory, Janus temple, Ara Pacis and Genius types with this obverse legend never constitute substantive varieties, and seem to be hybrids due to the continued use of a limited number of these obverse dies into the next issue.
Cat. 543–551. Plate XVIII.
Issue L-IVB had new forms of obverse legend
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP P
and
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP
and four substantive reverse types of Ara Pacis, Genius, Janus temple and Victory. Occasional examples are recorded of the new form of obverse legend with copper asses of the Apollo type, but these never constitute a substantive variety, and seem to be hybrids produced by the continued use of a limited number of reverse dies from Issue L-IVA after the new types of Issue L-IVB had been introduced. There seems to be no important chronological distinction between the various abbreviations of obverse legend, and the different forms seem to be determined by the engraver's ability to fit the legend into the space available.
Cat. 552–579. Plates XVIII–XIX.
Issue L-V had a new range of obverse legends to give Nero IMP as a praenomen:
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF MAX TRIB POT PP
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR POT PP
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P PP
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P P
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P M TR POT PP and
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P M TR P PP.
The third is by far the most common form. The first is extremely rare; its lettering is small and neat and the legend occurs with early portraits very similar to those of the third issue. One suspects that this long form of legend was tried out immediately after Nero assumed the praenomen, but was soon abandoned because it was too long. Other variations in the abbreviations of MAX or M, POT or P seem to have been used without any chronological significance when the engraver had difficulty in spacing the legend.
Cat. 580–601. Plate XIX.
Issue L-VI of copper asses cannot be distinguished by objective criteria as in some other denominations. But the evidence of developed portraiture suggests that a proportion of the Victory asses at least are contemporary with Issue L-VI of the dupondii. Although it is true that Victory asses constitute 75% of
Cat. 602, 603.
The classification of RIC and the footnotes to the BMCRE I merely perpetuate the confusion of earlier writers.
Issue L-VI consisted of the rare semisses in orichalcum with a globe at the top of Nero's bust.
Cat. 604. Plate XX.
Issue L-IVA consisted of semisses in copper with the obverse legend NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS. This is the form of obverse legend used on copper asses of Issue L-IVA. This issue of semisses was struck in the two types of
Cat. 605–609. Plate XX.
Issue L-IVA consisted of semisses in copper with shorter abbreviations of the title
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMAN
gave way to
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMA
and was eventually replaced by
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM
the usual form of obverse legend in this issue.
Cat. 610–619. Plate XX.
Issue L-V consisted of semisses in copper with IMP in the praenominal position among Nero's titles. Some semisses in this group had far more of the imperial titles on the obverse and consequently fewer titles carried over to the reverse of the
This issue seems to have closely followed L-IVB. There is no sharp break in the presentation of imperial titulature; the early portraits are close to those of the third issue; and
IMP NERO CAESAR PONTIF MAX TRIB POT PP and
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT MAX TRIB POT PP
seem to have been characteristic of the first emissions of sestertii, dupondii and asses with the praenomen IMP.
Cat. 620–633. Plate XX.
Roman and Byzantine mints from the mid-third to the eighth century a.d. are known to have been divided into a number of officinae or workshops, and most coins of that period bear the mark or number of the officina in which they were produced.
1
The purpose of the officina system was clearly to divide the work of each mint between a number of responsible divisions of manageable proportions, and to exercise a degree of administrative control over the coins produced by the different divisions. The principal purpose of any such organization would be lost if the mint authority was not able to apportion blame for any lapse from the standards for metal, weight and workmanship which it had laid down. If the mint inspectors were able to distinguish easily the coins of different officinae, so too, in theory at least, should the modern numismatist. First century coinages are not labelled with any explicit officina numbers, nor apparently with any privy marks. The sole distinguishing features, which can have been used to differentiate officinae, are varieties in obverse legend and bust treatment or in reverse types.
Kraay has recently tried to establish the distinguishing characteristics of Galba's officinae by studying the die relationships of the sestertii.
2
Such a die study clearly shows the physical connections between whole blocks of die-linked coins and often solves difficult problems of mint attribution; but we cannot safely postulate that a die-linked group of coins was necessarily produced by a single
3
Officinae were essentially subdivisions of a mint and not separate establishments in different locations which would constitute independent or branch mints. The interchange of dies on a large scale between officinae of the same establishment is thus a very real possibility, whereas the interchange of dies between mints in different places can only have taken place under the most exceptional circumstances. Grierson has noted several obverse die links between the marked officinae of Basiliscus and Marcus, Zeno and Leo 4
Pearce has noted numerous die links between the marked officinae of eastern mints in the fourth century;
5
Bastien has noted an obverse die link between folies of the Ist and 2nd officinae at 6
Gricourt has noted an obverse die link between the 2nd and 3rd officinae at 7
and Woodward has noted several obverse die links between the reverse types that seem to mark the six distinct officinae in the coinage of Pertinax.
8
Nor can we necessarily suppose that each officina will display a distinctive style in its treatment of the details of obverse portraiture or of reverse types, as Mattingly suggested.
9
While each officina may have had its own establishment of engravers, the officinae were, after all, part of the same mint and the engraving of dies may equally well have been carried out centrally for the whole establishment.
10
There is a bewilderingly rich variety of obverse and reverse legends and types in the coinages of Nero. But once it is recognized that some of these varieties are the distinctive features of different mints; that others have a chronological significance and characterize a particular issue; and that there is a limited number of substantive varieties in each issue at each mint, a clear and recurrent pattern emerges which enables us to determine the officina arrangement.
Officina numbers first appear on the millenial issue of a.d. 248. See Essays in Roman Coinage presented to Harold Mattingly (Oxford, 1956), pp. 235ff. See also The Minting of Antoniniani
a.d. 238–249 and the Smyrna Hoard, ANSNNM 156 (
The Aes Coinage of Galba, ANSNNM 133 (
See my review of Kraay, ANSNNM 133 in NC 1957, pp. 269–73.
SM July 1961, pp. 1–8.
Cf. RIC IX, p. 230 note to 67 (c).
SM Nov. 1960, pp. 75–77.
SM Feb. 1968, pp. 5–8.
NC 1957, p. 89.
RIC IV.3, p. xvi.
See below p. 128.
In the gold and silver issues of a.d. 64 the laureate head alone was employed and it always faced right; although there were three distinct forms of obverse legend each had a definite chronological significance and marked a distinct issue.
11
It would thus have been quite impossible to distinguish the gold and silver coins of different officinae by any obverse detail. The number of reverse types, however, in each issue of aurei and denarii varied with the fluctuations in the volume of coinage issued. There was invariably an increase in the number of reverse types when the volume of coinage became larger and one might reasonably suppose that there was an increase in the number of officinae responsible for it. Conversely fewer reverse types were employed when the volume of coinage in an issue was reduced. This is the clearest possible indication that the coins of different officinae were marked by the use of a distinctive reverse type, and that when an additional officina was brought into use an additional reverse type was introduced.
Throughout the dated series the volume of each year's issue was fairly constant, except that the issue dated TRP VII—at the height of the war in the east—was about three times as large as that of any of the preceding years.
12
After the three reverse types of the
accession year the aurei and denarii used a single reverse type from TRP II to TRP VI, but in TRP VII, the year when output was considerably increased, two additional reverse types were employed. In TRP VIII, VIIII and X the volume of aurei and denarii seems to have dropped back to its original level, and one of the three types for aurei and denarii was dropped during the course of TRP VIIII. In a.d. 65–66, immediately after the reform, there was an exceptionally large output of gold to replace the earlier aurei of the heavy prereform standard,
13
and during this period the aurei were struck in eight reverse types. Subsequently, however, the output of gold was considerably reduced and in Issues 2 and 3 two reverse types alone were employed. The undated denarii broadly followed the same pattern. In the undated denarius Issue 1 there were six substantive reverse types; but in Issues 2, 3a and 3b there were only two substantive reverse types at a time.
The aes coinage was confined to the later years of Nero's principate. It never displayed the wide fluctuations in volume that the gold and silver coinage did; but it shows equally clearly, for quite different reasons, that production at the mint was organized on the basis of its reverse dies, and that its reverse types can thus be regarded as the marks of distinct officinae. There is no obverse detail in any denominations which can satisfactorily be regarded as an officina mark. The two main groups with and without the globe are, as has been demonstrated, the issues of 14
The rare variants of obverse legend certainly cannot have marked the operation of different officinae, for in that case the output of different officinae would have been badly disproportionate, whereas the whole object of an officina scheme must have been to divide the output of the mint into blocks of manageable and, no doubt, generally equal proportions.
15
In most aes issues Nero's head sometimes faces right and sometimes left; but this cannot be an officina distinction either, as the right-facing heads considerably outnumber the left-facing ones in any issue and on the gold and silver coinage right-facing heads alone are found.
The mint of 16
and the statistical evidence of site finds shows that the total production in each issue is generally divided fairly equally between each of the two basic reverse types in each denomination. The asses are by far the most common denomination at a.d. 65 to 68. Semisses at
See Chapter 3.
There is clear evidence for this in the relative numbers from the Pudukota hoard (NC 1898, pp. 304–5.):
See Table 6, p. 141 below.
The relative frequency of different Bulletin de la Société d' Archeologie, Sciences, Arts et Belles Lettres de la Mayenne, 1865, pp. 9ff. and RN 1968, pp. 76–132.
This can certainly be accepted as a general principle in the organization of later officina systems. There is usually a good reason for the exceptional cases where the product of an officina is singularly rare. E.g. Officina Δ at Constantinople is rare for part of the reign of Theodosius I, no doubt because the coinage in the name of Maximus was suppressed.
See p. 120.
Once it is recognized that the products of different officinae are distinguished by their reverse types, there is little difficulty in reconstructing the way in which the officinae were employed.
Nero's mint at a.d. 54 to 60, in three officinae from a.d. 60 and in six officinae at the peak period of its production after a.d. 64. Moreover some of the officinae which produced gold and silver seem subsequently to have been used for the production of the aes coinage—an extremely interesting point which underlines the basic unity of the mint and should weigh heavily against the existence of two separate Imperial and Senatorial establishments in this period.
17
Aurei and denarii of the same type were probably produced in the same officina. In most issues, after striking its quota of aurei, each officina apparently struck a parallel denarius issue. I have already pointed out that the gold and silver issues follow each other remarkably closely in the details of their obverse and reverse types and that the minor differences that can be noted are primarily chronological distinctions which suggest that the denarii in each issue were struck immediately after the aurei of similar type. There were three distinct aureus and denarius types in the accession year. From TRP II to TRP VI there was merely one reverse type of the corona civica. We can thus regard the precious-metal coins issued from TRP II down to TRP VI as the products of a single officina. In the course of TRP VII the output of gold (and silver) was greatly increased and the number of officinae was increased to a total of three. The two new types of Virtus and Ceres distinguish the two additional officinae, while the third new reverse type of Roma replaced that
As noted, the aes coinage at aes at
An alternative possibility that must be considered is that in the sestertius and dupondius issues alternative forms of the principal reverse type (such as Roma with victory and spear in lieu of Roma with victory and parazonium in Issues IV and V) and subsidiary reverse types (such as Macellum in Issues II and III of the dupondii) marked the production of those denominations in that particular issue by additional officinae, which may have contributed a token quantity only and which were principally occupied with the issue of other denominations. Analysis of the sestertius types, however
18
reveals surprising variations in the total number of reverse types used in successive stages of each issue. It is most unlikely that these sharp changes can have reflected equally abrupt changes in the number of officinae at work in the mint, when there is a perfectly reasonable and sensible alternative explanation—that each officina used more than one reverse type. It is of course still possible to argue that sestertii (and dupondii) were struck by four not two officinae; but the relative volume of Nero's coinage in different aes denominations does not provide the positive support that one would expect on this hypothesis, and the present balance of evidence certainly seems to favor the alternative view—that subsidiary reverse types and alternative forms were used additionally by the two basic officinae responsible for issuing the denomination.
The various changes in the number of officinae responsible for the production of Nero's gold and silver are rather puzzling until it is realized that the mint must have switched its production capacity from gold and silver to aes and vice versa. Aes Issue I, consisting of the copper asses and semisses without SC, can be dated on independent grounds to the latter part of a.d. 62, which is just the point at which the output of officina 3 (striking the Ceres gold type)
Aes Issue II, the remainder of the aes without SC, has been attributed to a.d. 63 in the course of which officina 3 ceased striking in the precious metals.
19
Aes Issue III, the general orichalcum coinage which is the product of four officinae and marks a major expansion in mint capacity, belongs to a.d. 64 when the output of gold and silver was limited to two officinae. Early in a.d. 65 in undated Issue 1b, when there were six officinae striking gold, we have the two original gold and silver officinae of Issue TRP X that had continued in undated Issue 1a, supplemented by the four officinae that had coped with the general orichalcum coinage. At later stages of the aes, these four seem to revert once more to the production of aes.
Although the general principles and outline of this officina system is reasonably clear—that the coins from different officinae were distinguished by the use of distinctive reverse types—the detailed attribution of reverse types to their respective officinae is sometimes extremely difficult and, on our present knowledge, much of it must remain purely tentative. The mint must no doubt have kept a register in which it would record the reverse types allocated to different officinae, but it probably did not matter very much which types were attributed to an officina, so long as a note was kept in the central records. It is for example, reasonably clear that the asses were produced in two officinae at 20
This reinforces the arguments in Chapter 4 against a dyarchic view of the coinage. Cf. J NG 1962, pp. 7–49.
See Cat. 70–174.
See Chapter 4.
In the table of officina types, I have excluded rare reverse types which were not struck in any number (those that do not constitute substantive varieties); and I have classified the minor varieties of a reverse type together under a general heading e.g. the various representations of Roma with different attributes have been classified together as "Roma."
The mint at
The product of each officina at Nero's mints never constituted a distinct and compact die-linked group. In many issues all the reverse types of a denomination, including those which certainly marked the working of different officinae, are die-linked. The die links in Issues I and II at 21
those in Issue L-III at 22
and examples of the sort of die linking that occurs among the sestertii in Issue III at 23
The general pattern is very similar to the linking that Kraay has noted among the sestertii of Galba.
24
In most cases where dies are shared at the mint of 25
There are moreover similar links between the different reverse types of the gold and silver. In Issue 1 of the post-reform aurei, BM 52 with the 26
But in other issues, such as the copper asses without SC of Issue I at 27
and the sestertii and dupondii dated TRP XIII of Issue VI at 28
die linkage is very limited; it is rare to find an obverse die used with more than one reverse die, and quite exceptional to find examples of obverse die linkage between the two parallel reverse types.
The pattern of complicated die linkage in some issues, between the reverse types that seem to mark different officinae, and the minimal die linkage in other issues, provides important evidence for the way
To explain die linkage between the marked officinae of the later Roman coinage Bastien
29
originally suggested that obverse dies developing a flaw had been returned to the central mint workshop, repaired and subsequently issued to another officina. Grierson
30
pointed out that in the 5th century obverse dies were still shared between different officinae in cases where they had become damaged, but had not been repaired. This led Sutherland to suggest an alternative hypothesis of the daily return of obverse dies to the central depository very similar to one that I had independently postulated to explain the pattern of die linkage under Nero. We thus seem to have a common pattern, reflecting the same basic mint practice that persisted through at least five centuries of operations at Roman mints.
Sutherland's explanation of the reasons for this procedure is that obverse dies were difficult to prepare and because they gave the coin its imperial authority they were particularly sacrosanct and must not be allowed to fall into the hands of unauthorized persons. But there is no positive evidence that security was any less vigorous for reverse than for obverse dies, and in the coinages of Nero the reverse dies are no less elaborate or difficult to engrave than the obverse ones. For the Julio-Claudian period at least, I would therefore prefer to explain the return of obverse dies after each day's
This method of controlling the work of officinae was not introduced by Nero, and it seems to have had its origin in the practice of the Republican period. Buttrey has shown that the striking of the Triumviral portrait gold of 42 b.c. was organized not by the obverse portraits of the Triumviri but by the reverse dies on which the moneyer's signature was placed;
31
and I have suggested that this arrangement had the specific purpose of protecting both mint and moneyers against unauthorized coining.
32
The moneyers of Augustus had of course placed their names on the reverse of the coins they struck, while the imperial titulature and sometimes the emperor's portrait was employed on the obverse. In the officina arrangement of Nero and the recurrent pattern of six officinae which emerges clearly at a later stage in the second and third centuries,
33
I would therefore see residual traces of the nominal spheres of responsibility exercised by the Tresviri Monetales;
34
and the fact that there were three magistrates may well explain why Nero's mint was expanded first into three and then into six officinae.
See pp. 53, 62.
See pp. 94, 98.
See pp. 255–56.
ANSNNM 133, pp. 16ff.
See Chapter 7, p. 105.
BMCRE I, p. 208.
See Chapter 4. pp. 37–43.
I plan to publish a die study of this issue in my forthcoming paper on "The Aes of Nero with Tribunician Dates."
SM Nov. 1960, pp. 75–77.
SM July 1961, pp. 1–8.
T. V. Buttrey, Jr., The Triumviral Portrait Gold of the Quattuorviri Monetales of 42 B.C., ANSNNM 137 (
See my review of Buttrey, ANSNNM 137 in NCirc 1957, pp. 541–2.
Cf. Carson, Essays … Mattingly, p. 239.
Although the names of tresviri do not appear on the coinage after 4 b.c. the office attested by inscriptions into the third century. Cf. Lenormant, La monnaie, pp. iii, 185ff.
From this system of controlling the output of the officinae, it follows that there must have been one common die engraving establishment for the production of obverse dies in each mint. For the reverse dies the evidence is less clear, but administrative convenience suggests that they too would probably be produced centrally at each mint and not under separate arrangements within each officina.
The coinage itself throws a most interesting light on the imagines or models used by the die engravers. The imperial portraits used as exemplars for the obverse dies must have been three dimensional representations. Right facing portraits on the undated gold and silver (e.g., Plate I, 22ff.) and on the aes (e.g., Plate II, 71f.) show Nero's hair in the style described by Suetonius "in gradus formata."
35
But left facing portraits (e.g., Plate II, 76) invariably show Nero's hair with downward curls in a fringe over his forehead. These two distinct forms are used concurrently at all stages of the aes issues and at both 36
But the extant sculpture heads of Nero suggest a simpler explanation.
37
Viewed from the front Nero's hair is shown combed over a frame with each curl curving to the left, and slightly covering the first part of the next curl to the left. In right profile, this arrangement of the curls gives an effect of the hair being arched up from the forehead— the "in gradus" effect of the right facing coin portraits. In left profile one merely sees the downward inclination of each curl, as on the left facing coin portraits. This is the clearest possible indication that the die engravers used three dimensional imagines as their models for the emperor's head.
Three dimensional models must also have been used for some of the reverse types. The two representations of Victoria walking left
Plate VII, 205) and walking right (Plate VII, 200) on the dupondii at Plate V, 171) and "with closed door right" (Plate V, 165) are in fact two views of the same building. It is not easy to determine whether an architectural model was used or sets of drawings were made specially from the objects represented, but it is clear that considerable trouble was taken by the die engravers to reflect the character of the building.
Suetonius, Nero 51. For the style cf. Ovid A A 1.507.3, 343 and Quintilian Institutiones Oratoriae 12.10.47.
RIN 1897, pp. 285 ff.
See Plates XXIV and XXV.
From the die positions noted on Nero's regular aes coinages it is clear that fixed dies were used at both mints; but as there is evidence of heavy die linking among many groups of the coinage, the dies must have been slotted and not hinged. Otherwise dies could not have been used so freely in such combinations. Die positions do not vary greatly.↓ ↑ ↙↑, ↘ ↑ is the normal range. Minor differences in alignment between different pairs of dies are probably due to lack of care in determining the axis of the design. It is, for example, quite easy to give Nero an upward or downward gaze, and reverse types of this period do not usually have a distinct ground line. But it is highly significant that coins struck from the same pair of dies invariably have identical die positions, and brockage pieces have a correspondingly inverted one.
At the Roman imperial mints, as at all state mints, there must have been different levels of responsibility within the machinery of government; and at each level the administration must have enjoyed freedom of action within circumscribed limits. For the western mints of Nero we can now suggest with some confidence the scope of the authority and discretion allowed to various levels of the administration. We have distinguished the coinages of the two great western mints, the successive issues at each mint, and the features
Decisions made centrally by the government and applied uniformly in contemporary issues at both mints cover the use of important elements of imperial titulature—of IMP as cognomen and after mid-66 the later change to IMP as a praenomen. In this, as in the tribunician dating, the mints must have followed general government instructions. These must also have covered the denominations to be struck, the employment of orichalcum for all aes denominations in a.d. 64/65, the addition of the mark of value to the dupondius and lower denominations, and the reversion to the earlier pattern of coinage in orichalcum for sestertii and dupondii with copper for the asses and semisses.
In some matters each mint is uniform in its own issues, but differs from the practice at the other mint. In these cases, decisions must have been made by each mint master for his own establishment. At each mint there is a characteristic form of obverse bust truncation, but whereas aes denominations are differentiated by different types of imperial portrait, but the two mints do not follow the same practice. For dupondii the regular form is a radiate head at
Within the general pattern of the coinage at each mint some further variations of detail seem to have a close chronological significance, like the use of the elongated bust truncation in Issues L-III and L-IV A, and the removal of SC to the exergue on Securitas dupondii for Issue L-VI. Both these forms are applied uniformly at the time and must have been the subject of directives from the mint master. But the great majority of minor variations seem to occur contemporaneously in the same issues, and the variant forms often continue in use side by side in several successive issues. Minor variants of obverse legend shortening
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP into
NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP P and
lengthening
IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP and
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TRP PP into
IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR POT PP
were certainly due to individual die engravers. Other variants again must have been merely slips or mistakes that passed unchecked, e.g., RMA for ROM on an orichalcum semis,
38
and IT as the mark of value on an orichalcum As.
39
Individual engravers equally seem to have been responsible for the variant of right and left facing portraits which are found concurrently in all the aes issues. The direction of the head certainly has no chronological significance, and is unconnected with the officina organization, but the use of both right and left facing heads will have facilitated the work of a number of die engravers working from a limited number of sculptural imagines.
Altogether, from the multiplicity of these variants, we can piece together something of the practical working of the Roman imperial mint machinery, and distinguish not only the different types of instruction given, but also the scope for discretion allowed to the various officials charged with implementing them.
BMCRE I, p. 252, 268.
Ex Nummis Historia II, 542. There are other examples from the same reverse die in Copenhagen and the
Most of the innovations introduced by Nero into the western coinage are well known. He reduced the gold and silver standard by reducing the weight of the aureus and by debasing the silver while reducing the weight of the denarius. He opened or reopened a branch of the western mint at aes coinage. And he introduced a general orichalcum coinage for all the aes denominations, at first without SC, but later with SC and distinguishing marks of value. Many numismatists have suspected that some of these measures were related, but the precise connection between them has hitherto remained obscure and the subject of conjecture. An equally important measure which has not hitherto been fully recognized was the reduction of the al marco standard of the aes denominations, by much the same extent as the reduction of the gold and silver standard.
The detailed analysis of Nero's gold and silver and aes coinages into their successive issues throws considerable light on the scope, context and duration of these measures. The reduction of the gold and silver standard had a lasting effect on the imperial coinage. All the subsequent gold and silver issues of Nero followed the reduced standard of the first undated issue; and the year of the reform eventually became a critical one in the circulation of gold and silver. The reduction in the al marco standard of the aes coinages, was never subsequently restored. All the later aes issues of Nero and subsequent emperors were struck to the reduced weight range. But as the aes was a token coinage and the new standard covered a range of weights which overlapped much of the weight range of the preceding standard, the measure did not materially affect the continued circulation of the earlier aes issues. The opening of the branch mint at aes at 1
thought that the general orichalcum coinage continued at aes at aes without SC at aes at aes, we can trace the relative chronology of Nero's currency innovations.
a.d. 62 — Copper asses and semisses without SC
aes Issue I introduced during gold and silver issue TRP VIII
63 — General orichalcum coinage without SC
aes Issue II introduced during gold and silver issue TRP VIIII
64 — General orichalcum coinage with SC and marks of value
aes Issue III introduced during the gold and silver issue of TRP X
Late 64 — Reduction of the gold and silver standard
Reduction of the al marco aes standard introduced during
Branch mint opened at
aes Issue L-III, just before the end of
Early 65 — Extensive recoinage of aurei on reduced standard
Late 65 — Restoration of earlier Julio-Claudian aes denominations aes Issue IV
Nero, pp. 22–23.
The general character of Nero's measure has long been recognized. After the gold and silver issue dated TRP X, the weight of the aureus was reduced to 1/45th of a pound of gold
2
and of the denarius to 1/96th of a pound of silver,
3
and the silver content of the denarius was lowered by between 5 and 10%.
There has been considerable dispute about the motive for altering the weight standards. The reform has often been regarded as the device of a financially embarrassed administration when its resources had been depleted by the personal extravagance of the emperor, expensive foreign wars and the disastrous fire at 4
Soutzo, by contrast, suggested that the reform was an elaborate and ambitious scheme to unify the eastern and western coinages of the Empire.
5
It has also been argued that the reform was an attempt to adjust the coinage to the current market value of gold and silver, and that it was designed to check the export of silver out of the empire and ensure an adequate supply of coinage at home:
6
and West has reminded us that the debasement of the silver may merely have been an attempt to improve the wearing quality of the metal.
7
The reduction of the gold and silver standards must be placed after the issue of aurei and denarii struck on the old standard and dated TRP X (December a.d. 63/64). TRP X was a full issue in Nero's dated series, and its coins are as common as those of any other previous year of the dated coinage.
8
Moreover, between the latest coins struck on the old standard and the earliest undated ones of the reduced standard there is a remarkable break. The portraiture on the new coins (Plate I, 22 ff.) is more developed and realistic, their conception and style are more inspired and vigorous and they have
Plate I, 13–20).
During the fifty years between a.d. 14 and the year of the reform there had been some slight modification in the weight standards of both the gold and silver at 9
"Postea placuit xxxx signari ex auri libris paulatimque principes inminuere pondus et novisissime Nero ad xxxxv," has been fully confirmed by the weights of surviving specimens. A frequency table of aureus weights (Appendix II, Table 1) shows a point of concentration at 7.8 gm. for 10
The same trends can be seen in the frequency table of denarius weights. (Appendix II, Table 2).
There is no reason to doubt the established view that these fluctuations in the denarius weight standard reflect an attempt by the mint to adjust the relative weights of the aureus and denarius to the changing relative values of gold and silver on the open market.
11
Prima facie it would seem that the gradual and slight reduction in the aureus weight standard was designed to serve the same purpose; and West has used these data to calculate that the ratio of gold to silver was 1:11.82 under 12
It is, however, far from clear why the mint should have
Mommsen's view that the gradual reduction of the aureus weight represented a measure of illegal profit for the mint officials is equally unconvincing.
13
The policy of gradual reduction was in fact a regular and long continued one which was pursued again after the reform of Nero, and it is far more likely that the profit benefited the government. The government can, however, probably be absolved from any fraudulent intent, as its policy seems to have been designed primarily to ensure that the weight of new aurei minted each year was not materially higher than the average weight of the aurei of previous emperors still remaining in circulation. The total reduction in the weight of the aureus between a.d. 14 and 64 did not amount to more than 0.2 gm.—and this is just about the loss in weight due to wear that one might expect after an aureus had circulated for about a half century. For example, Nero's undated aurei both
14
in the 1927 15
seem to have lost about 0.3 gm. in a century of circulation. Their weights show a clear point of concentration at 7.0 gm. whereas the point of concentration for well preserved undated aurei of Nero is 7.3 gm. The same device of gradually reducing the weight standard of the aureus was employed again in the period after the reform. West's frequency
16
The general success of this monetary policy is well demonstrated in the remarkably close range of the weights of aurei of different emperors in hoards that cover a fairly long period.
Nero's alteration in the aureus weight standard was quite different in kind from the gradual reduction that had taken place in the earlier Julio-Claudian period. His undated aurei show a distinct point of concentration at 7.3 gm.–o.3 gm. lower than the point of concentration of the aurei of the immediately preceding issue dated TRP X, and, so far as can be ascertained, 0.3 gm. lower than the average weight of the aurei of
The sudden lowering of the weight standard did not immediately drive the earlier and heavier aurei out of circulation. Throughout the Flavian period, they are still to be found in hoards, presumably because their bullion value did not yet exceed their nominal value;
17
but they do seem to occur less commonly in normal circulation. The mint certainly seems to have made a resolute effort to replace as much as it could of the earlier and heavier gold coinage by freshly minted aurei struck on the new and lower standard; and there were very large issues of aurei in the year of the reform. The maximum
imperator, and little more than 10% can be attributed to the last two years of his principate (a.d. 66–68). In the hoards of Flavian and later date there is a remarkably large number of Nero's post-reform aurei compared with the issues of the eleven years of the principates of Vespasian and Titus. In an analysis of Flavian gold hoards
18
I have noted 180 aurei from the eleven years of the principates of Vespasian and Titus compared with 81 undated aurei of Nero; and no less than 70 of Nero's aurei were struck in the year and a half that followed the reform. There is no reason why a hoarder should prefer Nero's post-reform aurei to those of Vespasian and Titus. Both groups were struck in equally fine gold on the same weight standard—the weights of each show a clear point of concentration at 7.3 gm. The inevitable conclusion is that issues of Nero's undated aurei before mid-a.d. 66 were much more extensive than in any comparable period during the principates of Vespasian and Titus. Coins from the 1927
The reform of the silver took place at the same time as the alteration in the weight standard of the gold and must have been part of the same general measure. Issues of denarii are closely parallel to those of the aurei in both the dated and undated series. The proportional reduction in the bullion value of the denarius was very similar to the contemporary reduction in the real value of the aureus, and ultimately the year of the reform was a critical date in hoards of both aurei and denarii. But, at the time the reform of the silver seems to have been regarded as quite secondary. Mattingly suggested
19
that Nero may have called in the old silver coinage in a.d. 65; but unlike the aurei there is no indication of any replacement of earlier denarii by large issues of fresh coin on the new standard until the middle years of Vespasian. Hoards of post-reform denarii
20
there are 102 postreform denarii of Nero, an annual average of 25, but 2,174 denarii of Vespasian and Titus, an annual average of about 200. From the Falkirk hoard
21
it is clear that the exceptionally large issue is that of Vespasian in a.d. 75; and this strongly suggests that the heavier denarii of the early empire were replaced not under Nero but under Vespasian.
22
Pliny, NH 13.3.13.
BMC RE I, pp. xliv–xlv.
Cf. Grant, Roman Imperial Money, pp. 247–8.
M. C. Soutzo, "Étude sur les monnaies impériales romanes II. Le Système monétaire de Néron," RN 1898, pp. 659–66.
T. L. Comparette, "Debasement of the Silver Coinage under Nero," AJN 1913, pp. 131–41, and Mattingly Roman Coins, pp. 124–5.
L. C. West, Gold and Silver Coin Standards in the Roman Empire, ANSNNM 94 (
See the numbers in the Pudukota hoard NC 1898, pp. 304–20.
Pliny, NH 13.13.47.
BMCRE I, p. lii.
West, ANSNNM 94, p. 56.
West, ANSNNM 94, p. 8.
Theodor Mommsen, Histoire de la monnaie romaine 3 (
S. L. Cesano, "Ripostiglio di aurei imperiali rinvenuto a Roma," Bulletino della Commissione Archeologia Communale di Roma 1930, pp. 14, 83–5.
M. Thirion, Le trésor de Liberchies. Aurei des I er et IIe siècles (Brussels, 1972).
West, ANSNNM 94, pp. 17–19.
16 Cf. the weights of coins throughout the 1927
As Sture Bolin points out in State and Currency in the Roman Empire (Stockholm, 1958), Chapter 4.
In a study of the circulation of gold under the early empire—now in draft.
Mattingly, Roman Coins, p. 186.
One result of the change in the denarius weight standard in a.d. 65 was that the eastern silver coinages enjoyed a more favorable relationship with the Roman denarius. Mattingly has argued against this, on the grounds that the eastern provincial silver suffered a corresponding reduction, but although some adjustments were made to the eastern silver coinages at the end of Nero's principate, they were not so drastic.
After regular yearly issues of tetradrachms at Antioch from a.d. 59/60 there was an abrupt break after the issue dated a.d. 63/64,
23
just at the time of the gold and silver reform at the mint of a.d. 68 the denomination was struck to a weight standard that was virtually the same as that used before a.d. 64. The single tetradrachm quoted by Wruck for a.d. 68 has a weight of 14.40 gm.—a mere 1% less than the 14.53 gm. which he gives as the average weight of 66 tetradrachms of Nero's earlier period.
24
It can be seen from
a.d. 65. Spectrographic analysis,
25
moreover, has shown that the proportion of silver in the Antioch tetradrachms remained unchanged. Coins of Vespasian contain 90% silver as do the early tetradrachms of Nero, whereas the silver content of the Roman denarius was reduced by between 5 and 10%. There is no suggestion in hoards that a.d. 65 was a critical year for the circulation of Antioch tetradrachms, as it proved to be ultimately for the Roman denarius. In the Tyre hoard,
26
buried during the Flavian period, there were 32 early tetradrachms of Nero out of the 38 imperial tetradrachms that it contained; all the imperial denarii in the hoard from Eleutheropolis
27
were postreform coins, but n of the 28 Antioch tetradrachms were issued before a.d. 65; the fifth Dura hoard,
28
which had imperial denarii from the reform to the time of Commodus, had 5 early tetradrachms of Nero; and 3 of the 28 tetradrachms in the Nineveh hoard
29
were struck in a.d. 59/60, 62/63 and 63/64, whereas its Roman denarii rangep from Galba to Geta as
The weight standard of the drachm at Caesarea in Cappadocia was reduced slightly after a.d. 64 and its silver content also was slightly lowered, but its circulation does not appear to have been affected by these changes. Table 4 in Appendix II shows that the weights of Vespasian's drachms range from 3.3 to 3.6 gm. whereas those of Nero before a.d. 65 range from 3.4 to 3.7 gm. This difference of 0.1 gm. represents a weight reduction of about 3%. Earlier drachms of Nero contain about 67% silver, whereas those of Vespasian contain only 60%.
30
It is interesting to note that there is
a.d. 65 in the only large hoard of first century silver from Cappadocea that has been recorded so far—the hoard found ca. 1906 at Caesarea which contained local silver from 31
The differing extent of these changes in the silver coinages at 32
It will be noted that the post-reform silver content of the drachm at Antioch was made virtually the same as that of the denarius at 34
and Dura-Europus
35
and in the hoards from Eleutheropolis and Nineveh.
36
The silver content of the drachm at 37
N. A. Mouchmov, Le trésor numismatique de Reka-Devnia (Sofia, 1934).
NC 1934, PP. 1–30.
There is further evidence of such a Flavian review of earlier silver in the rare countermarks ZNum 1876, pp. 354–74; ZNum 1887, pp. 67–74). The denarius of Vespasian dated COS V with this countermark in Oxford gives a.d. 74 as the terminus post quem for its application.
Wruck, Die syrische Provinzialprägung, p. 182.
Wruck, Die syrische Provinzialprägung, p. 87.
See the analyses in Appendix A.
S. P. Noe, A Bibliography of Greek Coin Hoards, ANSNNM 78 (Cat., pp. 24–25).
J. N. Svoronos, JIAN 1907, pp. 230–52.
E. T. Newell, The Fifth Dura Hoard, ANSNNM 58 (
NC 1931, pp. 160–70.
See the analyses in Appendix I.
Agnes Baldwin, "Un trésor monétaire découvert à Césarée en Cappadoce," Arethuse 1927, pp. 145–72.
These figures are based on the analyses in Appendix I.
The figures for the theoretical drachm at Antioch are quoted to make comparison easier with the Roman denarius and Caesarean drachm. They are simply the weights, etc., of the tetradrachm divided by four.
D. B. Waagé, Antioch-on-the-Orontes IV, Pt. 2 (Princeton, 1952), pp. 93 ff.
A. R. Excavations at Dura-Europos VI, The Coins (New Haven, 1949), pp. 30ff.
See notes 29 and 31 above.
Nero's experiment omitting SC from Issues I and II of the aes at aes was the introduction of the general orichalcum coinage at 38
This had meant that the copper As under 39
and there are no asses or lower denominations in copper that can be attributed to the mint of
The sestertii and dupondii of the general orichalcum coinage were struck to the weight standard that had been used by
Soutzo has argued
40
that Nero's orichalcum coinage was part of a general measure to unify the structure of coinage throughout the empire. He believed that the Roman system, previously quite independent, was adapted to that of the Greek coinage, with proportional values that could easily be related. As noted above, this was certainly one of the results of the reduction of the silver standard, even though it was not apparently the primary purpose of the measure. There are, however, serious difficulties in reconciling Nero's new orichalcum coinage at aes systems current in the Greek cities of the east; and as Sydenham points out,
41
the elaborate statistics of coin weights tabulated by Soutzo deviate considerably from the actual weights of the coins as we know them. But we now know that the denominations in brass at Corinth during the early Julio-Claudian period were in fact known as As, semis and quadrans,
42
and their weights cover much the same range as the same denominations at aes in brass came from the east, and to this extent Soutzo is vindicated, even though the introduction of the general orichalcum coinage can no longer be regarded as the complementary part of the gold and silver reform.
The normal equation of the drachm of asses in Caesarea in Cappadocia, pp. 4–5, 38–40. Their silver content is, however, approximately equal to a silver quinarius and denarius respectively; and their signs of value can equally well be 12 and 24 assaria (= ½ and 1 denarius).
BMCRE Intro., p. xlvii.
Sydenham, Nero, p. 16 following in part the idea of Soutzo, RN 1898, PP. 659–66.
RN 1898, pp. 659–66.
Sydenham, Nero, pp. 19 ff.
D. W. MacDowall, NC 1962, pp. 113–23.
The relative sequence of Nero's measures reinforces this interpretation. The general orichalcum coinage was first introduced in a.d. 64. The reduction in the gold and silver standard did not occur until the end of that year, and was itself paralleled by a comparable reduction in the al marco standard of the aes, during the course of aes Issue III at
Whereas the Roman imperial gold and silver was struck al peso, so that changes in the weight standard were immediately noticeable, the aes denominations were struck al marco, and the weights of a denomination in any given issue cover quite a wide range. The spread of weights in fact tends to obscure changes in metrology introduced by the mint; and as the aes was largely a token coinage providing the small change for the gold and silver, these adjustments in weight hardly ever affected the circulation of an aes denomination. But when a sufficiently large number of coin weights are plotted in a frequency table there is no difficulty in determining the normal weight range for an issue, and by plotting the weights of successive issues, we readily see the changes in the al marco standard.
It will be seen from the frequency table of the sestertii and dupondii (Appendix B, Table 5) that the range of weights in Issue II, when Nero introduced the general orichalcum coinage, is much the same as under Claudius; in Issue IV, after Nero abandoned the general orichalcum coinage, the range of weights is appreciably lower; and in Issue III, the general orichalcum coinage with SC, the weights cover both ranges. This clearly suggests that the reduction in weight standard took place in the course of Issue III. The order of the reduction for the dupondius is from ca. 16 gm. to ca. 14 gm.—about 10%. There are comparable changes in metrology during the course of successive issues of the orichalcum asses (Appendix B, Table 7.).
There is also a comparable reduction in the range of weights of the copper asses at
The key to the interpretation of Nero's measures is to be found in the different ways in which the mint dealt with the gold and silver and aes.
The general orichalcum coinage was indeed an imaginative project, suggested by the pattern of imperial coinage in the east. But it was introduced without any alteration to the gold and silver standard, and was not an ancillary part of a gold and silver measure. When the gold and silver standard was subsequently reduced, the al marco standard of the aes was reduced pari passu. The experiment of the general orichalcum coinage was ultimately abandoned when the authorities found it necessary to devote the production of all six officinae at
The parallel reduction of the gold and silver content of the coinage clearly rule out the suggested explanation that the chief purpose of that measure was to adjust the relative gold and silver content of aureus and denarius to the current relative values of the metals on the open market. Had this been the aim, there would have been no need to reduce the precious metal content of both denominations. And although the measure certainly ensured a better relationship between the denarius and the eastern silver, this cannot have been its sole or principal purpose. This aim could have been achieved more easily by improving the quality of silver at Antioch and Caesarea, or by an official exchange rate, measures which would have avoided the awkward necessity of recoining the existing gold in a very short time.
The hurried recoinage of a significant part of the gold currency already in circulation is perhaps the most remarkable feature of Nero's action in a.d. 65. Although the gold and silver standards were reduced at the same time, and the standard of the aes was adjusted to follow them, during the initial year of the changed
But the mint paid a heavy penalty for its hurried recoinage of the gold. It was forced to abandon its apparently successful introduction of a general orichalcum coinage, because the productive capacity of the mint was needed for more urgent work. When the coinage of aes was resumed at aes are commonly found; and the return to the existing pattern of currency would enable the authorities to devote their resources to meeting these needs, without the additional problem of replacing all the existing copper denominations.
The sudden interruption of the carefully laid plans for the general orichalcum coinage suggests a situation of some emergency, and from what we now know of the chronology of Nero's measures, there
a.d. 64 and during a.d. 65, the period that followed the Great Fire at 43
This disaster had added another unexpected burden on the finances of the empire, at a time when resources must have already been depleted by the ambitious projects of Nero and by prolonged warfare in Britain and 44
The interval between the Great Fire in July 64, and the reduction of the gold and silver standard with its profitable recoinage of the gold is indeed just the interval that one would expect before the administration could assess the full extent of the increased financial burden it would have to face and could devise and implement measures to meet it. It therefore seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the reduction of the gold and silver standard under Nero was a direct consequence of the Great Fire at a.d. 64; and that a calculated devaluation of the real worth of the coin denominations then in circulation was one of a variety of measures to raise funds for Nero's depleted treasury. To this extent, the analysis and arrangement of the coinage into its successive issues can throw light on the disputed motives of a complicated set of monetary measures.
Tacitus, Annals 15.38. ff
Tacitus, Annals 15.45.
Perhaps the most interesting and significant conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is the orderly and essentially simple administrative framework responsible for producing the coinage. The western coinages of Nero are extremely rich and varied; but from the multiplicity of types and varieties we can now trace with reasonable confidence the significance of the major component elements.
The product of the branch mint at officinae, the administrative sub-divisions of both the mint of aes have been distinguished by objective criteria, set in their relative sequence on the evidence of internal and progressive development, and related to those of the issues that have a tribunician date.
It should not pass unnoticed that this independent arrangement falls naturally into a clear pattern of one major aes issue for each year from a.d. 62 to the end of Nero's principate. The issues of gold and silver also fall naturally into one major issue for each year, except for the period between a.d. 64 and 66; and even in this highly exceptional period there remain traces of the same regular and recurrent pattern of issues—with a distinguishable stage for each year. Throughout the whole coinage we can see links between related denominations, at least between aurei and denarii, between sestertii and dupondii and between asses, semisses and quadrantes. As a result we can be reasonably precise about the dating of issues even when they are actually undated. Technically the tribunician
Moreover this sort of juxtaposition of issues suggests that there may at times have been a systematic cyclical pattern of production at the mint of aes denominations in say a.d. 62, 63, 67 and 68. In fact, this may well reflect normal Julio- Claudian mint practice more accurately than the exceptional arrangements evolved for a.d. 64 to 66, to meet the exceptional circumstances of those years.
* An asterisk in front of a catalogue number indicates that the variety is illustrated in the accompanying plates. In each case, it is the example quoted first in the catalogue that is illustrated.
Where more than one example of a variety is illustrated, the coins in the plate for that catalogue number are shown in the order in which they are cited in the catalog entry and text discussion.
+ A frequency mark (+) after an entry for an aureus or denarius indicates that the variety is regularly represented in hoards. A frequency mark (+) after an entry for a sestertius, dupondius, As semis or quadrans indicates that the variety has been noted from three distinct obverse and reverse dies.
Die links between examples of aes denominations cited in the catalogue are shown in the following way:
The catalogue is intended to be a catalogue of types and varieties, and not a catalogue of dies. While examples are quoted wherever possible from three distinct obverse and reverse dies, this is merely to establish the substantive varieties in each issue. Minor die varieties are therefore grouped together as a single entry in the catalogue, which does not, for example, distinguish the different number of ships on different Ostia reverse dies, or the different composition of the pile of arms on the Roma reverse dies.
The dates given in the catalogue to successive issues are those suggested in Chapters 9 and 10.
(1) Quadriga
EX SC in exergue. Quadriga drawn r. by four horses.
(2) Wreath
EX SC within oak wreath. Legends:
NERONI CLAVD DIVI F CAES AVG GERM IMP TRP
PONTIF MAX TRP II PP (Plate I, 4)
PONTIF MAX TRP III PP
PONTIF MAX TRP IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP V PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VI COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VII COS IIII PP
(3) Chariot
AGRIPP AVG DIVI CLAVD NERONIS CAES MATER
In field, EX SC Divus
(Plate I, 3)
(4) Ceres
EX SC in field. Ceres veiled standing l., r. holding two corn ears and poppy, l. a long torch. Legends:
PONTIF MAX TRP VII COS IIII PP (Plate I, 11)
PONTIF MAX TRP VIII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VIIII COS IIII PP
(5) Virtus
EX SC in field. Virtus, helmeted, standing l. with r. foot on helmet, r. holding parazonium, l. a long spear. Legends:
PONTIF MAX TRP VII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VIII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VIIII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP X COS IIII PP
(Plate I, 12)
(6) Roma
EX SC in field. Roma, helmeted, standing r. with l. foot on helmet, l. holding round shield which rests on l. knee, r. inscribing it. Legends:
PONTIF MAX TRP VII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VIII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP VIIII COS IIII PP
PONTIF MAX TRP X COS IIII PP
(Plate I, 13)
(7) Victory
VICT AVG Victory standing l., r. holding round shield.
(8)
AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS Nero radiate and togate standing facing, r. holding branch, l. victory on globe
(Plate I, 22).
(9)
AVGVSTVS AVGVSTA To l., Nero radiate and togate standing l., r. holding patera, l. a long sceptre; to r., Empress veiled standing l., r. holding patera, l. a cornucopiae (Plate I, 23).
(10) ConcordiaAugusta
CONCORDIA AVGVSTA Concordia seated l. on low stool, r. holding patera, l. a cornucopiae (Plate I, 24).
(11) Jupiter Custos
IVPPITER CVSTOS Jupiter with cloak round lower limbs seated l. on throne, r. holding thunderbolt, l. a long sceptre (Plate I, 25).
(12) Janus temple
IANVM CLVSIT PACE PR TERRA MARIQ PARTA
Closed door of the temple of Janus (Plate I, 26).
(13) Seated Roma (ex.)
ROMA in exergue. Roma helmeted seated l. on cuirass, with r. foot back resting on helmet; r. holding victory, l. resting on parazonium (Plate II, 27).
(14) Salus (ex.)
SALVS in exergue. Salus seated l. on throne, r. holding patera, l. resting on side (Plate II, 28).
(15) Vesta
VESTA Front view of temple of Vesta. In center, figure of Vesta seated, r. holding patera, l. a long sceptre (Plate II, 29).
(16) Seated Roma (fd.)
ROMA across field. Otherwise as (13).
(17) Salus (fd.)
SALVS across field. Otherwise as (14) (Plate II, 68).
(18) Eagle and Standards
Legionary eagle between two standards
(Plate II, 69).
(21) Adlocutio
ADLOCVT COH in exergue. To r., low platform, from which Nero, standing l., accompanied by the praetorian prefect, addresses three soldiers standing in single file r., the front two carrying standards. In background, a domed building.
Plate II, 76) Issue III, SC
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-III-VI, SC (Plate XII, 405)
(22) Annona
ANNONA AVGVSTI CERES To r., Ceres seated l., l. holding torch, r. corn ears: facing her, Annona standing r., dressed in tunic and outer garment that falls below her waist, l. holding cornucopiae; between them, garlanded altar on which stands modius; in background, prow of corn ship r.
Plate II, 71) Issue III, SC
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-III-VI, SC (Plate XIII, 406)
(23) Congiarium l.
On l., high platform on which Nero seated r.; in front, an attendant seated r. at top of ladder distributing largess to a citizen who stands l. with one foot on rungs: behind the citizen, little boy standing l.;
in background on l., figure of Minerva, r. holding owl and 1. spear; on r., figure of Liberalitas standing 1. on lower pedestal, r. holding tessera.
ROME:
Sest. Issue II, without SC, CONG II DAT POP R
CONG II DAT POP
Issue III, SC, CONG II DAT POP
(Plate III, 106)
CONG I DAT POP (Plate III, 106(1))
LUGD:
Sest. Issues L-IVA-VI, SC, CONG I DAT POP
(Plate XIII, 432)
(24) Congiarium r.
On r., low platform on which Nero seated l.; behind, praefectus annonae standing facing; in front, an attendant standing l. handing tessera to citizen standing r.; in background, statue of Minerva standing l., r. holding owl, l. spear; behind to l., low building with flat roof.
Sest. Issue II, without SC, CONG II DAT POP Issue III, SC, CONG II DAT POP
(Plate III, 88)
LUGD:
Sest. Issue L-IV, SC, CONG II DAT POP
(25) Decursio r.
DECVRSIO in exergue. Nero cuirassed and with short tunic, r. holding spear, riding on horse prancing r.; behind him soldier on horseback r., carrying vexillum at the slope over r. shoulder.
Issue III, SC (Plate IV, 108)
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-IVA-VI, SC
(Plate XIV, 474)
(26) Decursio l.
DECVRSIO in exergue. As (25), but Nero and attendant riding l.
Plate IV, 109)
(27) Decursio Vex.
DECVRSIO in exergue. Nero cuirassed and with short tunic, r. holding spear, riding on horse prancing r.; two attendants on foot in front and behind, the one in front carrying a vexillum.
Sest. Issue II, without SC (Plates II, 74, III, 78) Issue III, SC
(28) Janus TERRA door r.
PACE PR TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, SC 1. and r. in field. View of temple of Janus "closed door right," showing the front, a closed door with wreath hung across the top, and left-hand side with latticed window.
Plate V, 165)
Issue VI
Dup. Issue IV (Plate VIII, 218)
As. Issue IV (Plate XI, 283)
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-IVB–VI (Plate XIII, 419)
As. Issues L-IVA–V (Plate XIX, 563)
(29) Janus TERRA door l.
PACE PR TERRA MARIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, SC
l. and r. in field. View of temple of Janus "closed door left," showing the front, a closed door with wreath hung across top, and right-hand side with latticed window.
Issue VI (Plate V, 171)
Dup. Issue L-IV As. Issue L-IV
(30) Ostia
Bird's eye view of harbor at Ostia. At the top, pharos surmounted by statue of Neptune; below, reclining figure of Tiber l., l. holding dolphin, and r. rudder; on r., crescent-shaped row of breakwaters; on l., crescent-shaped mole with porticoes; in the harbor, a varying number of ships.
(Plate III, 105)
AVGVSTI PORT OST SC LUGD: Sest. Issues L-IV–VI PORT AVG SC
(Plate XIII, 420)
(31) Roma, vict. and paraz.
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. in field. Roma seated l. on cuirass, r. holding victory and resting l. hand on parazonium; behind the cuirass a pile of arms, different on different specimens.
Plate IV, 16o)
Dup. Issue IV (Plate VIII, 220)
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-IVB–VI (Plate XIII, 428)
(31a) Roma, vict. and shield l.
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. in field. As (31) but resting l. hand on shield.
Dup. Issue IV A
(32) Roma vict. and spear.
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. in field. Roma seated l. on cuirass, r. holding victory, l. spear.
Plates IV, 155, V, 172) Dup. Issue IV-V
(32 a) Roma wreath and spear
As (32), but Roma holding wreath instead of victory.
(33) Roma shield l.
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. in field. Roma seated l. on cuirass, r. holding spear, resting l. arm on shield. Plate V, 168)
Dup. Issue VI (Plate IX, 240)
(34) Roma shield r.
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. in field. Roma seated r. on cuirass, l. holding spear, resting r. arm on shield.
Plate V, 169)
Dup. Issue VI
(35) Arch
SC l. and r. in field. Triumphal arch, wreath hung across front and l. side; above, the Emperor in facing quadriga escorted by Victory on r. and Peace on l.; on extreme r. and l., two small figures of soldiers; on l., a statue of Mars in niche.
Plate III, 101)
LUGD: Sest. Issues L-IVA–VI (Plate XIV, 452)
(36) Macellum
Front view of the Macellum Magnum.
(Plate VI, 180)
Issue II MAC AVG, SC and īī
(Plate VIII, 207)
LUGD: Dup. Issues L-III–IVA MAC AVG, SC
(Plate XIV, 493)
(37) Securitas
SECVRITAS AVGVSTI Securitas seated r. on throne, 1. holding sceptre and resting r. elbow against throne. In front, garlanded and lighted altar against which leans lighted torch resting on bucranium. Plate VI, 183) Issue III, SC and īī (Plate VII, 198) LUGD: Dup. Issues L-III–IVA, SC and īī
(Plate XV, 494)
Issues L-IVB–V, SC
(Plate XVII, 525)
Issues L-VI, SC in exergue
(Plate XVII, 535)
(38) Victoria
l.
VICTORIA AVGVSTI Victoria draped, flying l., with her r. leg well forward and clear of her drapery, r. holding wreath and l. palm.
Plate VII, 185)
Issue III, SC and īī (Plate VII, 205)
LUGD: Dup. Issue L-III, SC and ī
(Plate XV, 496)
(Plate XV, 496)
(39) Victoria
l. wk.
VICTORIA AVGVSTI Victoria walking l., r. holding wreath, l. a palm, with r. leg shrouded in folds of her drapery. Beneath, a ground line.
LUGD: Dup. Issues L-III–IVA, SC and īī
(Plate XV, 495)
Issues L-IVB–VI, SC
(Plate XVII, 518)
(40) Victoria
r.
VICTORIA AVGVSTI Victoria draped, flying r., with r. leg well forward and clear of drapery, r. holding wreath and l. palm.
Plate VII, 200)
(41) Janus VBIQ door r.
PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, SC l. and r. View of the temple of Janus "closed door right," showing the front, a closed door with wreath hung across top, and left-hand side with latticed window. Plate VIII, 235)
Issue VI
C. As. Issues L-IV–V (Plate XI, 288)
(42) Janus VBIQ door l.
PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT, SC l. and r. View of the temple of Janus "closed door left," showing the front, a closed door with wreath hung across top, and right-hand side with latticed window.
Issue VI (Plate IX, 238)
C. As. Issues IV–V
Issue VI (Plate XI, 300)
(43) Roma wreath and parazonium
ROMA in exergue, SC l. and r. Roma seated l. on cuirass, r. holding wreath and resting l. hand on parazonium.
Plate VIII, 225)
(44) Apollo
Nero laureate advancing r., in flowing robes of Apollo citharoedus, l. holding lyre, r. playing it. Various legends:
(Plate IX, 242)
Legend (c), without SC (Plate IX, 246)
Or. As. Issue II, Legend (b), without SC
(Plate IX, 257)
Issue III, Legends (a), (b) and (c), SC and ī (Plate X, 262), (b), (c)
LUGD: Or. As. Issues L-III, Legend, (b) SC and ī
(Plate XVII, 539)
C. As. Transitional group, Legend (b), SC and ī
(Plate XVIII, 542)
Issues L-IVA–IVB, Legend (b), SC (Plate XVIII, 547)
(45) Ara
ARA PACIS in exergue, SC l. and r. The wall of an altar enclosure, behind which are horns l. and r. The wall has four decorated panels and a narrow door in the center.
LUGD: C. As. Issues L-II–IV (Plate XVIII, 561)
(46) Genius
GENIO AVGVSTI Genius standing l., l. holding cornucopiae, r. holding patera in act of sacrificing over a lighted altar l.
(Plate IX, 255)
Or. As. Issue II, without SC
(Plate X, 261)
Issue III, SC and ī (Plate X, 267)
LUGD: Or. As. Issues L-III, SC and ī
(Plate XVIII, 538)
C. As. Issues L-IVA–V, SC
(Plate XVIII, 544)
(47) Victory
SC l. and r. Victory draped flying l., holding in both hands a shield inscribed SPQR*
Plate XI, 290)
LUGD: As. Issues L-IV–V (Plate XIX, 574)
(48) Roma
Roma seated l. on cuirass, r. holding wreath and resting l. hand on parazonium as in (31), but with legends:
Issue IB, without SC
(Plate XII, 304)
Or. Sem. Issue III, SC and S
(Plate XII, 331)
LUGD: C. Sem. Issue L-IVB, SC
(Plate XX, 608)
Issue L-V, SC (Plate XX, 626)
(49) Table
A gaming table ornamented by two griffins. On it, urn l. and wreath r. Against its central leg rests a round shield. Legends:
(Plate XII, 307)
Or. Sem. Issue III, SC, S
(Plate XII, 327)
LUGD: Or. Sem. Issues L-III, SC
(Plate XX, 604)
C. Sem. Issues L-IVA–V, SC
(Plate XX, 609)
(50) Branch
A laurel branch.
(Plate XII, 337)
Or. Q. Issue II, without SC
(Plate XII, 338)
Or. Q. Issue III, SC, sometimes
(Plate XII, 349)
C. Q. Issue IV, SC (Plate XII, 360)
(51) Column
A helmet placed r. on column; to r. a shield resting against column; behind, a spear pointing upward to r.
ROME: C. and Or. Q. sometimes as obverse, sometimes as reverse type. (Plate XII, 362)
(52) Victory r. Pallas
Victory advancing right, holding small figure of Pallas in r., and palm 1., SC 1. and r. in field.
ROME: Sest. Last Issue.
The principal forms of obverse legend on the aes are:
The variable elements in each of these forms are italicized. Entries in the catalogue for coins with these legends quote the appropriate reference letter followed by specification of these variable elements. The catalogue cites in full all other obverse legends.
Variations in the representation of the emperor's head, as bare, laureate or radiate are noted under the heading for each issue. Where more than one form is employed during an issue, the relevant form is additionally noted at each catalogue entry. Other attributes such as the aegis or globe are treated in a similar way. On sestertii at
One As in the ANS (Cat. 475) has the letters SCPR on the shield.
(Foldout Section)
Throughout the catalogue, the reverse type for each entry is indicated by a simple description with a reference number in brackets that refers to the fuller description of the type that is given in this foldout section. Variable features within each reverse type, such as the absence or presence of SC and marks of value,are noted under the heading for each issue, or against each entry where more than one form is employed in an issue. Of the reverse types listed in the foldout, types 1 to 18 are those of the gold and silver, and types 21 to 52 are those of the aes denominations.
: Aurei
Rome: Quadranies
Reads CONG īī DAT POP R
Reads CONG īī DAT POP SC
Reads CONG ī DAT POP SC
Reads CONG ī DAT POP SC RIC 112, BMC 136
Reads CONG īī DAT POP SC RIC 116, BMC 137
Reads CONG ī DAT POP
A dupondius of this type in the Almirall Coll. and another in
Without mark of value. Cf. RIC 274
These coins are illustrated on Plate XXIII.
RIC 225 (quoting the BM coin BMC 207) has been reworked. The wreath held by Roma seems to have been substituted for the original victory.
A further example in the BM from the same obv. and rev. dies is struck on a dupondius flan.
No mark of value in the exergue.
There is no external feature to distinguish Victory asses of Issue IV B from those of issue IVC, but they seem to have been struck concurrently with the two Janus temple types (see p. 83).
A coin in Oxford with these legends is struck on an undressed sestertius flan.
Obv. dies of this issue (one with head r., the other with head l.) have been used to strike a curious two-headed coin in the ANS.
An example in the ANS has an additional SC on the obverse under the altar. A coin in
The aegis is omitted in the BMC description.
An example in the Hermitage with these types and legends has obv. legend reading outwardly
An example in
There is no external feature to distinguish Victoria dupondii of Issue VI from those of Issue V, but the study of dies demonstrates that the Victoria type was struck concurrently with the new Securitas type of Issue VI
On this coin the legend on the shield is SCPR. See RIC 232
The coin in Mayenne has CLAD (sic) for CLAVD.
There is no simple feature to distinguish Victory Asses of Issue VI from those of Issue V, but there are good reasons for supposing that the Victory Asses were struck parallel with the sestertii and dupondii of Issue VI (see p. 107).
This BM coin (formerly in the Walters Coll.) is in orichalcum and weighs 8.45 gm. It seems to be an orichalcum As flan struck with copper semis dies.
The end of the obverse legend of this ANS coin is not clear.
In addition to the varieties that form part of the normal issues of Nero, there are some extremely rare coins in good style, sometimes die-linked with the normal varieties of regular issues, which seem to have been intended as trial strikings or patterns. Some are uniface; others are struck on the flan of a different denomination—presumably because such flans were readily available from current or recent minting operations, whereas flans for the denominations for which the new dies were being prepared may not have been available; others are overstruck on coins of closely contemporary date with different types.
The following seem to have been intended as trial strikings or patterns:
(Reference is to the Catalogue numbers)
(Reference is to the Catalogue numbers)
(+ — excluded from Mac Dowall—see below)
Categories excluded
This catalogue of the western coinages of Nero excludes a number of varieties with Latin legends (sometimes included in the Roman coinages) which were in fact struck at various mints in the east, such as:
Antioch in Syria—see Wruck, Die Syrische Provinzialprägung von
Caesarea in Cappadocia—see Sydenham, The Coinage of Caesarea in Cappadocia
a.d. 68," NC 1960, pp. 103–12
JIAN 1899, pp. 89–116
Other colonial mints—see Sydenham, The Coinage of Nero, pp. 137–69
The catalogue excludes varieties that can only be substantiated from forgeries—ancient or modem. Several entries in older catalogues quote coins that prove on inspection to be plated denarii or unofficial semisses that can hardly have been part of the regular production of the official mints. Unless the variety can also be substantiated from a genuine and regular coin, it has not been included.
The catalogue also excludes varieties that I have not been able to verify and vindicate from personal examination or from clear casts, photographs or rubbings. Although many new varieties have been discovered, it is surprising to find that quite a large number of the entries recorded in the RIC for Nero cannot be substantiated (varieties marked + in the concordance). In many cases it is possible to reexamine the coins from which the descriptions quoted in RIC from Sydenham, Cohen, Chedeau and de Sarcus, Gnecchi and others were originally made. Some of the unusual coins noted by Sydenham are now in the
Such reexamination of the source material can be illuminating. Sometimes a variety has been misdescribed by the first author and his misdescription has been faithfully recorded in subsequent works; in other cases a correct description of the original author has been misquoted in a later work; and sometimes a correct description has been arbitrarily given the wrong metal, denomination or mint. As this catalogue on the western coinages of Nero is in many cases based on the same material as the entries quoted by RIC, it seems appropriate to list individually all the varieties in RIC which cannot be substantiated, with a comment on any error or misdescription that can be traced.
Among the varieties excluded are those coins in BMC and RIC that belong to other mints, or are unofficial products. For convenient reference, three of these categories—plated denarii, unofficial semisses and the product of the Mint of BMC and RIC excluded. It is only by eliminating such ghosts from the catalogues, and recognizing the nature of the unofficial issues, that the regular pattern of the official coinage can be reconstructed.
Varieties in BMC excluded
BMC
109 Plated hybrid denarius—see plated denarii (9)
110 Aureus of unusual style—possibly Mint of Corinth—see entry for RIC 48 of varieties in RIC excluded from catalogue.
133 The obverse legend has been reworked at the end. As Mattingly noted, it seems to have read originally NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GER PM TRP IMP PP (not COS īī PP) and to have been Mac Dowall no. 105 166 The obverse legend has been retooled, as Mattingly noted. It seems originally to have been IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERM PM TRP XIII PP; and XIII has been reworked into IMP
BMC
211 Modem forgery—see entry for RIC 158 of varieties in RIC excluded from catalogue (Plate XXIII, x)
239 This coin in copper (Plate XXIII, w) which weighs 10.11 gm. seems to be an As. It has the obverse legend of that denomination at
309 The obverse legend has been retooled—see entry for RIC 120 of varieties in RIC excluded from catalogue.
372 This is a hybrid which seems to be the result of a trial striking—see p. 106 above.
391 This is a barbarous coin, as Mattingly noted.
405–27 Mint of Caesarea in Cappadocia
Varieties in RIC excluded
(the descriptions are those given or implied by RIC)
RIC
2–8 11–16 Mint of Caesarea in Cappadocia
23 Denarius COH 212 (P), but the com with this legend in
37–40 Mint of Caesarea in Cappadocia
48 Aureus, Denarius BM
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS laur. r.
Rev,: 1VPPITER LIBERATOR Jupiter seated l.
The coin in the BM is an aureus (BM 110, BMCRE I, pl. 40,15). There are two other examples—from Gnecchi's collection (RIN 1910 pl. VII, 2.) and in the
RIC
49 Aureus, Denarius COH 124 (Vaillant, Beger)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PP laur. r.
Rev.: IVPPITER LIBERATOR Jupiter seated l.
COH 124 describes an aureus only. He may possibly have misdescribed the obverse legend for RIC 48.
55 Denarius COH 319 (P) but the coin is a plated denarius— see plated denarii (8)
57 Denarius Sydenham 3 (Hall) but the coin is a plated denarius—see plated denarii (4)
59 Denarius De Quelen Coll.
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS PP laur. r.
Rev.: VESTA circular temple
But the fourrée denarius with this unusual obverse in the De Quelen Coll, has the reverse type legionary eagle between two standards—see plated denarii (10).
— Aureus COH 125 (Caylus)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAES AVG laur. r.
Rev.: LEIBERTAS Head of Liberty r.
An example of this gold coin in the Plate XXII, u) is struck from the same obverse die as an irregular silver coin in Copenhagen.
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAES AVG laur.r.
(Plate XXII, v)
Rev.: ROM ET AVG Altar of
The obverse portrait is clearly irregular—perhaps rather a modem than an ancient forgery (cf. SM 1965, pp. 90ff.). 72 Sest. COH 7 (no authority)
Obv.: C. PONT MAX TR POT laur. r. globe
Rev.: (21) Adlocutio without SC
This seems to have been a worn specimen of MacDowall 437 which has SC
79a Sest. Boudin-Bourgey,
Obv.: C. P MAX TR P PP laur. l. aegis
Rev.: (22) Annona SC
The cast in the BM from which this description seems to be derived has head laur. l. globe and is MacDowall 479.
RIC
84 Dup. Gnecchi Coll., now in Terme Museum,
(Plate XXIII, z)
Obv.: C. P. MAX TR P PP laur. r. globe
Rev.: (22) Annona SC
This coin has an unconvincing crack, which does not seem to have been caused by ancient striking. The obverse legend and globe are only found on issues of
85 Sest. Gnecchi Coll. (RIN 1905, p. 161 pl. VII, 1.)—now in Terme Museum,
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r. aegis
Rev.: (22) Annona without SC The reverse of this coin in the Terme has been tooled; there are disturbances in the exergue which make it difficult to be sure that it genuinely omits SC. The coin probably had the letters originally and so would be MacDowall 119.
89 Multiple Sest. Walters Coll. (NC 1915, p. 329f.)
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GER laur. r.
Rev.: (30) Ostia—seven ships AVGVSTI POR OST (101.29 gm.)
The weight of this piece suggests it may have been equal to 4 sestertii. Its genuineness has been questioned, but whether genuine or not, it can hardly have been intended as part of the normal coinage.
100 Sest. Sydenham 15.
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r. globe and aegis
Rev.: (30) Ostia—eight ships PORT AVG, SC
The coin described in Sydenham has aegis only—i.e. is MacDowall 120.
119 Sest. COH 71 (Autrefois
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GERM laur. l.
Rev.: (23) Congiarium l. CONG POP R, SC
RIC
The legend described by Cohen seems to be incomplete, with the number of the Congiarium and DAT missing. It may possibly be a misdescription of MacDowall 82.
120 Sest. COH 77 (BM)
Obv.: C. PONT MAX TRPOT PP laur. r. globe
Rev.: (23) Congiarium l. CONG] DAT POPVLO īī, SC BM 309 has this legend, but the reverse is worn and seems to have been tooled. The legend was probably originally the CONG T DAT POP normally found at
143 Sest. COH 95 (P)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GERM laur. l.
Rev.: (27) Decursio Vex without SC
The coin in
151 Sest. Fairbairn Coll.
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GERM laur. l.
Rev.: (35) Arch SC
This is a variety one might well expect in issue III at
158 C. As Sydenham 12 (Carfrae)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: (35) Arch SC
Three examples of this coin aee known: Plate XXIII, x). All three are struck from the same obverse and reverse dies, and from the same obverse die as the struck forgery in Oxford of a silver coin with a copper core (Plate XXIII, y). Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: Veiled head of Pietas r.
They are all modem forgeries. But the BM coin has been struck over a genuine dupondius of VICTORIA AVGVSTI
RIC
type with the mark of value. There are traeus of VI, TI and īī on the flan.
163 Sest. COH 136 (P)
Obv.: IMP NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM laur. r.
Rev.: (29) Janus TERRA door l. SC
Cohen's entry seems a partial description of a rather worn sestertius in
164 Sest. Sydenham 12 (BM)
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM laur. r. aegis
Rev.: (29) Janus TERRA door l. SC
The coin seems to be BM 166, which is heavily tooled toward the end of the legend and probably had TRP XIII PP originally, i.e. is MacDowall 171.
168 Sest.
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAES AVG IMP TR POT XI PP bust draped cuirassed r.
Rev.: (29) Janus TERRA door l. SC
The coin in
175 C. As COH 147
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r. globe
Rev.: (28) Janus TERRA door r. SC
Cohen's entry is merely "la mème médaille" "M.B.," and the preceding entry COH 146 has these types and legends "quelquefois dessous un globe." The coin described by Cohen under 147 therefore probably had no globe, and was the variety described in RIC 174, i.e. MacDowall 280.
186 Sest. COH 155 (Rollin)
Obv.: C. P MAX TRIB P PP laur. r.
Rev.: (28) Janus TERRA door r. SC
From the obverse legend, this should be a
RIC
itself is not misdescribed for C. P. MAX TR P PP laur. r. globe, i.e. is MacDowall 475.
189 Sest. Sydenham 41 (BM)
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM … TRP XII
Rev.: (28) Janus TERRA door r. SC
This seems to be BM 113, which in fact reads TRP XIII, i.e. is MacDowall 170.
190 C. As COH 163 (P)
Obv.: NERO CAESAR GER IMP laur. r.
Rev.: (42) Janus VBIQ door l. SC
Cohen also adds that SC is in exergue. The coin in
195 C. As COH 167 (Chedeau and de Sarcus)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERM laur. r. globe
Rev.: (42) Janus VBIQ door l. SC
This is the description in the publication of the find from Mayenne no. 114; but I found no such coin in the Mayenne museum. Most copper Asses in this find are of the
199 C. As COH 173 (no authority)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER bare l.
Rev.: (41) Janus VBIQ door r. SC
Cohen gives this obverse with a number of coins of the Janus VBIQ door r. type. He seems to have misdescribed an As of the Janus TERRA door r. type, with an obverse globe, MacDowall 578.
202 Dup. (no authority)
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GER laur. r.
Rev.: (41) Janus VBIQ door r. SC
Seems to be a misdescription (laureate for radiate) from a worn example of MacDowall 231.
RIC
204 C. As COH 176 (BM)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERMANIC laur.r.
Rev.: (41) Janus VBIQ door r. SC
No coin in the BM answers this description; but BM 233 has the same legend with Janus VBIQ door l. and Cohen's entry seems a misdescription for MacDowall 300.
217 Sest. COH 269
Obv.: C. PONTIF MAX TRIB POT PP laur. r. globe
Rev.: (31) ROMA viet. and paraz. SC
This is a variety one might well expect in Issue L-V.
223 Dup. Sydenham 34 (Sydenham Coll.) now in BM
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER rad. r.
Rev.: ROMA, SC. Roma seated l. holding wreath, her l. arm rests on shield placed on helmet.
The left side of the reverse field of the BM coin (Sydenham pi. II, fig. 28) has been reworked, and the present S, R (of ROMA) and the wreath have been tooled in. The wreath seems to have been inserted mistakenly for the victory which is found on the rare sestertii of this type, described in MacDowall 147 and 152. This dupondius is described by me as having the victory of MacDowall 217.
229 Sest. Sydenham 48 (Gnecchi Coll.)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r. globe
Rev.: Roma seated 1. holding spear, rests l. arm on shield ROMA, SC
The coin now in the Terme, formerly in the Gnecchi Collection, on which this entry seems to be based, has Nero's head laureate r. without a globe, and Roma holds not a spear but a victory. It is MacDowall 147.
230 Sest. Sydenham 49 (Brunet à Evreux)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. l.
Rev.: as 229 above.
In
RIC
MacDowall 158, and the fabrication is betrayed by the circular incision all around the outside of the obverse legend.
231 Dup. Sydenham 50 (Brunet à Evreux)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER rad. l.
Rev.: as 229 above.
I have not been able to substantiate this variety. If it genuinely exists it would be a hybrid with a reverse of issue VI and an obverse of issue IV, but the description may be incomplete and derived from a worn coin.
232 Sest. COH 285 (P)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r.
Rev.: (33) Roma shield l. SC
But COH 285 and the coin in
234A Dup. Sydenham 46 (Belfort)
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM … TRP XIII laur. r.
Rev.: (33) Roma shield l. SC
This coin is not described in the 1888 sale catalogue. It is probably a misdescription of a dupondius with a radiate head (MacDowall 240) or of a sestertius with a laureate head (MacDowall 168).
235 Sest. BM
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM laur. r. or l.
Rev.: (34) Roma shield r. SC
The only BM coin with this reverse BM 119 (BMCRE I Pl. 41,4) has obverse legend B. CLAVD … GERM … TRP XIII laur. l., i.e. is MacDowall 174. The variety with TRP XIII laur. r. is MacDowall 169.
236 Dup. Messenger Coll.
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM laur. r.
Rev.: (34) Roma shield r. SC
The Messenger coin with this reverse is illustrated in BMCRE I pl. 48,5 and has the obverse legend B. CLAVD … GERM … TRP XIII rad. r. and is MacDowall 241.
RIC
237 Sest.
Obv.: B. CLAVD … GERM laur. r. aegis
Rev.: (34) Roma shield r. SC
The
239 C. Sem. COH 272 (P). The coin is an unofficial copy—see SM 1965, pp. 90ff.
240 C. Sem. Sydenham 52 (L)
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF barer.
Rev.: (48) Roma MAX TRIB POT PP SC in exergue This seems to be a misdescription from a worn coin for the obverse legend IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF bare r. globe and is MacDowall 626.
243 C. Sem. Sydenham 55 (Belfort)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF barer.
Rev.: (48) Roma MAX TRIB POT IMP PP, SC
This may be a misdescription for the reverse legend MAX TRIB POT PP, SC of MacDowall 626.
245 Or. Sem. COH 189 (P)
Obv.: NERO CAES AVG IMP laur. r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC COH 189 and the coin in
246 Or. Sem. Sydenham 59
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER laur. r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC wreath and parazonium
Sydenham 59 has reverse legend PON MA TRP IMP PP, SC and this is the variety noted in MacDowall 315.
247 Or. Sem. Sydenham 60 (Belfort)
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER laur. r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC para- zonium
Sydenham 60 is a Roma seated r. (not l.). It may possibly be one of the unofficial copies of semisses.
RIC
248 C. Sem. COH 190 (Chedeau and de Sarcus)
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM bare r. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP PP, SC
This is the description in the publication of the find from Mayenne no. 122, but I have not been able to confirm the reading.
249 C. Sem. Sydenham 62 (RIN 1913)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC (victory and paraz.)
The coin in RIN 1913 has these legends but no SC on the reverse; and Roma holds a wreath. It is MacDowall 304.
250 C. Sem. Sydenham 63 (Walters)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC (wreath) Sydenham 63 describes the reverse as without SC and this Walters coin is in fact described in MacDowall 304.
251 C. Sem. BM
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM bare r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PON MAX TRP IMP PP, SC
The only BM coin with these legends is BM 260 (BMCRE I, pi. 45,4) which has a laureate head on the obverse, and no SC on the reverse. It is in fact described in MacDowall 305.
254 C. Sem. BM
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM bare l.
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP, SC
The only BM coin with this reverse legend and its head bare 1. is BM 398 (BMCRE I, pl. 47,11) and this has the obverse legend NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM, i.e. is MacDowall 618.
255 C. Sem. Sydenham 68 (Belfort)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM laur. r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP, SC (wreath and branch)
RIC
Sydenham 68 has NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM, and seems to be a misdescription for the variety with head bare r. and l. globe in MacDowall 615 and 618.
256 C. Sem. Sydenham 69 (no authority)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMA bare r. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRP IMP PP, SC in exergue
Sydenham 69 has NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMA and is in fact MacDowall 612.
258 C. Sem. Sydenham 72 (no authority)
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERM bare l. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRPOT PP, SC
This seems to be a misdescription of the PONTIF MAX TR POT IMP PP, SC of MacDowall 617.
261 C. Sem. Sydenham 77 (Sydenham Coll.)
Obv.: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMAN laur. l. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRPOT IMP PP, SC The coin from Sydenham's collection with these obverse and reverse legends is now in Blackburn. It has a bare head, and is MacDowall 610.
264 C. Sem. COH 238 (Chedeau and de Sarcus)
Obv,: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX bare r.
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRPOT IMP PP, SC
This is the description in the publication of the find from Mayenne no. 123, but I have not been able to confirm the reading.
265 C. Sem. Sydenham 84 (
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT bare r. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TR POT IMP PP, SC
I have not been able to verify this variety, which COH 239 also cites from
266 C. Sem. COH 240 (Corbet)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONTIF bare r. globe
Rev.: (48) Roma PONTIF MAX TRPOT IMP PP, SC
RIC
I have not been able to verify this variety.
269 Or. Sem. COH 331 (P)
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVG IMP barer.
Rev.: (48) Roma TR PON PP, SC, S
Both the coins in
273 C. As COH 353 (Rollin)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM PM TR P IMP PP bare r.
Rev.: (48) No legend, Roma seated l.
Is this laur. r.? and so the copper semis without SC of Issue described in MacDowall 303.
275 Or. Dup. COH 126 (P)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER rad. r. aegis
Rev.: (36) Macellum MAC AVG, SC
One of the dupondii in
280 Dup. COH 358 (no authority)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r.
Rev.: (36) No legend. Macellum
COH 358 has this variety with head rad. r., i.e. MacDowall 186.
283 Dup. Belfort
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GERM laur. r.
Rev.: (36) No legend, Macellum
I have not confirmed this variety, but it is quite a possible one for issue II at
284 Dup. COH 322 (Gréau)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER rad. r.
Rev.: (37) Securitas SC with no mark of value.
The mark of value has perhaps been omitted in the description and so the coin is MacDowall 204.
288 Dup. COH 320 wrongly for COH 330 (Chedeau and de Sarcus)
Obv.: C. PONT MAX TR POT PP laur. r.
Rev.: (37) Securitas SC
This is the description in the publication of the find from Mayenne no. 155, but I have not been able to confirm the reading.
302 Dup. COH 337 (no authority)
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVG PMAX TRP PP laur. l.
Rev.: (39) Victoria l. wk. SC
This seems to be a misdescription from a worn coin of the legend C. P MAX TRP PP laur. l. globe of MacDowall 526.
313 Dup. COH 350 (P)
Obv.: B. CLAVDIVS … GER rad. r.
Rev.: (40) Victoria r. īī, SC
COH 350 and the coin in
326 C. As COH 300 (no authority)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERMANIC bare r. globe
Rev.: (47) Victory SC
COH 300 has merely head bare r. (no mention of a globe) and is probably a mistaken description for the variety with head laur. r.; MacDowall 301.
328 C. As COH 301 (no authority)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS laur. r.
Rev.: (47) Victory SC
This also seems a misdescription of MacDowall 301.
334 ? C. As Sydenham 45 (Gréau)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r.
Rev.: ROMA, SC Victory l. with shield inscribed SPQR This coin seems to be an unofficial copy, combining in one type features of two reverse types as some of the unofficial semisses (see below).
339 C. As COH ιοί (no authority)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER laur. r.
Rev.: (46) Genius with SC, but no mark of value COH 101 seems to be a description from which ī has been omitted, i.e. the variety is orichalcum As. MacDowall 269.
340 C. As COH 101 (no authority)
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GER barer.
Rev.: (46) Genius with SC, but no mark of value COH 101 has head laur. r. and seems to omit ī i.e. the variety is orichalcum As. MacDowall 266.
341 C. As Sydenham 5 (RIN 1913)
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GERM barel.
Rev.: (46) Genius with SC, but no mark of value The coin in RIN 1913 has no SC and is MacDowall 251.
348 Or. As COH 106 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: (46) Genius with SC and ī
COH 106 and the coin in
349 C. As COH 196 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMA laur. l.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP without SC
The coin in BMCRE I pl. 44,8). The variety is therefore MacDowall 250.
352 Or. As COH 199 (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMANI rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP without SC
This may be a worn or badly described example of the variety with the legends SC and ī, i.e. MacDowall 275.
354 Or. As COH 241 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMANIC rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP without SC
But COH 241 and the coin in
355 Or. As (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMANIC rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRPOT without SC
This may be a misdescription for the variety with SC and ī of MacDowall 272.
357 C. As COH 243 (Chedeau and de Sarcus)
Obv.: A. CLAVD … GER bare r. globe
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRPOT without SC
COH 243 and Mayenne no. 128, which it reports, have SC, and the variety is MacDowall 570.
358 Or. As COH 200 (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMANIC rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP SC
If this coin had ī, it would be MacDowall 274.
359 Or. As COH 200 (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMANIC rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP SC
This seems to be an incomplete description. Orichalcum asses either have both SC and ī or no SC and no mark of value.
360 Or. As COH 201 (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMANICVS rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP SC
If this coin lacked SC and had POT, it would be MacDowall 259.
Or. As COH 202 (Gréau)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMANICVS laur. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TRP SC
If this coin lacked SC and had POT, it would be MacDowall 257.
361 C. As COH 247 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMAN bare r. globe
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POT SC
RIC
COH 247 has "mème légende" i.e. NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS "quelquefois avec GERMAN," and the coin in
362 Or. As Sydenham 14 (St. Albans)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMAN laur. r. globe
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POT SC
The coin in the Herts. County Museum,
363 C. As Sydenham 15 (no authority)
Obv.: D. CLAVD …
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POT SC
This seems to be a misdescription of the orichalcum As with GERMANIC (not
366 Or. As Sydenham 21 (Gnecchi Coll., RIN 1910, p. 450 no. 4.)
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GERMANIC laur. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POTEST SC
But the coin from the Gnecchi Collection, now in the Terme, has the reverse mark of value ī and is MacDowall 262.
367 Or. As COH 191 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVDIVS … GERMANIC rad. r.
Rev.: (44) Apollo PONTIF M TRPOT IMP PP, SC
There is no coin with these legends in
369 Or. As COH 249 (P)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMAN bare l.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POT SC
But COH 249 has GERMANICVS ("quelquefois GERMAN") and the coin in
371 Or. As Sydenham 26 (COH 249, P)
Obv.: D. CLAVD … GERMANICVS bare l.
Rev.: (44) Apollo TR POT SC
The coin in
376 C. Sem. COH 46 (P) is an unofficial copy—see SM 1965, pp. 90ff.
382 Or. Sem. COH 49 (P)
Obv.: NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG IMP TR POT PP laur. r.
Rev.: (49) Table CER QVINQ ROM CO SC
There is no such coin in
383 C. Sem. COH 50 (Dancoisne)
Obv.: NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG GERM bare l.
Rev.: (49) Table CER QVINQ ROM CO SC
I have not been able to verify this variety.
384 C. Sem. BM
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT bare r. globe
Rev.: (44) Table CER QVINQ ROM CO SC
There is no such example in the BM; the entry seems to misdescribe BM 393 (BMCRE I pl. 47,9) which has CER QVINQ ROMAE CON and is MacDowall 631.
386 Or. Sem. COH 52 (P)
Obv.: NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG bare r.
Rev.: (49) Table CER QVINQ ROM CON SC
The coin in
387 C. Sem. Webb Coll. This coin is an unofficial copy.
392 C. Sem. Sydenham 18 (Oxford University)
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS bare r. globe
Rev.: (49) Table CER QVINQ ROM CON SC
Sydenham 18 and the Oxford coin it describes have NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS, i.e. is MacDowall 607.
393 C. Sem. Sydenham 19 (BM)
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG PONT barer.
Rev.: (49) Table CER QVINQ ROM CON SC
There is no such example in the BM. The entry seems derived from BM 394 which has ROMAE CON, i.e. is MacDowall 631.
394 C. Sem. (BM) Unofficial copy with retrograde reverse legend.
398 Or. Sem. Sydenham 24 (Belfort)
Obv.: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM IMP bare r.
Rev.: (49) Table CERT QVINQ ROM CO SC, S
The coin seems to be a misdescription for the semis with the obverse legend NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMA laur r., MacDowall 312.
409 C. Sem. COH 65 (P)
Obv.: A. CLAVDIVS … GERM laur. r.
Rev.: (49) Table CERTAMEN QVINQ ROM CON without SC
The copper semis without SC in
417 Or. Q. COH in (Elberling)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG
Rev.: (50) Branch GER PM TRP PP, SC
This seems a misdescription for the reverse legend GER PM TRP IMP PP, SC; MacDowall 341.
420 C. Q. COH 112 (Elberling)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG
Rev.: (50) Branch GER PONT MAX TRP IMP PP, SC
I have not been able to substantiate this variety.
421 C. Q. COH 113 (P)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG
Rev.: (50) Olive Branch GERM PM TRP IMP PP SC There is no copper quadrans in
RIC
RM TRP for GER PM TRP—perhaps due to die engraver's error or a die flaw, i.e. MacDowall 341.
422 Or. Q. BM
Obv.: Column NERO CLA CAE AVG GERM
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
The quadrane with these types and legends in the BM is in copper without SC—BM 293, i.e. MacDowall 339.
426 Or. Q. (no authority)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAV CAES AVG GER
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
The RIC entry comments "obverse legend doubtful." It seems to be a misdescription for NERO CLAV CAE AVG GER or NERO CLA CAES AVG GER, i.e. MacDowall 350 or 355.
427 Or. Q. (no authority)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAV CAESAR AVG GER
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
This seems a misdescription from a coin worn or with legend off flan.
429 Or. Q. BM
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVD CAE AVG GER
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
The coin in the BM with these legends is BM 287 (BMCRE I, pl. 45,12) a quadrane in copper, MacDowall 358.
430 Or. Q. and C. Q. Sydenham 16 (L)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVD CAES AVG GER
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
I have not been able to substantiate this variety.
432 Or. Q. COH 186 (P)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVDIVS CAES AVG GERM
Rev.: (50) Branch PM TRP IMP PP, SC
This seems to be based on a worn quadrans in
433 Or. Q. COH 187 (P)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVDIVS CAES AVG GERM
Rev.: (50) Branch PON M TRP IMP PP (no SC)
The coin in
436 C. Q. COH 188 (Gréau)
Obv.: Column NERO CLAVDIVS CAES AVG GERM
Rev.: (50) Branch PON MA TRP IMP, SC
This coin does not occur in the Gréau sale catalogue as Cohen stated.
437 Or. Q., C. Q. COH 183 (P) and 184 (Rollin)
Obv.: Owl NERO CLAV CAE AVG GERM
Rev.: Column PM TRP IMP PP, SC
The coin in
438 C. Sem. COH 256 (P) Unofficial copy—see SM 1965, pp. 90ff.
439–441 C. As Mint of NC 1960, pp. 103 ff.
442 Denarius BM.
Obv.: NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS laur. r.
Rev.: COS ITER TRPOT Pax seated l.
This denarius in the BM with a reverse type of
443 C. As COH 359 (P)
Obv.: C. PMAX TRP PP laur. l. globe
Rev.: No legend, sailing vessel with rowers.
The reverse of the coin in
Plated Denarii
The following varieties of denarii, which are hybrid coins that combine an obverse type of one issue with the reverse type of another, are not represented in hoards and prove on close inspection to be plated. Being known only from fourrée examples they must therefore be distinguished from the regular coinage (see Chapter 3 above).
Unofficial Copper Semisses
The following varieties of copper semisses are known only from irregular coins, that can hardly have been official products of a regular mint (see my article "Nero's Altar of SM 59 (1965), pp. 90–93).
Mint of Moesia
The following copper asses with Latin legends should be distinguished from the western coinages of Nero. In "Two Roman Countermarks of a.d. 68," NC 1960, pp. 103–12, I attribute them to a mint in
Several coins from this mint are countermarked ΓΑΑΒΑ as the sestertius (Plate XXI, d) and the Asses (Plate XXI, i, k).
Coins 1–4 and 9–14 were analyzed by the Neutron Activation method, and coins 5–8 were analyzed on the X-Ray spectrometer. These analyses were carried out at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, and I am indebted to
We may compare the earlier analyses of Nero's post-reform denarii quoted by 1
as 94.3 percent silver, and by 2
3
is rightly cautious about the results obtained by 4
from specific gravities of 86.7 percent and 91.6 percent silver.
MittNumGes Berlin 1857, P. 297.
J. Y. Akerman
A Descriptive Catalogue of Rare and Unedited Roman Coins, 1 (
State and Currency, p. 197, n. 2.
Der römische Denarfund von Vyškovce, 2 (
Obv. legend: NERO CLAVD(IVS)
Variations as noted: