No. 109
Numismatic Notes and Monographs is devoted to essays and treatises on subjects relating to coins, paper money, medals and decorations.
COPYRIGHT 1947 BY
THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
E. L. HILDRETH & COMPANY
The ancient coinage of the towns of northwestern Africa usually has Punic legends. Except for the regal issues of 1
In Mauretania, Tingi, the modern Tangier, struck coins with Latin legends early in the imperial period, while coins attributed to Babba were struck under Claudius and Nero. From Caesarea (Iol) and Lix there are autonomous coins with the name of the town in Latin.
The few known coins with Latin legends struck at Tingi
2
were issued in the name of the town and sev-
quattuorviri iure dicundo. New light can be thrown on this coinage by specimens in the
Recently Mr. The
American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. XLVIII (1914), p. 72, Pl. IX. It may be described as follows:
1. Obv. Head of Baal, facing. Behind head, transverse sceptre. Around rim,
Q • FABIVS • FABVLLVS • LEL IVS SENECA•
Rev. Two ears of corn, between which, reading from bottom to top, IVL TING. Around rim,
EX • D • D IV • VIR • IVR • D •
28 mm. 17.4 grams ANS (ETN), PLATE I, no. 2
The reading of the ligature, a common epigraphical feature of the coins of Tingi, is mine.
In searching for publications of this coin type I found an illustration of it in A. Delgado's Nuevo Método de Clasificacion de las Medallas Autónomas di España (Seville, 1873), II, 356 and Pl. LXXXIII, 18; but the obverse legend was illegible and the drawing only indicated the presence of letters. Nor was there a trace of the sceptre shown behind the head of Baal on the Newell specimen. The importance of the legend with the names of the moneyers on the Newell specimen was at once apparent: unless names of other officials appear on coins of the same type and denomination, we may assume that the coin illustrated by
The discovery of the coin described above led me to search for other coins of the Roman period struck
2. Obv. Head of Astarte to r. In front, EX D D; the whole surrounded by a laurel wreath.
Rev. Two ears of corn; between them,
L •
25 mm. 10.0 grams ANS (ETN) PLATE I, no. 1
3. Similar.
Obv. EX D D
Rev. [L A]E M[L VAL] Q FAB
26 mm. 9.61 grams ANS (ETN) PLATE I, no. 3
The name Q. FAB. (Quintus Fabius) will be recognized at once as having occurred on No. 1, with the addition there, however, of the cognomen FABULLUS. The name of the fourth official is illegible on both Nos. 2 and 3 because of their worn condition at this point, but on his label for the two specimens Mr. three quattuorviri mentioned as the minting authorities.
3
Since no trace of the name C. IVL(ius) ATT(icus) appears on either of the specimens, it is to be assumed that Mr. op. cit., p. 356 and Pl. LXXXIII, 19), where, of the officials' names, only that of
The coins described above must be dated after 38 b.c., when Tingitani,
4
for our moneyers bear names of Roman citizens, all of them adopted from names of old and prominent Roman families. These coins, however, may not have been the earliest coins with Latin legends struck at Tingi. There are bronze pieces bearing the name of the town in Latin and portraits of
4.Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Baal facing. To r., transverse sceptre. Around rim, to 1.,
Num. de l'Anc. Afrique, III, 146.
Nuevo Método de Clasificacion de las Medallas Autónomas di Espana, II, 355–356, Pl. LXXXIII, no. 14.
Description des monnaies de la Numidie et de la Maurétanie, p. 74, no. 132 (Pl. XI).
PLATE II, no. 4
5. Obv. Head of
Rev. Similar to no. 4.
Müller, op. cit., p. 146.
op. cit., p. 356; Pl. LXXXIII, 15.
Charrier, op. cit., p. 74, no. 133 (Pl. XI).
PLATE II, no. 5
6. Obv. Head of
Rev. Head of Baal, facing, between two ears of corn. Around rim, A ALLIENVS
Charrier, op. cit., p. 74, no. 135 (Pl. XI).
PLATE II, no. 6
No quattuorviri are indicated on any of these coins. The fact that for his reverse type Allienus combined two types that appeared separately on the local coinage of the quattuorviri (as well as on the local Punic coinage) does not require us to conclude that the coins of Allienus were struck at Tingi later than No. 1. The Baal head and the corn ears are
5
the common source to which both Allienus and the local moneyers went for their types.
The 6
Other prominent Romans were partisans of Caesar, joined the Republicans after his assassination, and later went over to Octavian against Antony. The coins of Allienus and the issue bearing the name and portrait of b.c. since the title 7
The type of b.c.
8
we can place the coin bearing his portrait and the similar coin with
The coinage of Allienus was hardly local, for al-
9
The bilingual coins with the heads of b.c. for the coins of the quattuorviri, and 27 for the bilingual coins bearing the names of
To be sure, the quattuorviri might have struck at any time after the town was invested with citizenship in 38 b.c. But once they had begun to strike using Latin legends, it would appear strange if the town were later to strike bilingual coins honoring 10
I offer the following as a suggested chronological order:
The coinage of Allienus appears to represent the issue of an imperial legate struck at b.c., when b.c. Our information about Mauretania, however, is too scanty for us to establish such a close dating of the coins with certainty. When the town issued coins in the names of 11
Information about 12 b.c., the latter being the date of his death. At Gades, across the straits, he was patronus and parens municipii.
12
Finally, 13
The chief officials at op. cit., p. 356
Die Beamtennamen auf den griechischen Münzen, Wien, 1914 (Sonderdruck aus der Numismatischen Zeitschrift 1911, 1912, 1914), p. 4 = 72, who does not, however, reproduce exactly the legend as given by
7. Obv. Head of Baal to r. Around rim,
Rev. Two corn ears. Between them
PLATE III, no. 7
The legend of the coin illustrated in maior following TING, together with the absence of IVL and the presence of the crescent symbol which does not appear on other coins with Latin legends, suggests a change in political status or a distinction between groups, i.e., a double community in the territory;
14
but whether it implies colonial status is doubtful. The possibility that
The second piece of evidence indicating a change
Q. Aelius Q(uinti) f(ilius) Gal(eria) Verecundus IIvir colon(iae) [15
"Quintus Aelius Verecundus, son of
The only letters that need to be supplied in this otherwise perfectly preserved inscription are those which form the essential part of the town's name! There is, however, not much doubt about the correctness of the restoration [
It seems clear from literary sources as well as from our inscription that
Pliny (Naturalis Historia, V, 2) and the Antonine and Ravenna itineraries indicate this.
16
It is fairly well established that other names for local presiding officials gave way to the term duoviri in the course of the first century a.d. This development may be regarded as completed in the time of the Flavians. The change is indicated in Spanish municipal law and in a Spanish inscription concerning the refounding of a town by 17
A town need not become a colony to undergo this change in terminology, but if a town with quattuorviri became a colony, these men were likely to be duoviri thereafter. The sepulchral inscription of Q. Aelius Verecundus shows that both developments had taken place at
There is no evidence for a colony at 18
and on the same kind of evidence a case can be made for believing that the town was not a colony at this early date. The coins of 19
Yet the practice of the mints of
Definite evidence for the granting of colonial status to Naturalis Historia (Bk. V, 2) states that
Tingi ... a Claudio Caesare, cum coloniam faceret, appellatum Traducta Iulia. The statement regarding the renaming of the town has correctly been regarded as an error.
The absence of Julia Traducta from b.c., the year in which a.d. (PLATE V, nos. 13–15).
25
Although the priestly symbols represented on the coins are not only those of the pontificate (the lituus of the augur and the flamen's apex being represented as well as the simpulum), the types may well commemorate the attainment to the office of Pontifex Maximus by b.c. If this is so, and if the new town was invested with the right of coinage upon its foundation, the foundation itself can be dated about the year 12 b.c. Now since b.c., this year is the lowest possible limit of his geographical account of Mauretania and 26
altera and tertia (of 27
When he sums up the whole colonial statistic of western Mauretania, Pliny writes: "There are five colonies in that province, as I have said." There is no inconsistency here. He has named five, three Augustan precisely, and two Claudian less
I suggest then that the facts about the Augustan towns of
All of the pieces of
8. Obv. Head of Nero Caesar to r. In front, around rim, NERO IVL Behind head, TIN Border of dots.
Rev. Head of Drusus Caesar to 1. In front, around rim. DR [VS] Behind, VS Border of dots.
26 mm. 15.62 grams
ANS (ETN) PLATE III, no. 8
9. Similar to no. 8.
Rev. DRV [S] VS
25 mm. 10.02 grams
ANS (ETN) PLATE III, no. 9
It is clear that the portraits on the coins are meant to be those of a.d. to 29 a.d. after the death of Ti-
28
Though both portraits are crudely wrought, the head of Nero is the more impressive of the two. Nero was the elder. It is his side of the coin on which the town placed its name.
That the mint of a.d.;
29
and their downfall through the ambitions and machinations of the praetorian prefect Sejanus can be dated from 29 a.d., when Nero was exiled with his mother, the elder Agrippina. a.d.
30
We can assume therefore that such honors as they received in the provinces as well as at a.d., unless indeed the coinage here described was struck after their deaths.
31
It is almost certain that these
32
It is not surprising that 33
Before the time of 34
Since 35
we may assume that the appearance of their names and portraits on the coins of 36
The absence of a title on the coins of 37
While Tiberius' son
The great lack of numismatic and epigraphical evidence from western
While this article was in press From Imperium to Auctoritas. A Historical Study of Aes Coinage in the Roman Empire, 49 B.C.–A.D. 14. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1946). For additional evidence on coins similar to nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 above and a different system of dating see pp. 177–
Grant has presented evidence from a Copenhagen specimen (Pl. VI, no. 11) which suggests that the coinage of Allienus (no. 6 above) belonged to the local series. A fragmentary portion of the reverse legend may indicate that Allienus was a duovir. If Allienus can definitely be placed among the local moneyers, and if the peculiar features of no. 7 (see p. 12 above) are significant as they must be, it is possible to make further remarks on the relative position of the coins within the group, adding to and modifying what has been said above.
1) No. 7 is closer than any of the coins with Latin legends to the pre-Latin coins of
2) Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6 belong together, no. 1 being perhaps contemporary with 2 and 3, and 6 following closely upon all three. I doubt very much whether no. 1 is to be separated from 2 and 3 by no. 7 (see comment above), as Grant (p. 177) has done, or that the difference between the number of signing officials on nos. 2 and 3 as against no. 1 means more than the signing of the larger denomination by the two higher officials of the college, while all members shared the smaller denomination.
3) Nos. 4, 5, and 6 were struck during or after 27 b.c. because 4 and 6 bear the name of
4) Nos. 4 and 5 are difficult to place because they are bilingual; they may be earlier than the coins signed by local officials, since the tendency was for the native language to yield to the Latin (as in b.c. when
5) Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are so close in types and style to 6 that they, too, may be after 27 b.c.
Numismatique de l'ancienne Afrique, III, 64–65, 194; cf. his attribution in the Suppl. to Vol. III, p. 67; E. Muret, "Monnaies rares ou inédites du Cabinet de France," in Rev. Num., ser. 3, vol. I (1883), pp. 67–69; Rev. Num., ser. 3, vol. VII (1889), pp. 502–506; Description des monnaies de la Numidie et de la Maurétanie (Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, s.v. "Sittius," no. 3, cols. 409–11; St. Gsell, Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, VIII (
The name was variously given by ancient authorities, who never apply to it the Julian name which appears on the coins. (Pliny, N.H., V, 2 is regarded as having erred in associating the name of the Spanish town Julia Traducta with Tingi; see pp. 16–20 of this paper.) This suggests the persistence of the Punic name at the expense of the longer, more formal Roman title. There is no single form of the town's name in Punic Greek, or Latin. The form most commonly used by Latin writers was Tingum, with Tinge and Tingi as variants; by Greek writers, Τγγις with variants (consult Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VIII, pt. 2, p. 854; Windberg in op. cit., vol. VI A, s.v. "Tingis," cols. 2517–20). IVL TIN and IVL TING occur on the coins with Latin legends. The name of the town might have been Julia Tingi, comparable, for instance, to Col. Jul. Gem. Acci (for the Celtiberian Acci), or to Calagurri Julia in Spain. Gsell, op. cit., VIII, 200, note 5, accepts this form. But Julium Tingum, and especially Julia Tingitana are further possibilities; cf. a coin cited by Charrier, op. cit., p. 74, no. 134 (Pl. XI), with the fragmentary reverse legend ...GITAN (from Lorichs, Recherches numismatiques, Pl. XLI) and CIL VIII, 21813: populus Tingitanus; also the inscription on p. 13 of this paper: colon(iae) [Tingi]tan (ae).
Occasionally we find only one duovir or one quattuorvir striking, as sometimes at Description générale des monnaies antiques de l'Espagne,
praefectus pro duoviro (Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Mysia,
Cass. Dio 48, 45, 3.
The facing Baal head also appears on coins of Semes (Regling, "Zum Fund von Jubadenaren in Alkasar," in Zeitschr. f. Num., 1910, p. 27) and apparently on coins of Emerita in Lusitania. op. cit., p. 11, no. 32 (Pl. XXI); a specimen in the
Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (op. cit., s.v. "Allienus," col. 1585.
January 16, 27 b.c. For the evidence see op. cit., s.v. "
Vell. Pat. II, 96, 1; Livy, Epit. 138; Pliny, N.H., VII, 8 (6), 45–46; Dio, LIV, 28, 3.
It is interesting to note that under the Roman legate and Roman local government the local types of the Punic coinage are respected and kept, and that in the case of Allienus two local types appear together on the reverse with the legate's name.
In op. cit., pp. 216, 218–219, 285, 302–303, 316, 323, 341, 353, 356, 365–366, 371, 381, 412, 421–422. Heiss discusses the bilingual coinage on pp. 58–59. In
Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire, Princeton, 1926, p. 63; op. cit., s.v. "Duovir," col. 1819.
op. cit., p. 350, nos. 42–46 (Pl. LIII); Müller, op. cit., III, 150.
The two higher officials signed the larger denomination at Notes on the Ancient Coinage of Hispania Citerior
(Numismatic Notes and Monographs no. 50), The American Numismatic Society, 1931, pp. 81, 167, 176–179 and at op. cit., p. 230).
For such communities see Kornemann in Realencyclopädie, s.v. "conventus," cols. 1187–1188; "municipium," cols. 598, 609; cf. col. 547, no. 234; col. 531, no. 109.
The inscription was published by Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France, 1934; Rev. Arch., ser. 6, vol. VI (1935), p. 222, no. 63.
Itineraria Romana, vol. I: Itineraria Antonini Augusti et Burdigense (
Tingi colonia; vol. II:
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. II, 1963, ch. 24; op. cit., p. 370; W. Liebenam, in Realencyclopädie, s.v. "duoviri," col. 1805; CIL, vol. II, 1423. Cf. 1305, 1314, 1315, 1470, 1727, 1730, 1731, 4464, 4466. The change in title may have taken place in accordance with a general municipal law. Liebenam, Städteverwaltung in römischen Kaiserreiche, Leipzig, 1900, p. 252, makes an observation which may appropriately be quoted here: "Wer die lange Reihe der lateinischen Inschriften, welche von städtischen Beamten Kunde geben, durchmustert, gewinnt alsbald den Eindruck, dass die kommunale Verfassung unter einen mächtigen Willen gebeugt in der Kaiserzeit immer einformiger wird."
In the Bulletin des Antiquaires de France, 1934, pp. 165–166, Carcopino cites the inscription on p. 13 of this paper to support his previous claim (in Hesperis, vol. XVII, 1933, "Volubilis regiae Iubae," pp. 9–10, 17, 20) that N.H., V, 2), attached to Baetica. He notes that Aelius Verecundus belonged to the tribus Galeria, the tribe to which Octavian assigned all Roman or Latin colonies he constituted in De Romanorum Tribuum Origine ac Propagatione, p. 188). The fact is that the tribus Galeria was not thus generally shared by such colonies in Realencyclopädie, s.v. "coloniae," will show. Nor was the assignment of the Spanish colonies to the tribus Galeria only an Octavian or Augustan assignment. The Galeria is, moreover, conspicuous in the Spanish imperial province of Tarraconensis rather than in the senatorial province of Baetica, which had the closest relations with Mauretania across the straits.
For instance, "COL" did not appear regularly with the name of the town on the coinage of Corinth until the time of Domitian (the legend GEN COL COR describing the type of the colony's genius struck for Nero and Agrippina being the exception), though the names of the duoviri appeared through the time of Galba (Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum. Corinth, etc.,
Journ. Internat. d'Archêol. Numismatique, IICorinth: Results of the Excavations Conducted by The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. VI, Coins. 1896–1929, by Katharine Edwards, pp. 16–40).
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VIII, Pt. 2, p. 854; Kornemann in Realencyclopädie, s.v. "coloniae," col. 559, no. 354.
Geogr. (ed.
op. cit., p. 336.
op. cit., III, 154; Natural History, II (
op. cit., p. 337.
Presumably Pliny could have learned of the foundation of Julia Traducta through additions to
equites in this very passage (V, 12).
Tacitus, Annals, III, 49; IV, 8; IV, 10; IV, 12: "non dubia successio"; IV, 59: "Neronem proximum successions."
Suetonius, Tiberius, 54.
Tacitus, Annals, VI, 23; Suetonius, Tiberius, 54; 61; cf. Gaius, 7.
Posthumous coinage could have been struck for them only in the reign of Caligula, their younger brother, who honored them on his coinage at Hispania Citerior, pp. 94–95 and Pl. XVIII) where they were honorary duoviri during their lifetimes (Hill, p. 92 and Pl. XVI, 2).
Müller, op. cit., II, 161, nos. 362–366; Heiss, op. cit., p. 271, nos. 28–29 (Pl. XXXVI); Hill, op. cit., pp. 91–92 (Pl. XVI, nos. 1 and 2). Hispalis in Baetica struck coins with the portraits of Nero and op. cit., p. 394), but, as at
On Mauretanian money found in op. cit., pp. 144 and 155; on Spanish money in Grecs et Maures d'après les monnaies grecques du Musée d'Alger, extrait du Bulletin de Corresp. Africaine, 1884, nos. V-VI, pp. 13–15. Under the early empire
op. cit., p. 332, no. 29 (Pl. XLIX):
For the references see note 32.
Hill, op. cit., p. 92 (Pl. XVI, 2). There is no indication of honorary office on a coin of Hispalis bearing the portraits of
W. Liebenam, Städteverwaltung in römischen Kaiserreiche, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 261–263, note 4.
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