The Sacellum Genii Senatus

The shrine of the Genius of the Roman Senate is a coin type from the reign of Antoninus Pius known from coins dated 158-9 AD.

The depiction is of a cult statue of the “Genius” or spirit of the Senate on a pedestal, togate and holding a branch and wand. All this is framed by columns and a domed ceiling.

The actual location of the shrine in Rome is not known, although it could have been part of the palatine complex. Nor is the reason for the type being used only in 158-9 known.

The scarce dupondius (RIC 1014) at the top of this note is for sale and can be purchased by following the link to Mauseus on vCoins HERE.

Ptolemy III Euergetes

Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-222 BC) ruled Egypt at the time of the Third Syrian War. He over-ran Antioch and Babylon and his actions are alluded to in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (Chapter 11, vs 7-9). Through the peace treaty of 241 BC Ptolemy was awarded new territories on the northern coast of Syria, including Seleucia Pieria, the port of Antioch.

Ptolemy III was responsible for one of three multilingual inscriptions or stele that allowed the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Canopus Stone of 238 BC contains decrees about priestly orders, and is a memorial for his daughter Berenice. But two of its 26 lines of hieroglyphs decree the use of a leap day added to the Egyptian calendar of 365 days, and the associated changes in festivals..

The other two inscriptions are the Memphis Stele, bearing the Decree of Memphis, about 218 BC, passed by his son, Ptolemy IV, and the famous Rosetta Stone erected by Ptolemy Epiphanes, his grandson, in 196 BC.

The huge coin, 38mm in diameter, at the start of this note is an issue of Ptolemy III. The portrait is not Ptolemy but rather Zeus wearing the horn of Ammon. On the reverse is an eagle standing on a thunderbolt with a cornucopia (“the horn of plenty”) to the top right of the design. It is for sale and can be purchased by following the link to vCoins HERE.

John Atkinson Grimshaw

The other weekend we were in Scarborough, up by the castle. I happened to wander down a little side street, heading towards the cliff top, when I came across a blue plaque honouring a name I recognised – John Atkinson Grimshaw.

 Scarborough Bay

Grimshaw was a Leeds born artist from the second half of the 19^th century who specialised in painting in a photo-realistic style delighting in shadow and reflection, often in city scapes. Even now I can remember the Grimshaw print hanging in the doctor’s surgery waiting room when I was 5 or 6 years old (although at that age I didn’t know the artist’s name).

Autumn Afterglow

Grimshaw's primary influence was the Pre-Raphaelites. True to the Pre-Raphaelite style, he created landscapes of accurate colour, lighting, vivid detail and realism. His skill was working with a variety of light sources, in capturing the mood of the passing of twilight into night. After visiting Grimshaw, Whistler remarked that "I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures."

 Autumn Morning

Salterhouse Dock, Liverpool

A "new" Carausius aureus with a little provenance (still sadly)

I just want to add a little note about the aureus of Carausius pictured below.

I have had it confirmed that it is not a die duplicate of the Trau/Ashmolean specimen, although very similar. There is aso a small provenance for this coin. It first appeared, it would seem, in the Dorotheum sale number 414, 16-17 November 2011, where it was lot 304. No prior history known for this specimen.

A "new" Carausius aureus with absolutely no provenance (sadly)

In May this year the Swiss auction house of Numismatica Ars Classica (NAC) will offer a gold aureus of the third century British usurper Carausius. The coin purports to be an output from the Rouen mint with the reverse OPES IVI AVG.

The style of the products of this mint are all rather different to the main body of coinage of this usurper from the mints in Britain and this Opes coin is decidedly crude.

The provenance they "cite" in the text is Neligen (1881) and Trau (1935), unfortunately this cannot be that coin. The weight cited for the Trau/Neligen specimen is 4.55 grammes, compared to 5.10 grammes for the NAC coin. The shape of the flan, comparing with the plate illustration in the Trau catalogue is decidedly different. Finally, to cap it all, the Trau specimen currently resides in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Looking at the piece the NAC coin does appear to be struck from the same dies as the Trau specimen, the marks in the obverse die, between the A and R in Carausius for example, are clearly visible on both specimens.

I contacted the company to try to get to the bottom of it and their reply came back as follows:

" We did not cite any provenance for the coin, the provenances are given on the line below the estimate and grading.

As you pointed out, the note refers to the Trau specimen, however by "this aureus" the writer was referring simply to the type and not to this particular piece. We can understand that the wording could have been misleading and apologise for this."


The result is that we have, if real, a totally unprovenanced new example of a rare gold coin of Carausius. Where has this coin come from, why is there no record of its discovery? Even if this fell outside of the UK laws for mandatory reporting, ie it was a single find, there needs to be a record of it.

Agathodaemon

Hadrian, diobol from Alexandria in Egypt (Milne 1289)

The Agathodaemon is frequently portrayed in ancient art as a serpent, however delving a little deeper shows that this is not the only incarnation and other manifestations come to light.

Agathodaemon, or rather Agathos Daimon (meaning “good spirit”) is part of a celestial couple with Agathe Tyche (“good fortune”) who may both be portrayed with a polos (sometimes described as a kalathos or modius) with a cornucopia.

 

Agathos Daimon and Agathe Tyche are not deities with specific personalities like most of the Olympian gods but rather more generic. Pausanias even conjectured, wrongly, that the name Agathodaemon was a mere epithet of Zeus. He was, however, prominent in Greek folk religion and it was customary to drink or pour out a few drops of unmixed wine to honour him in every symposium or formal banquet.

 Agathos Daimon

 

Agathos Daimon and Agathe Tyche are representations of the demoi, the good spirit of the people and their ancestors.

 Agathe Tyche

I Feel Fine recording

This blog seeks to record modern aspects of "history" as well as the more ancient ones. In that light I offer this one. [Please click on the images for enlargements]

Sunday 18^th October 1964, the recording of The Beatles song I Feel Fine took place.

Mark Lewisohn’s book reproduces the EMI recording sheet for the session. It shows that there were 9 takes of the song but not all of them were complete; takes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 marked as breakdowns and only 5, 6, and 9 as complete.

I’ve heard a number of these takes through the recordings that circulate amongst collectors:

Take 1 – With a single tracked guide vocal breaks down during the instrumental break.

Take 2 – Again with a single tracked guide vocal breaks down during the instrumental break after a short burst of feedback from one of the guitar amplifiers.

Take 5 – With a guide vocal is more or less complete but the ending terminates rather abruptly.

Take 6 – The instrumental riff of She's a Woman can be heard on the tape, played on the bass, before the feedback start of I Feel Fine is heard. The feedback is noticeably longer than on the released version and there are no guide vocals on take 6.

Take 7 – The only part of this that I’ve been able to hear is immediately after the take is called the instrumental riff to Tequila is played.

Take 9 – The final and “best” take shows that the ending on the untrimmed master tape breaks down shortly after the “whoop whoop” that can be heard in the outro. This take is an overdub take onto a basic track (take 7 or take 8).

Once a song has been recorded the work doesn’t stop there. The tape is multi track, in this case four track, and each of the component tracks can be played at a different level to create a “mix”. The log at EMI’s Abbey Road studios shows that there were five acknowledged mono mixes done of the song, four on Wednesday 21st October and an fifth one the next day. We know that the third mono mix was used for the UK single and the fourth  mono mix was used for the US single. Why these two singles used different mixes I do not know. I’ve played both and the differences are quite profound. The UK mix is very "dry" but the US mix has reverb all over it and is very echoy.

I have, in my possession, a single sided acetate disc of the song, one of the three that I know to exist. The engineer who cut the disc is recorded on the label, the GE on the right hand side standing for Geoffrey Emerick. Of the three I Feel Fine acetates that I’ve seen two are GE and the third is AB for A B Lincoln.

 

The time showing on the acetate label, 2:20, shows that this is a recording of take 9 but which mix is it? Acetates are rather fragile and I haven’t played it yet. I need to set up the computer to record it when I do play it in order to analyse the recording. It is probably the third (UK) or fourth (US) mono mix, however, there is an outside chance that it is one of the unused mixes.