A Decursio sestertius of Nero

Towards the end of 2020 I was able to acquire a coin type that had been on my wish list for a long time but had always been out of reach, seemingly. The coin in question is a sestertius of the first century emperor Nero with the reverse legend DECVRSIO. There are a number of varieties of design, the one I picked up having Nero on horseback riding right with another soldier riding at his side.

Quite what is represented on the reverse of Nero’s Decursio coinage has been the subject of debate. Nero never led troops into battle and a military parade or exercises seems unlikely. Given his interest in the arts is is postulated that this is part of the performance of the lusus Troiae, a mock battle described in Virgil’s Aenid (V, 545-605) as the climax to the games commemorating the first anniversary of the death of Anchises.

My coin is a product of a Balkan mint, perhaps Perinthus, poorly documented and described in the revised RIC volume of the period and similarly treated in the appropriate RPC volume too. The Rome mint analogue is RIC 104. What suggests that this is a Balkan mint are the dimples in the centre of both the obverse and reverse of this coin, a common feature of provincial base metal mintages.

My early Victorian postmarks

During the lockdown last year I took the opportunity to photograph and catalogue my collection of machine tokens. This year I have taken the opportunity to work on a large number of early Victorian stamps to identify the postmarks.

There was a concern when stamps were introduced in 1840 that the stamp could continue to be used time and time again by the public, defrauding government coffers. To combat this methods were devised to “cancel” the stamp with a mark that would be unmistakable.

Initially the mark used was a Maltese cross, to start with red, later progressing to black (presumably as the stamps on sale changed from black to red, although other colours were used).

Later designs progressed to a date stamp usually on the letter and on the stamp itself a number in some form of design that designated a city, town or district.

My collection covers 1840 to 1870 and is only to be regarded as embryonic as many, many marks are still missing. The condition of the stamp is immaterial to me, what counts is the cancellation.

An intaglio of Eros riding a fish

 

I have recently acquired a 2^nd/3^rd century intaglio in dark blue glass paste in imitation of niccolo featuring Eros riding a dolphin or fish. This device is also reproduced on some Roman coin types, for example the Gordian III coin from the city of Deultum pictured below. I want to briefly explore what the device shows.

Eros was the mischievous god of love, a minion and constant companion of the goddess Aphrodite. But why the dolphin or fish? A quick Internet search brings up the answer.

Typhon, a Greek god, was bad and treated as an outcast by other gods. One day Typhon appeared and threatened the other gods. They all knew what Typhon was capable of, so each and every god made a run for it. In order to escape him, most of the gods turned themselves into animals, as to gain speed and agility. The only ones not to were Aphrodite and Eros, the gods of love. With Typhon closing in on them they were in trouble. At the last moment, two fish appear and they let Aphrodite and Eros jump on their backs. This way, the two managed to avoid getting caught by the evil Typhon. 

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 30 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :

“Fishes. Diognetus Erythraeus says that once Venus [Aphrodite] and her son Cupid [Eros] came in Syria to the river Euphrates. There Typhon [Typhoeus], of whom we have already spoken, suddenly appeared. Venus [Aphrodite] and her son threw themselves into the river and there changed their forms to fishes, and by so doing this escaped danger. So afterwards the Syrians, who are adjacent to these regions, stopped eating fish, fearing to catch them lest with like reason they seem either to oppose the protection of the gods, or to entrap the gods themselves.”

Ovid, Fasti 2. 458 ff (trans. Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :

“Pisces, heaven’s horses. They say that you and your brother (for your stars gleam together) ferried two gods on your backs. Once Dione [Venus-Aphrodite], in flight from terrible Typhon [Typhoeus] (when Jupiter [Zeus] armed in heaven’s defence), reached the Euphrates with tiny Cupidos (Cupid) [Eros] in tow and sat by the hem of Palestine’s stream. Poplars and reeds dominated the tops of the banks; willows, too, offered hope of concealment. While she hid, the wood roared with wind. She pales with fear, and believes a hostile band approaches. As she clutched son to breast, she cries : ‘To the rescue, Nymphae (Nymphs), and bring help to two divinities.’ No delay; she leapt. Twin fish went underneath them; for which, you see, the present stars are named. Hence timid Syrians think it wrong to serve up this species; they defile no mouths with fish.’”

The raising of Lazarus on a Roman redware fragment

 

Many years ago I acquired a fragment of Roman North African redware from the 4th century AD. Part of the moulded design featured a sheep. I've recently come across a similar bowl that allows me to postulate what the full design is. 

On a dish recently offered for sale the design has been shown to be the raising of Lazarus, the sheep and the foot of the right hand character being visible on the fragment. 

A terra sigillata chiara redware pottery bowl with applique decoration depicting the raising of Lazarus by Jesus.

Lazarus is shown as a figure wrapped in a shroud within a pedestal tomb and Jesus is depicted as the Good Shepherd carrying a staff and herding a ram. To the other side is a bearded figure with his hand raised in praise.

Early depictions of Jesus are not common though the story of the raising of Lazarus was popular in Roman funerary art, most notably on the wall frescoes in the catacombs in Rome due to the obvious importance of the message of resurrection.

The kothon

Re-reading, for the first time in years, through my copy of Courtesans and Fishcakes, the Consuming Passions of Classical Athens (James Davidson, 1997) I encountered a form of classical Greek pottery cup, the kothon, that I was familiar with.

I've had a large fragment of the Greek, black glazed, ribbed drinking cup on my fireplace mantel shelf for years but had not remembered the references in the Davidson book to the colour and form.

The ribbed cup is of Spartan origin and, according to Critias of Athens, is an appropriate cup to carry on military service. It is compact and easily transported in a kit bag, the black colour means that unclean water encountered cannot be easily seen, and, finally, the cup's ribbed body form retains impurities. Despite the written benefits of the kothon for drinking less than clean waters it retained notoriety as being the form of vessel for drinking deep and over indulging in wine promoting drunkenness. 

Roman shipping tesserae from Ostia

 

My new ship tessera, Stannard 10.1

About twenty years ago I encountered my first two ship tesserae from Ostia in CNG sale 53, lots 1434-5. Shortly after that I acquired an example and, much to my later regret, sold it on. I have now had the pleasure of acquiring a new example, listed in the auction catalogue as being ex Italo Vecchi collection (although it may just be ex Italo Vecchi Ltd Nummorum Auctiones 15 (1999) sale ).

Looking through Neville Stannard's 2015 paper in Numismatic Chronicle, where he shows all the examples that he is aware of, my new specimen, Stannard 10.1, looks to be from the same die as the specimen that I had before, Stannard 10.5.

My original tessera, Stannard 10.5

Not only that it appears to be one of the ship tesserae that was illustrated in Ladich's Cronaca Numismatica paper (from 2006, not 2008 as stated in the Stannard paper?).

Ladich's illustrations, note the second one down, "NPV" in error

The earliest coins of the Nabateans

I have recently been cultivating an interest in the coinage of Nabataea, centred on Petra and covering parts of North Arabia, the Transjordan and Syria.

The earliest coins ascribed to Nabataea have no real identifying legend but the association is down to the provenance, the area in which they are found and the coins they are found with. 

It was only by chance that I was reading a note by Rachel Barkay in the 2015 volume of the journal Aram that it was pointed out that the earliest Nabataean coins imitate, in bronze, the gold staters of Macedon struck by Alexander the Great and Philip III featuring the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and Nike on the reverse.