Please |help| us convert the |Dictionary of Roman Coins| from scans to text by typing the original text here. Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.

   1. Obv.—MARCELLINVS.  Male head, beardeless, to the right.  Behind it the triquetra.

   Rev.—MARCELLVS. COS. QVINQ.  Marcellus consul quinquies.  A figure togated and veiled, bearing a warlike trophy, as if about to mount the steps of a temple.

    The head on the obverse of this denarius is that of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who, in his fifth consulate, 506 (B.C. 208), made the conquest of Syracuse, and, it may be said, of Sicily.  This Roman was the contemporary of Fabius Maximus, and of Scipio.  He was one of the Consular Generals who distinguished themselves in the second Punic war, and had already acquired a high reputation at the epoch of Hannibal's invasion.  His active character and intrepid courage were conspicuously displayed in single combats.  Even in his first consulate the qualities of a daring valour made him triumph over Virdomarus, or Viromarus, a Gaulish chief, who, at the head of an army of his nation, had come to the succour of his fellow-contrymen, settled for some centuries, in the north of Italy, and then at war with the Romans.  Virdomarus, who had advanced towards Clastidium (a city of Liguria, between Placentia and Tortona, now Chiastezo), with numerous troops, fell beneath the blows of the consul, who had darted forth from the ranks to fight him.

Please |help| us convert the |Dictionary of Roman Coins| from scans to text by typing the original text here. Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.

   1. Obv.—MARCELLINVS.  Male head, beardeless, to the right.  Behind it the triquetra.

   Rev.—MARCELLVS. COS. QVINQ.  Marcellus consul quinquies.  A figure togated and veiled, bearing a warlike trophy, as if about to mount the steps of a temple.

    The head on the obverse of this denarius is that of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who, in his fifth consulate, 506 (B.C. 208), made the conquest of Syracuse, and, it may be said, of Sicily.  This Roman was the contemporary of Fabius Maximus, and of Scipio.  He was one of the Consular Generals who distinguished themselves in the second Punic war, and had already acquired a high reputation at the epoch of Hannibal's invasion.  His active character and intrepid courage were conspicuously displayed in single combats.  Even in his first consulate the qualities of a daring valour made him triumph over Virdomarus, or Viromarus, a Gaulish chief, who, at the head of an army of his nation, had come to the succour of his fellow-contrymen, settled for some centuries, in the north of Italy, and then at war with the Romans.  Virdomarus, who had advanced towards Clastidium (a city of Liguria, between Placentia and Tortona, now Chiastezo), with numerous troops, fell beneath the blows of the consul, who had darted forth from the ranks to fight him.

The portrait on this denarius is without beard, as usual with the Romans of that period, when they had attained a certain age.  The triquetra (or three human legs united to each other by the hips), a well-known symbol of Sicily, was placed behind the head to designate its victor.—The legend Marcellinus refers to the magistrate who minted the coin—one Claudius Marcellus who minted the coin—one Claudius Marcellus, who, being adopted into the family of the Cornelii Lentuli, had taken the surname of Marcellinus, and probably transmitted it to his descendants.—On the reverse we read the name of Marcellus, as having been five times consul.  The type represents him bearing to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, the spolia opima of Virdomarus.  Jupiter was called Feretrius, because the triumpher went to his temple, carrying thither as a trophy the armour, offensive and defensive, of the genral whom he had killed with his own hand in battle, and which were for that reason denominated opima (great or most honourable).  To accomplish this religious observance, the conqueror covered his head with one of the lappets of his toga, according to the rites prescribed in the Roman worship.  Romulus was the first to perform this ceremony, in consecrating the armour of Acron, King of the Ceninians; which act was repeated only by A. Cornelius Cossus, and afterwards by M. Claudius Marcellus.  Virgil thus celebrates this action in his AEneid:—

Aspice, ut insignis spoliis Marcellus opimis
Ingreditur, victorque viros supereminet omnes!
Hie rem Romanam, magno turbante tumultu,
Sistet eqnes; sternet Poenos, Gallumque rebellem;
Tertia arma patri suspendet capta Quirino.
                               Lib. vi. v. 855 et seq.
See great Marcellus! how, untir'd in toils,
He moves with manly grace, how rich with regal
     spoils!
He, when his country (threaten'd with alarms)
Requires his courage, and his conquering arms,
Shall more than once the Punic bands affright;
Shall kill the Gaulish King in single fight:
The to the capitol in triumph move,
And the third spoils shall grace Feretrian Jove.
                           Dryden's Translation