Saturnus
| Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. Saturnus. -- Saturn, under whose fabled reign -- the "golden age" -- the happiest times were enjoyed by all, was nevertheless affirmed by the ancients to have been himself expelled from his kingdom of felicity by his son Jupiter, and to have sought refuge in Italy at the court of king Janus. -- There is a passage in Macrobius (quoted by Bimard) which attributes, not to Saturn (as Jobert makes Eutropius do), but to Janus, the first use of money, adding, however, that out of respect for Saturn (in Saturni reverentiam) Janus caused to be engraved, on these first specimens of coinage, the ship which had brought Saturn to Italy. -- Saturn was regarded as the God of Time, and is represented on ancient monuments as a decrepit old man holding a sickle or reaping-hook, called flax. Sometimes also he is represented with his infant son in his arms, and lifting the child up to his mouth, as if intending to devour it, as the old myth relates on that point. Spanheim (in his Notes on the Caesars of Julian, p. 10) refers to this god a figure on an ancient marble published by Spon, in which Saturn is represented in the form of an old man veiled, and with his falx. The same writer also mentions to have seen a small silver medal bearing a similar bust, which he likewise refers to Saturn, on account of the attribute of the curved knife, also engraved upon it. Besides which (he adds) there is a medal in the French King's Cabinet, struck under Elagabalus, by the city of Heraclea, and published in the
collection of Patin, which represents Saturn, or Time, with a scythe in his hands, and moreover with wings on his shoulders. -- According to Plutarch, he was believed by the Romans to have presided over agriculture and fruits -- to have been, in short, the guardian of rural affairs, as well as the Father of the year and of the months. -- For this reason a laureated and bearded head, with a sikle behind it, on a denarius of the Calpurnia moneyer, commemorative of the mission of Piso and Caepio as Quaestores AD FRVmentum EMVndum, to buy corn, and distribute it among the people, is considered by Eckhel as most probably the head of Saturn. -- Another head of the same deity, as designated by the falx asperis dentibus, or reaping-hook, with serrated edge -- an instrument allusive to him as the reputed inventure of agriculture, and whence he is called falcifer by Ovid, is to be found on coins of the Memmia, Servilia, and Sentia moneyers.
Saturn is most certainly represented on a silver coin of the Neria moneyers -- his symbol the harpa, or falx, is prominent behind the head. "But this (says Eckhel) is not the only proof that it is Saturn. The title given to NERIus of Quaestor VRBanus, and the military standards which are on the reverse additionally testify it. It is well knownthat the Quaestors were the Praefects or principal officers of the Roman treasury (Praefecti aerarii), but it is also known that the aerarium was in the temple of Saturn. Saturn is considered to be typified, in a quadriga, on a denarius of Saturninus. -- See the Sentia moneyers. Saturni navis. -- The ship of Saturn, which appears on the reverse of the Roman as, was in the most ancient times the peculiar symbol of Saturn, it being, according to the story, with a fleet that he came to Janus, in Italy.
Saturn, under the form of a man with a beard, veiled, and wearing at oga, who standing holds the harpa in his left hand, appears on coins of Valerianus and of Gallienus, as a symbol of Eternity. See AETERNITATI AVGG. It is thus that Eckhel decidedly considers the above described effigy should be understood, and not as an image of Pluto, which Tanini supposes it. In proof of it being Saturn, he refers inter alia to the harpa (reaping hook), the beard, the veil covering the head, all sure indications of that pagan deity, the two former attributes being never ommited in his typification.
The Romans gave him the flax or harpa on account of agriculture, over which they commonly believed him to preside. Macrobius says : Simulacrum ejus indicio est, cui falcem insigne messis adjecit. Cyprian observes: Rusticitatis hic cultor fuit ; inde falcem ferens pingilur.
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Saturnus
| Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. Saturnus. -- Saturn, under whose fabled reign -- the "golden age" -- the happiest times were enjoyed by all, was nevertheless affirmed by the ancients to have been himself expelled from his kingdom of felicity by his son Jupiter, and to have sought refuge in Italy at the court of king Janus. -- There is a passage in Macrobius (quoted by Bimard) which attributes, not to Saturn (as Jobert makes Eutropius do), but to Janus, the first use of money, adding, however, that out of respect for Saturn (in Saturni reverentiam) Janus caused to be engraved, on these first specimens of coinage, the ship which had brought Saturn to Italy. -- Saturn was regarded as the God of Time, and is represented on ancient monuments as a decrepit old man holding a sickle or reaping-hook, called falx. Sometimes also he is represented with his infant son in his arms, and lifting the child up to his mouth, as if intending to devour it, as the old myth relates on that point. Spanheim (in his Notes on the Caesars of Julian, p. 10) refers to this god a figure on an ancient marble published by Spon, in which Saturn is represented in the form of an old man veiled, and with his falx. The same writer also mentions to have seen a small silver medal bearing a similar bust, which he likewise refers to Saturn, on account of the attribute of the curved knife, also engraved upon it. Besides which (he adds) there is a medal in the French King's Cabinet, struck under Elagabalus, by the city of Heraclea, and published in the collection of Patin, which represents Saturn, or Time, with a scythe in his hands, and moreover with wings on his shoulders. -- According to Plutarch, he was believed by the Romans to have presided over agriculture and fruits -- to have been, in short, the guardian of rural affairs, as well as the Father of the year and of the months. -- For this reason a laureated and bearded head, with a sickle behind it, on a denarius of the Calpurnia moneyers, commemorative of the mission of Piso and Caepio as Quaestores AD FRVmentum EMVndum, to buy corn, and distribute it among the people, is considered by Eckhel as most probably the head of Saturn. -- Another head of the same deity, as designated by the falx asperis dentibus, or reaping-hook, with serrated edge -- an instrument allusive to him as the reputed inventor of agriculture, and whence he is called falcifer by Ovid, is to be found on coins of the Memmia, Servilia, and Sentia moneyers. Saturn is most certainly represented on a silver coin of the Neria moneyers -- his symbol the harpa, or falx, is prominent behind the head. "But this (says Eckhel) is not the only proof that it is Saturn. The title given to NERIus of Quaestor VRBanus, and the military standards which are on the reverse additionally testify it. It is well known that the Quaestors were the Praefects or principal officers of the Roman treasury (Praefecti aerarii), but it is also known that the aerarium was in the temple of Saturn. Saturn is considered to be typified, in a quadriga, on a denarius of Saturninus. -- See the Sentia moneyers. Saturni navis. -- The ship of Saturn, which appears on the reverse of the Roman as, was in the most ancient times the peculiar symbol of Saturn, it being, according to the story, with a fleet that he came to Janus, in Italy. Saturn, under the form of a man with a beard, veiled, and wearing the toga, who standing holds the harpa in his left hand, appears on coins of Valerianus and of Gallienus, as a symbol of Eternity. See AETERNITATI AVGG. It is thus that Eckhel decidedly considers the above described effigy should be understood, and not as an image of Pluto, which Tanini supposes it. In proof of it being Saturn, he refers inter alia to the harpa (reaping hook), the beard, the veil covering the head, all sure indications of that pagan deity, the two former attributes being never ommited in his typification. The Romans gave him the falx or harpa on account of agriculture, over which they commonly believed him to preside. Macrobius says : Simulacrum ejus indicio est, cui falcem insigne messis adjecit. Cyprian observes: Rusticitatis hic cultor fuit ; inde falcem ferens pingilur.
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