Divus Vespasian

[David Atherton]

I wanted to share with my Forvm friends this new coin of mine and ask a question concerning the reverse.

It's part of a series of four denarii issued by Titus in honor of his newly deified father Vespasian.

The reverse is written out in the BMCRE as so:

"Slow quadriga l., with car in form of small temple, showing front, with pediment and one side: in front, standing figure; on roof, , quadriga in centre, wreath-bearing Victories r. and l.; on side, two standing figures (Mars and Minerva?). EX S C in ex."

Mattingly in the BMCRE states that it is a victorious quadriga, possibly part of the pompa circensis.

Does current scholarship still hold this to be the case or are there other ideas about what the reverse means?

BMCRE 119, RSC 146
Rome Mint, 80-81 A.D.

[curtislclay]

David,

The wagon is a tensa, a chariot in which the symbols of the gods were carried to the games in the circus procession. The wagon has a pediment, evidently in imitation of the temple where those symbols were normally stored.

A unique medallion of A. Pius in Berlin, illustrated by Cohen 1186, shows a similar pedimented wagon drawn by four horses, with a statue of Roma seated atop the pediment and ROM inscribed on the front of the wagon, evidently the tensa of the goddess Roma.

Suetonius and Dio Cassius report that a tensa in the circus procession was one of the excessive honors voted to Julius Caesar in 45-44 BC, shortly before his assassination.

No literary text or inscription attests that tensae were also accorded to consecrated emperors and empresses, but this fact is demonstrated by the coin types, namely the type of Divus Claudius I illustrated below, your type of Divus Vespasianus, and the type of Diva Marciana showing a similar pedimented wagon drawn by two mules, BMC pl. 21.7-8.

I believe I was the first scholar to correctly identify these wagons, with a full argument bringing in several other examples too, in my paper on the coinage of Nero, Num. Zeitschrift 96, 1982, pp. 28-9 and Appendix 3.

[Tiathena]

 
  Utterly Fantastic!
 
 It was after all, you, David, who first really drew me to the Flavian coinage – which, for once (as happened also with Septimius, the only two really –as yet–) – occurred jointly in fascination with the history and the coinage-in-itself, unto-itself.
  I love all good (i.e. yet intact) portraits of Vespasian and Titus (Domitian too, but considerably less so) – and so-many of the reverses never cease to inspire & fire my imagination and intellectual curiosities.
 
 These added remarks here from Curtis are… well – I will say priceless.
  First I’ve ever heard of a tensa and, now look – not only explained, but such marvelous illustrated examples!
 
  Thus, in addition to saying congratulations on this wonderful coin! – I add double-thanks for sharing it.
  &nd though his words have been addressed to you, thanks also to Mr. Clay for sharing & imparting these wonderful nuggets worth how-many thousand times their weight in mere gold? 
 
   Best,
   Tia
 

[Noah]

First time I've heard of a tensa as well.  That is not surprising since it looks like the Rolls Royce of ancient times, unlike the common chariots, or Hondas, which we see plastered on all sorts of coinage.  It is a spectacular specimen worthy of your exquisite compilation of Flavians!  Thank you for sharing with us David and for enlightening us Curtis.

Best, Noah

[David Atherton]

Thank you Curtis for your insight on the reverse. Exceptional as always.

I wonder in what context or roll the tensa has in the deification of an emperor? If it's part of the funerary rite, how was it used?

Tia and Noah, thanks for the kind words and taking the time to look at my little coin. 

[curtislclay]

David,

The tensa had no role in the funeral, rather it was an honor voted by the Senate (EX S C) to the newly consecrated emperor, specifying that he was to have a tensa in all future circus processions to carry his divine emblems (what those would have been is guesswork, perhaps a golden curule chair, golden honorary wreath and scepter, and so on) from his temple to the Circus.

Yours,

Curtis

[maridvnvm]

A wonderful coin and a great insight into one small aspect of these historical events. I can't help but wonder of the populous understood the symbology represented by these coins.
Regards,
Martin

[Tiathena]

 
     I wonder - &nd, somehow doubt, that any (known, identified-as-such) parts of tensae have survived anywhere?
  For some reason, my mind is ‘imagining’ them as being roughly a Roman equivalent to a modern parade float: i.e. very specific in design and purpose, very ornate and elaborate, rather large, ‘clumsy,’ must-be-drawn slowly quasi-conveyance and – though taking some time in advance for all the fabrication, being nonetheless quite (intentionally and/or inevitably) transient?
 
  What an awe-inspiring sight it must have been to see such a tensa moving, drawn by quadriga, with a quadriga mounted atop the pediment! (e.g. that depicted on the AU of Claudius, shown above).
 
  I wonder as well, of what such things must have been fashioned?
  Wood? (for weight concern?) Some base metal – copper? ..bronze?  More elaborate – gold? ..silver? ..Gilded wood or bronze, perhaps?
 
  What a wonderful and fantastic people those Romans!

    Best,
    Tia
 

[curtislclay]

I don't doubt that tensae were of ordinary chariot size, as depicted on the coins. 

They were apparently permanent, reused again and again in the numerous circus processions each year, since an inscription mentions an aedes tensarum, a sort of tensa garage, on the Capitol.

No identified remains have survived, though Pat L. alerts me to the discovery of the apparent decorations of a ceremonial chariot in Bulgaria.

Martin, any Roman who had ever witnessed a circus parade would certainly have recognized and understood these images of tensae on the coins!

[Tiathena]

 
      Ahhhh!
 
  Very, very interesting!
  Much & many thanks for your kind reply, Curtis.
 
  Just one more question about the tensae, if I may?
  I am also curious about the way they are depicted on the coins, such that it seems there would be some question as to the overall ‘balance’ of the structure, unless the fore-part perhaps ‘rested’ in some way on the back(s) of the horses? ..Maybe even just the two center horses – or perhaps the ‘hitch’ between them and the carriage of the tensa? (as it doesn’t appear to have anything showing such on the visible side, the one nearest in view).
  On David’s coin particularly in this regard, the depiction suggests the tensa is in any-event narrower than the breadth of the four-horses drawing it. (?)
 
  Of course by ‘balance’ in this question – I mean that which must have kept it from ‘falling-forward’ as it were.
 
  Or would there have been some means of establishing proper-balance in the design of-itself?
  ..Or perhaps we can only speculate?

    Best,
    Tia
 

[curtislclay]

Tia,

Yes, they do look front-heavy on the coins, I had never noticed!

However, this is surely just an artistic distortion.  To diminish the horizontal extension of the type, the details of the wagon had to be shown above the backs of the horses; but the wheel, of course, had to be shown behind them!

In reality, the axle was of course in the center of the chariot, not at its rear.  I would suppose the chariot was of ordinary width, maybe 6-8 feet, less than the space required by four horses trotting side by side.

[Tiathena]

 
      Dear Curtis,

  That of course makes perfect sense!
  I thank you once again for your kind reply.
 
  It is almost ‘humorous’ somehow – like a coin-flip I almost always lose; when my mind suggests ‘artistic accommodation’ I find, no, it was in fact just that way! – and likewise when suspecting it must have been ‘just that way!’
 
  As is always the case for such – one either knows or does not.
 
  I am grateful to you…
 
     Best, as always –
     Tia
 

[slokind]

Since Curtis mentioned it himself, it no longer will be a mere distraaction from the Vespasian one in question to copy out just the opening paragraph from Nikolai Chergarov's article in Archaeologia Bulgarica 1999, 1, pp. 71-77 and attach a single image of the two heads after conservation.
"The object of this paper represents an unpublished bronze* plate with two male profiles in relief, belongs to a chariot** which was discovered in Plovdiv (ancient Philippopolis, southern Bulgaria), in the courtyard of HMI.***  During work for a heating system, workmen came upon a rich Thracian funeral.  The chariot was buried along with the horses...The chariod has four wheels.  the chassis is built by two long flat iron bars at the back axis and by four short wooden beams..."
The article is in English, but obviously was not thought in English.  * Later in the article an analysis of the alloy was 81.97% copper and 18.03 zinc; made by plastic deformation of the sheet with gauge 2mm; I take this to be repoussé, which is as appears.  And 'alpha brass' is what the Britannica calls 'church brass' and it is the formula for good orichalcum.  ** With four wheels, and its 'crate' shape, we might want to call it a wagon.  *** I have no idea what HMI stands for.
Here is that best preserved fragment.  He dates the two burials found both to the time of Caracalla.
Pat L.

[Agrippa1]

I'm sorry, but I also have a question!

Is this also a tensa on the coin of Nero & Agrippina with elephants quadriga?

Regards,

Jos
 

[curtislclay]

No, that is an elephant car carrying the actual statue of the deified emperor, also of course in the circus parade.  So each consecrated emperor had two chariots in the parade: an elephant wagon carrying his statue and a tensa carrying his divine symbols.

[Agrippa1]

Ah, great; that must have been quite an impressive parade.
Many thanks for this information.

Regards,

Jos