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Rulers in Rome
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I have created a collection that includes a coin from every person, with one exception, who actually ruled in Rome from Julius Caesar and the first triumvirate until 410 AD, when the city was sacked. To this, I have added the Imperators and Consuls Marius and Sulla, who established the late republic precedent for a ruler in Rome. Various other figures of the day, wives, other family members, and usurpers join the collection. He who is lacking is the accursed Silbannacus, a man unknown to history who existed only, perhaps, to torment future collectors.
142 files, last one added on Jan 08, 2020
Album viewed 42 times
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| Last additions - Blindado's Gallery |
The Amazon Kyme 3 (Vespasian) Kyme, Aeolis
AE 19
70-73 AD
Laureate head of Vespasian r. ΒΑϹΠΑϹΙΑΝΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΑ ΚΑΙϹΑΡΑ
The Amazon Kyme standing l., holding globe and trident, ΑΝΘΥ ΕΠΡΙΩ ΜΑΡΚΕΛΛΩ ΤΟ Γ ΚΥ
RPC II 970, Cop 144; Stumpf 319
Adrienne Mayor's The Amazons has a section on the amazons at sea, but that does not share much light on this coin. The amazon queen Kyme was the legendary founder of the city Cyme on the Black Sea coast. The engraver portrays an historical accurate amazon wearing a short dress, trousers, belt and baldric, and a Scythian gorytos (quiver) on her left hip. He has added a crown, as befits the notion of a queen.
BlindadoFeb 23, 2024
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Kyme the AmazonAEOLIS. Kyme. Epirus Marcellus, procos III (69-96)
AE 19
Bust of the Senate, ΘEON CVNKΛHTON
Amazon Kyme standing left, holding trident and globe, EΠPIΩ MAPKEΛΛΩ / KY
RPC II, 971, SNG Copenhagen 144
It's hard to say for certain, but it looks like Kyme is wearing a Scythian pointed hat with ear flaps, trousers, and boots, which would make this a fairly accurate portrayal if a female Scythian horse warrior, who were the actual historical amazons. There are only two examples of this coin in acsearch.
Thanks to Pekka K for the proper attribution.BlindadoMar 17, 2022
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Amazon on Horse 2AE 23, Eumeneia in Phrygia, minted MA as Caesar 139-161
Draped and cuirassed bust of Marcus Aurelius, Μ ΑΥΡΗΛΙ ΟΥΗΡΟΣ ΚΑΙ
Amazon on horseback r, holding labrys over shoulder, ΕΥΜΕΝΕΙΩΝ ΑΧΑΙΩΝ
BMC 59; RPC IV online 1992 (temp.); SNG Copenhagen 396; SNG Tübingen
Phrygia was a territory roamed by Scythian tribes, among whom rode the female horse warriors from whom the notion of amazons arose. Despite its Phrygian origin, the iconography of the amazon is similar to depictions on Roman sarcophagi and other sculptures that depict the warrior women in a thigh-length dress with sandals and often bareheaded. This one has a cape billowing behind her. The image is mythical insofar as the amazons did not use a double-headed axe in combat.BlindadoDec 18, 2021
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Amazon on HorseThe Amazon Queen Omphale?
AE20, Lydia, Mostene, ca 100 BC
Laureate head of Zeus right
ΛYΔΩN MOΣTHNΩN, Amazon on horseback right, holding bipennis axe over shoulder; EP (or EB) to left, monogram to right
SNG Copenhagen 284, Waddington 5101 (if EB)
Adrienne Mayor, in "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World," records the following:
"In a legend preserved by Plutarch, when Heracles took [Amazon Queen] Hippolyte's golden belt, he also carried away her battle axe, which he presented to another powerful mythical queen, Omphale of Lydia. . . . Queen Hippolyte's axe, says Plutarch, was handed down from Omphale to the kings of Lydia. That is, until King Candaules (d. 718 BC) disrespected the Amazon's axe and carelessly gave it away. Hippolyte's precious axe ultimately ended up in the Temple of Zeus at Labranda in Caria. The original axe shape was not specified in the tale, but by the time it was placed in Zeus's temple it was described as a solid gold labors, the symmetrical double-headed ritual axe traditionally associated with Zeus and Minoan goddesses. . . . (219-220.)"
As Mayor points out, the actual Scythian women horse warriors, who were the original amazons, did not use such and axe in battle, but rather the single-headed sagaris. But the double-headed axe appears on various ancient coins depicting amazons. The coin is historically accurate, however, in portraying the amazon as a horse-mounted warrior.
Given the Lydian origin of the coin, the obverse of Zeus, and reverse of an amazon with an axe shaped like the one at Zeus's temple, it is reasonable to suggest that she is Omphale.
BlindadoMar 18, 2021
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1af2 Lepidus, Octavian, and Marc Antony40-39 BC
Ephesus, AE 1/2 unit 19mm
Jugate bare heads of the Second Triumvirate members, right
ΑΡΧΙΕΡΕΥΣ ΓΡΑΜ ΓΛΑΥΚΩΝ ΕΦΕ ΠΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΣ, facing cult statue of Artemis (with supports)
RPC 2572A
Thanks to OldMoney for the attribution
5.0 grams
See the individual descriptions of my coins from Octavian, Marc Antony, and Lepidus for more historical information.BlindadoJan 08, 2020
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Venus1bm Lucilla
166 views
Wife of Lucius Verus, executed 182 AD
Sestertius
Draped bust, right, LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F
Venus standing facing left holding apple, drawing out robe, VENUS
RIC 1767
Daughter of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior, she married Lucius Verus in 164. BlindadoJan 07, 2020
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The Amazon Kyme 2City of Kyme
Bronze 16mm
2d century BC
Artemis, holding long torch, greeting the Amazon Kyme, holding scepter
KY; Two figures (Apollo and Kyme?) in quadriga right
SNG München 512; SNG Copenhagen 113; SNG von Aulock 7698
I purchased this second coin because the obverse shows better than any example I can find that Kyme has a Scythian gorytos (quiver) hanging from her left hip, underscoring the historical accuracy of the depiction.BlindadoAug 24, 2018
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The Amazon Kyme City of Kyme
Bronze 17mm
2d century BC
Artemis, holding long torch, greeting the Amazon Kyme, holding scepter
KY; Two figures (Apollo and Kyme?) in quadriga right
SNG München 512; SNG Copenhagen 113; SNG von Aulock 7698
According to the geographer Pomponius Mela, writing about 43 AD, amazons had long camped in Pontus when they dominated Anatolia. They had worshipped Artemis at Ephesus and named the town Kyme (Cyme) after the amazon leader who drove out the native inhabitants. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons, 47-48). Kyme wears Scythian garb as depicted elsewhere, but an amazon most likely would not have worn a helmet.BlindadoMay 10, 2018
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0a Amazon StaterSilver Stater 20mm Struck circa 440-410 B.C.
Soloi in Cilicia
Amazon kneeling left, holding bow, quiver on left hip
ΣOΛEΩN, Grape cluster on vine; A-Θ to either side of stalk, monogram to lower right
Sear 5602 var.; Casabonne Type 3; SNG France 135; SNG Levante
This coin depicts an amazon in historically accurate garb. Unfortunately, the bow is corroded away on this piece, but it is pointed toward her. She wears the Scythian hat, which also has a bit along the top corroded away. The quiver on her hip is an accurate portrayal of the gorytos (quiver), which was nearly two feet long, fashioned of leather, and often decorated. Fortunately, there is redundancy in this image, and a second bow is shown as in its place in the gorytos, which had separate chambers for arrows and the bow, where the archer stored it while not in use. The amazon has just finished stringing her bow and is adjusting the top hook to make sure the strings and limbs are properly aligned. She has strung the bow using her leg to hold one limb in place so she can use both hands to string the weapon. Her recurve bow was made of horn (ibex, elk, ox) wrapped with horse hair, birch bark, or sinew (deer, elk, ox) and glue (animal or fish) wrapped around a wood core. The bow was about 30 inches long. Arrow heads from grave sites come in bone, wood, iron, and bronze with two or three flanges; the shafts were made of reed or wood (willow, birch, poplar) and fletched with feathers. Poisoned arrows were sometimes painted to resemble vipers. A Scythian archer could probably fire 15-20 arrows per minute with accuracy to 200 feet and range to 500-600 feet. Distance archery with modern reconstructions suggests a maximum unaimed flight distance of 1,600 feet. (Mayor 209ff)
Soloi was founded about 700 B.C.and came under Persian rule. According to Diodorus, when the amazons were engaging in conquest in Asia Minor, the Cilicians accepted them willingly and retained their independence. Soloi may be named after Solois, a companion of Theseus, who married the amazon Antiope. The amazon on the coin may well be Antiope. (Mayor, 264-265)BlindadoApr 27, 2018
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1ab_2 Marcus Licinius CrassusFormed First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey in 60 BC, killed at Carrhae in Parthia in 53 BC.
Denarius, minted by son, P Licinius Crassus, ca 54 BC.
Bust of Venus, right, SC behind
Amazon with horse, P CRASSVS MF.
Seaby, Licinia 18
These coins were probably minted to pay Crassus' army for the invasion of Parthia, which led to its destruction. My synthesis of reviewing 90 examples of this issue revealed a female warrior wearing a soft felt Scythian cap with ear flaps (visible in this example); a fabric garment with a decorated skirt to the knees; probably trousers; an ornate war belt; a baldric; a cape, animal skin, or shoulder cord on attached to the left shoulder; and decorated calf-high boots. She matches the historically confirmed garb of the real amazons—Scythian horsewomen—and of course holds her steed. The horse’s tack is consistent with archeological discoveries of tack in use by Scythians and Romans.
Adrienne Mayor writes that amazon imagery on Greek vases suddenly appeared in 575-550 BC, initially depicting them in Greek-style armor. By the end of the century, as the Greeks learned more through direct and indirect contact with Scythians, they began to appear wearing archeologically confirmed Scythian-Sarmatian-Thracian patterned attire. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 199-200). To this, artists added their own creative ideas regarding colors, fabric patterns, and decorations. “They dressed the warrior women in body-hugging ‘unitards’ or tunics, short chitons or belted dresses, sometimes over leggings or trousers. . . . In paintings and sculpture, pointed or soft Scythian caps with earflaps or ties (kidaris) soon replaced the Greek helmets, and the women wear a variety of belts, baldrics (diagonal straps), corselets, shoulder cords or bands, and crisscrossing leather straps attached to belt loops like those worn by the archer huntress Artemis. . . . Amazon footgear included soft leather moccasin-like shoes, calf-high boots (endromides), or taller laced boots (embades) with scallops or flaps and lined with felt or fur.” (Mayor, 202)
The artists apparently had detailed knowledge of gear used by real Scythian horsewomen to equip their imagined Amazons. “Archeological discoveries of well-preserved sets of clothing confirm that real horsewomen of ancient Scythian lands dressed much as did those described in Greek texts and illustrated in Scythian and Greek artwork.” (Mayor, 203)
BlindadoApr 27, 2018
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1ab Marcus Licinius CrassusFormed First Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey in 60 BC, killed at Carrhae in Parthia in 53 BC.
Denarius, minted by son, P Licinius Crassus, ca 54 BC.
Bust of Venus, right, SC behind
Amazon with horse, P CRASSVS MF.
Seaby, Licinia 18
These coins were probably minted to pay Crassus' army for the invasion of Parthia, which led to its destruction. My synthesis of reviewing 90 examples of this issue revealed a female warrior wearing a soft felt Scythian cap with ear flaps; a fabric garment with a decorated skirt to the knees; probably trousers; an ornate war belt; a baldric; a cape, animal skin, or shoulder cord on attached to the left shoulder; and decorated calf-high boots. She matches the historically confirmed garb of the real amazons—Scythian horsewomen—and of course holds her steed. The horse’s tack is consistent with archeological discoveries of tack in use by Scythians and Romans.
Adrienne Mayor writes that amazon imagery on Greek vases suddenly appeared in 575-550 BC, initially depicting them in Greek-style armor. By the end of the century, as the Greeks learned more through direct and indirect contact with Scythians, they began to appear wearing archeologically confirmed Scythian-Sarmatian-Thracian patterned attire. (Adrienne Mayor, The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014, 199-200). To this, artists added their own creative ideas regarding colors, fabric patterns, and decorations. “They dressed the warrior women in body-hugging ‘unitards’ or tunics, short chitons or belted dresses, sometimes over leggings or trousers. . . . In paintings and sculpture, pointed or soft Scythian caps with earflaps or ties (kidaris) soon replaced the Greek helmets, and the women wear a variety of belts, baldrics (diagonal straps), corselets, shoulder cords or bands, and crisscrossing leather straps attached to belt loops like those worn by the archer huntress Artemis. . . . Amazon footgear included soft leather moccasin-like shoes, calf-high boots (endromides), or taller laced boots (embades) with scallops or flaps and lined with felt or fur.” (Mayor, 202)
The artists apparently had detailed knowledge of gear used by real Scythian horsewomen to equip their imagined Amazons. “Archeological discoveries of well-preserved sets of clothing confirm that real horsewomen of ancient Scythian lands dressed much as did those described in Greek texts and illustrated in Scythian and Greek artwork.” (Mayor, 203)BlindadoApr 27, 2018
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1ap_2 MessalinaThird wife of Claudius, married in 38 (?)
AE 20, Knossos mint
Bare head of Claudius left, CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS
Draped bust of Messalina right, VALERIA MESSALINA [CAPITONE CYTHERONTE IIVIR] or [CYTHERO CAPITONE] (end of legend off flan)
According to Suetonius: [Claudius] was betrothed twice at an early age: to Aemilia Lepida, great-granddaughter of Augustus, and to Livia Medullina, who also had the surname of Camilla and was descended from the ancient family of Camillus the dictator. He put away the former before their marriage, because her parents had offended Augustus; the latter was taken ill and died on the very day which had been set for the wedding. He then married Plautia Urgulanilla, whose father had been honoured with a triumph, and later Aelia Paetina, daughter of an ex-consul. He divorced both these, Paetina for trivial offences, but Urgulanilla because of scandalous lewdness and the suspicion of murder. Then he married Valeria Messalina, daughter of his cousin Messala Barbatus. But when he learned that besides other shameful and wicked deeds she had actually married Gaius Silius, and that a formal contract had been signed in the presence of witnesses, he put her to death and declared before the assembled praetorian guard that inasmuch as his marriages did not turn out well, he would remain a widower, and if he did not keep his word, he would not refuse death at their hands. . . . [He later married Agrippina Jr.]
He had children by three of his wives: by Urgulanilla, Drusus and Claudia; by Paetina, Antonia; by Messalina, Octavia and a son, at first called Germanicus and later Britannicus. . . .
But it is beyond all belief, that at the marriage which Messalina had contracted with her paramour Silius he signed the contract for the dowry with his own hand, being induced to do so on the ground that the marriage was a feigned one, designed to avert and turn upon another a danger which was inferred from certain portents to threaten the emperor himself. . . .
He was so terror-stricken by unfounded reports of conspiracies that he had tried to abdicate. When, as I have mentioned before, a man with a dagger was caught near him as he was sacrificing, he summoned the senate in haste by criers and loudly and tearfully bewailed his lot, saying that there was no safety for him anywhere; and for a long time he would not appear in public. His ardent love for Messalina too was cooled, not so much by her unseemly and insulting conduct, as through fear of danger, since he believed that her paramour Silius aspired to the throne. . . .
Appius Silanus met his downfall. When Messalina and Narcissus had put their heads together to destroy him, they agreed on their parts and the latter rushed into his patron's bed-chamber before daybreak in pretended consternation, declaring that he had dreamed that Appius had made an attack on the emperor. Then Messalina, with assumed surprise, declared that she had had the same dream for several successive nights. A little later, as had been arranged, Appius, who had received orders the day before to come at that time, was reported to be forcing his way in, and as if were proof positive of the truth of the dream, his immediate accusation and death were ordered. . . .
BlindadoNov 11, 2017
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| Random files - Blindado's Gallery |
1ao2 Caesonia (?)AE 27 of Carthago Nova, Spain
Laureate head of Caligula, right, C CAESAR AVG GERMANIS
Draped bust of Caesonia (as Salus) right, DN ATEL FLAC CN POM FLAC II VIR Q V I N C, SAL AVG across field
Generally held to portray the fourth wife of Caligula.
Sear 624
Caesonia, Milonia, (d41AD) was the fourth and last wife of Caligula. Her younger half-brother was the Consul Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. Her niece, Domitia Longina, married Domitian. In 41, Caligula was assassinated and Caesonia and her daughter Julia Drusilla murdered.
Suetonius states: As for Caesonia, who was neither young nor beautiful, had three daughters by another man, and was wildly promiscuous and extravagant, he not only loved her more passionately for it, but also more faithfully, taking her out riding, and showing her to the soldiers, dressed in a cloak with helmet and shield: while he exhibited her to his friends stark naked. He did not honour her with the title of wife until she had given him a child, announcing his paternity and the marriage on the very same day. This child, whom he named Julia Drusilla, he carried round all the temples of the goddesses, before finally entrusting her to Minerva’s lap, calling on that goddess to nurture and educate his daughter. Nothing persuaded him more clearly that she was his own issue than her violent temper, which was so savage the infant would tear at the faces and eyes of her little playmates. . . .
And as [Caligula] kissed the neck of wife or sweetheart, he never failed to say: ‘This lovely thing will be slit whenever I say.’ Now and then he even threatened his dear Caesonia with torture, if that was the only way of discovering why he was so enamoured of her. . . . Some think that Caesonia his wife administered a love potion that had instead the effect of driving him mad.Blindado
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1ct_2 Herennia EtruscillaWife of Trajan Decius
AR Antoninianus
Diademed and draped bust right on crescent, HER ESTRVSCILLA AVG
Pudicitia seated left holding tranverse scepter, PVDICITIA AVG
RIC 59b
Blindado
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1bp Pertinax193
Denarius
Bearded laureate head, right, IMP CAES P HELV PERTIN AVG
Ops std, OPI DIVIN TR P COS II
RIC 8
The Historia Augusta has this to say: Publius Helvius Pertinax was the son of a freedman, Helvius Successus by name, who confessed that he gave this name to his son because of his own long-standing connection with the timber-trade. . . . Pertinax himself was born in the Apennines on an estate which belonged to his mother. . . . Winning promotion because of the energy he showed in the Parthian war, he was transferred to Britain and there retained. Later he led a squadron in Moesia. . . . Next, he commanded the German fleet. . . . From this command he was transferred to Dacia. . . . After Cassius' revolt had been suppressed, Pertinax set out from Syria to protect the bank of the Danube, and presently he was appointed to govern both the Moesias and, soon thereafter, Dacia. And by reason of his success in these provinces, he won the appointment to Syria. . . .
Pertinax was made consul for the second time. And while in this position, Pertinax did not avoid complicity in the murder of Commodus, when a share in this plot was offered him by the other conspirators. After Commodus was slain, aetus, the prefect of the guard, and Eclectus, the chamberlain, came to Pertinax and reassured him, and then led him to the camp. There he harangued the soldiers, promised a donative, and said that the imperial power had been thrust upon him by Laetus and Eclectus. . . .
He reduced the imperial banquets from something absolutely unlimited to a fixed standard, and, indeed, cut down all expenses from what they had been under Commodus. And from the example set by the emperor, who lived rather simply, there resulted a general economy and a consequent reduction in the cost of living. . . . [H]e restored to everyone the property of which Commodus had despoiled him. . . . He always attended the stated meetings of the senate and always made some proposal. . . .
A conspiracy l was organized against Pertinax by Laetus, the prefect of the guard, and sundry others who were displeased by his integrity. . . . [T]hree hundred soldiers, formed into a wedge, marched under arms from the camp to the imperial residence. . . . After they had burst into the inner portion of the Palace, however, Pertinax advanced to meet them and sought to appease them with a long and serious speech. In spite of this, one Tausius, a Tungrian, after haranguing the soldiers into a state of fury and fear, hurled his spear at Pertinax' breast. And he, after a prayer to Jupiter the Avenger, veiled his head with his toga and was stabbed by the rest.Blindado
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