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0a Abduction of the SabinesL Titurius Sabinus, moneyer
90-85 BC
Head of Tativs, right, SABIN behind
Two Roman soldiers bearing women
Seaby, Tituria 1
When the hour for the games had come, and their eyes and minds were alike riveted on the spectacle before them, the preconcerted signal was given and the Roman youth dashed in all directions to carry off the [Sabine] maidens who were present. The larger part were carried off indiscriminately, but some particularly beautiful girls who had been marked out for the leading patricians were carried to their houses by plebeians told off for the task. One, conspicuous amongst them all for grace and beauty, is reported to have been carried off by a group led by a certain Talassius, and to the many inquiries as to whom she was intended for, the invariable answer was given, "For Talassius." Hence the use of this word in the marriage rites. Alarm and consternation broke up the games, and the parents of the maidens fled, distracted with grief, uttering bitter reproaches on the violators of the laws of hospitality and appealing to the god to whose solemn games they had come, only to be the victims of impious perfidy. The abducted maidens were quite as despondent and indignant. Romulus, however, went round in person, and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbours. They would live in honourable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and - dearest of all to human nature - would be the mothers of freemen. He begged them to lay aside their feelings of resentment and give their affections to those whom fortune had made masters of their persons. An injury had often led to reconciliation and love; they would find their husbands all the more affectionate, because each would do his utmost, so far as in him lay, to make up for the loss of parents and country. These arguments were reinforced by the endearments of their husbands, who excused their conduct by pleading the irresistible force of their passion - a plea effective beyond all others in appealing to a woman's nature.
The feelings of the abducted maidens were now pretty completely appeased, but not so those of their parents.
Livy, History of Rome 1.9-1.10Blindado
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0aa Defeat of Hannibal on Sicily, 222 BCCn. Lentulus, moneyer
90-85 BC
Quinarius
Laureled head of Jupiter, right
Victory crowning trophy, CN LENT in ex
Seaby, Cornelia 51
Possibly a reference to this event: [Q. Fabius Maximus, afterwards called Cunctator] broke up his camp at Suessula and decided to begin by an attack on Arpi. . . . Now at last the enemy was roused; there was a lull in the storm and daylight was approaching. Hannibal's garrison in the city amounted to about 5000 men, and the citizens themselves had raised a force of 3000. These the Carthaginians put in front to meet the enemy, that there might be no attempt at treachery in their rear. The fighting began in the dark in the narrow streets, the Romans having occupied not only the streets near the gate but the houses also, that they might not be assailed from the roofs. Gradually as it grew light some of the citizen troops and some of the Romans recognised one another, and entered into conversation. The Roman soldiers asked what it was that the Arpinians wanted, what wrong had Rome done them, what good service had Carthage rendered them that they, Italians-bred and born, should fight against their old friends the Romans on behalf of foreigners and barbarians, and wish to make Italy a tributary province of Africa. The people of Arpi urged in their excuse that they knew nothing of what was going on, they had in fact been sold by their leaders to the Carthaginians, they had been victimised and enslaved by a small oligarchy. When a beginning had been once made the conversations became more and more general; at last the praetor of Arpi was conducted by his friends to the consul, and after they had given each other mutual assurances, surrounded by the troops under their standards, the citizens suddenly turned against the Carthaginians and fought for the Romans. A body of Spaniards also, numbering something less than a thousand, transferred their services to the consul upon the sole condition that the Carthaginian garrison should be allowed to depart uninjured. The gates were opened for them and they were dismissed, according to the stipulation, in perfect safety, and went to Hannibal at Salapia. Thus Arpi was restored to the Romans without the loss of a single life, except in the case of one man who had long ago been a traitor and had recently deserted. The Spaniards were ordered to receive double rations, and the republic availed itself on very many occasions of their courage and fidelity.
Livy, History of Rome, 24.46-47Blindado
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0aa2 Defeat of Hannibal in the Second Punic War, 202 BCQ. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio
Imperator 47-46 BC
Denarius
Head of Jupiter, right, Q METEL PIVS
Elephant, right, SCIPIO IMP
Seaby, Caecilia 47
At least one theory for the depiction of the elephant on the reverse of this coin is that it refers to Scipio Africanus' defeat of Hannibal in the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, which ended the Second Punic War. It could also simply refer to the location of the mint in Africa. Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio became Pompey's father-in-law in 53 BC. in 49, he got the Senate to issue the ultimatum that Caesar disband his army before crossing the Rubicon River or be branded a public enemy. He commanded Pompey's center at Pharsalus. After Pompey's death, he fought on from North Africa. At Thapsus, Caesar routed Scipio again (46 BC). He escaped again only to fall on his sword and drown a few months later in a naval battle near Hippo.Blindado
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0ac Conquest of MacedoniaPaullus Aemilius Lepidus, moneyer
109-100 BC
Denarius
Veiled head of Concord, right, PAVLLVS LEPIDVS CONCORDIA
TER above trophy, L. Aemelius Lepidus on right, Perseus and his two sons as prisoners on left, PAVLLVS in ex.
Seaby, Aemelia 10
L. Aemelius Paullus defeated the Macedonians in 168 BC and brought Perseus and his sons to Rome to adorn his triumph.
Three days after the battle Perseus arrived at Amphipolis, and from that city he sent heralds with a caduceus to Paulus. In the meanwhile Hippias, Midon, and Pantauchus, the principal men among the king's friends who had fled from the field of battle to Beroea, went and made their surrender to the Roman consul. In the case of others also, their fears prompted them, one after another, to do the same. The consul sent his son Q. Fabius, together with L. Lentulus and Q. Metellus, with despatches to Rome announcing his victory. He gave the spoils taken from the enemy's army lying on the field of battle to the foot soldiers and the plunder from the surrounding country to the cavalry on condition that they were not absent from the camp more than two nights. The camp at Pydna was shifted to a site nearer the sea. First of all Beroea, then Thessalonica and Pella, and almost the whole of Macedonia, city by city, surrendered within two days.
Livy, History of Rome, 44.45
Blindado
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0b Italy Gets Roman CitizenshipL Farsuleius Mensor, moneyer
76-71 BC
Denarius
Diademed and draped head of Liberty, right, SC below, MENSOR before, cap of Liberty and number behind
Roma in biga helping togate figure mount, L FARSVLEI in ex.
Appears to allude to the Lex Julia of 90 BC, by which all of Italy gained Roman citizenship
Seaby, Farsuleia 1Blindado
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1aa Reign of SVLLAL Manlivs, moneyer
82-72 BC
Denarius
Head of Roma, right, MANLI before, PRO Q behind
Sulla in walking quadriga, crowned by Victory, L SVLLA IM in ex.
Seaby, Manlia 4
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC) was a Roman general and conservative statesman. He had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. Sulla was awarded a grass crown, the most prestigious and rarest Roman military honor, during the Social War. He was the first man to lead an army to Rome to settle a political dispute, in this case with Marius. In late 81 BC, he stunned the world by resigning his near-absolute powers, restoring constitutional government. After seeing election to and holding a second consulship, he retired to private life and died shortly after.
As to the person, Plutarch wrote: LUCIUS Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family. . . . His general personal appearance may be known by his statues; only his blue, eyes, of themselves extremely keen and glaring, were rendered all the more forbidding and terrible by the complexion of his face, in which white was mixed with rough blotches of fiery red. . . . And when supreme master of all, he was often wont to muster together the most impudent players and stage-followers of the town, and to drink and bandy jests with them without regard to his age or the dignity of his place, and to the prejudice of important affairs that required his attention. When he was once at table, it was not in Sylla's nature to admit of anything that was serious, and whereas at other times he was a man of business and austere of countenance, he underwent all of a sudden, at his first entrance upon wine and good-fellowship, a total revolution, and was gentle and tractable with common singers and dancers, and ready to oblige any one that spoke with him. It seems to have been a sort of diseased result of this laxity that he was so prone to amorous pleasures, and yielded without resistance to any temptation of voluptuousness, from which even in his old age he could not refrain. He had a long attachment for Metrobius, a player. In his first amours, it happened that he made court to a common but rich lady, Nicopolis by name, and what by the air of his youth, and what by long intimacy, won so far on her affections, that she rather than he was the lover, and at her death she bequeathed him her whole property. He likewise inherited the estate of a step-mother who loved him as her own son. By these means he had pretty well advanced his fortunes. . . . In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character, full of inconsistencies with himself much given to rapine, to prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased, alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard to tell whether his nature had more in it of pride or of servility. As to his unequal distribution of punishments, as, for example, that upon slight grounds he would put to the torture, and again would bear patiently with the greatest wrongs; would readily forgive and he reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and yet would visit small and inconsiderable offences with death and confiscation of goods; one might judge that in himself he was really of a violent and revengeful nature, which, however, he could qualify, upon reflection, for his interest. Blindado
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1ab Conquest of JudeaA. Plautius, moneyer
c. 54 BC
Denarius
Turreted head of Cybele, A PLAVTIVS before, AED CVR SC behind
Bacchius kneels right with camel at his side, extending olive branch, BACCHIVS in ex., IVDAEVS in right
Seaby, Plautia 13
The reverse appears to Pompey's conquest of Judaea in 63 BC.
Josephus recorded of Pompey's conquest of Jerusalem: And when he was come to the city, he looked about where he might make his attack; for he saw the walls were so firm, that it would be hard to overcome them; and that the valley before the walls was terrible; and that the temple, which was within that valley, was itself encompassed with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the city were taken, that temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy to retire to. . . . Aristobulus's party was worsted, and retired into the temple, and cut off the communication between the temple and the city, by breaking down the bridge that joined them together, and prepared to make an opposition to the utmost; but as the others had received the Romans into the city, and had delivered up the palace to him, Pompey sent Piso, one of his great officers, into that palace with an army, who distributed a garrison about the city, because he could not persuade any one of those that had fled to the temple to come to terms of accommodation; he then disposed all things that were round about them so as might favor their attacks, as having Hyrcanus's party very ready to afford them both counsel and assistance. . . . But Pompey himself filled up the ditch that was oil the north side of the temple, and the entire valley also, the army itself being obliged to carry the materials for that purpose. And indeed it was a hard thing to fill up that valley, by reason of its immense depth, especially as the Jews used all the means possible to repel them from their superior situation; nor had the Romans succeeded in their endeavors, had not Pompey taken notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstain from all sorts of work on a religious account, and raised his bank, but restrained his soldiers from fighting on those days; for the Jews only acted defensively on sabbath days. Blindado
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1af Julius Caesar Wages Civil WarJulius Caesar
Denarius
49-48 BC
Elephant right, trampling on serpent [probably], CAESAR in ex
Simpulum, sprinkler, axe and priest's hat
Evidently a military issue, no agreement exists on the meaning of the coin's imagery (See a related thread on of the Classical Numismatic Discussion.)
Seaby 49
Given the chance that the coin was minted to pay Caesar's armies in the civil war, here is a description of the beginning, according to Suetonius: He then overtook his advanced guard at the River Rubicon, which formed the boundary between Gaul and Italy. There he paused for a while and, realising the magnitude of the step he was taking, turned to his staff, to remark: ‘We could turn back, even now; but once over that little bridge, and it will all come down to a fight.’ . . . As he stood there, undecided, he received a sign. A being of marvellous stature and beauty appeared suddenly, seated nearby, and playing on a reed pipe. A knot of shepherds gathered to listen, but when a crowd of his soldiers, including some of the trumpeters, broke ranks to join them, the apparition snatched a trumpet from one of them, ran to the river, and sounding the call to arms blew a thunderous blast, and crossed to the far side. At this, Caesar exclaimed: ‘Let us follow the summons, of the gods’ sign and our enemy’s injustice. The die is cast.’ And crossing with the army, he welcomed the tribunes of the people, who had fled to him from Rome. Then, in tears, he addressed the troops and, ripping open the breast of his tunic, asked for their loyalty. Blindado
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1ba Caesar's Siege of MassiliaL Hostilivs Saserna, moneyer
49-44 BC
Denarius, 48 BC
Head of Gallia, right, Gaulish trumpet behind
HOSTILIVS SASTERNA, Diana of Ephesus with stag
Seaby, Hostilia 4
This piece appears to refer to Julius Caesar's siege of Massilia (Marseille) during the civil war in 49 BC.
In The Civil Wars, Julius Caesar recorded: While this treaty was going forward, Domitius arrived at Massilia with his fleet, and was received into the city, and made governor of it. The chief management of the war was intrusted to him. At his command they send the fleet to all parts; they seize all the merchantmen they could meet with, and carry them into the harbor; they apply the nails, timber, and rigging, with which they were furnished to rig and refit their other vessels. They lay up in the public stores, all the corn that was found in the ships, and reserve the rest of their lading and convoy for the siege of the town, should such an event take place. Provoked at such ill treatment, Caesar led three legions against Massilia, and resolved to provide turrets, and vineae to assault the town, and to build twelve ships at Arelas, which being completed and rigged in thirty days (from the time the timber was cut down), and being brought to Massilia, he put under the command of Decimus Brutus; and left Caius Trebonius his lieutenant, to invest the city. Blindado
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1bb Octavian's Succession of Julius CaesarClaudius, Philippi, Macedon
Date unknown
AE 26
TI CLAVDIVS CAES AVG P M TR P IMP P P, Bare head left
COL AVG IVL PHILIP, Statue of Divus Julius being crowned by statue of Divus Augustus
I'm guessing this coin was meant to emphasize the succession of legitimacy from Julius Caesar to Augustus.
RPC 1654Blindado
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1bd Mark Antony Battles OctavianMark Antony
32-31 BC
Denarius
Galley, ANT AVG III VIR R P C, counter-marked
Legionary eagle between two standards, counter-marked
Seaby, Mark Antony 26ff
Plutarch described the outbreak of the conflict thusly: That night Antony had a very unlucky dream, fancying that his right hand was thunderstruck. And, some few days after, he was informed that Caesar was plotting to take his life. Caesar explained, but was not believed, so that the breach was now made as wide as ever; each of them hurried about all through Italy to engage, by great offers, the old soldiers that lay scattered in their settlements, and to be the first to secure the troops that still remained undischarged. Cicero was at this time the man of greatest influence in Rome. He made use of all his art to exasperate the people against Antony, and at length persuaded the senate to declare him a public enemy, to send Caesar the rods and axes and other marks of honour usually given to proctors, and to issue orders to Hirtius and Pansa, who were the consuls, to drive Antony out of Italy.Blindado
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1bd1 Sextus Pompey Battles OctavianPompey the Great
As, minted by son Sextus Pompey
43-36 BC
Janiform head with features of Pompey the Great, MAGN above.
Prow of galley, PIVS above, IMP below.
This engraver had at best a dim notion of what the great man looked like! Pompey was a member of the first triumvirate, 59-53 BC.
Struck by Sextus Pompey after his victory over Salvidienus and relates to his acclamation as the Son of Neptune. Although Sextus Pompey was the supreme naval commander, Octavian had the Senate declare him a public enemy. He turned to piracy and came close to defeating Octavian. He was, however, defeated by Marcus Agrippa at the naval battle of Naulochus (3 September 36 B.C.). He was executed by order of Mark Antony in 35 B.C.
Sydenham 1044aBlindado
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1be Germanicus Recovers the Legionary Standards Lost by VarusGermanicus
Dupondius, struck by Caligula
37-41
GERMANICVS CAESAR, Germanicus in quadriga right.
SIGNIS RECEPT DEVICTIS GERM S-C, Germanicus standing left with eagle-tipped scepter
Commemorates the recovery by Germanicus, who was Caligila's father, of the legionary standards lost by Varus in the Teutoburg Forest
RIC 57Blindado
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1ca Conquests of Trajan: DaciaTrajan
98-117
Dupondius
Portrait, right, IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V PP
Trajan's column, SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI SC
Trajan's Column records the military history of the emperor's conquest of Dacia in 104.
RIC 603Blindado
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1cb Conquests of Trajan: ArabiaTrajan
98-117
Denarius
Portrait, right, IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P
Arabia and camel, SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI
Trajan annexed the Nabatean kingdom of Petra in 106.
RIC 245
Blindado
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1cc Conquests of Trajan: ParthiaTrajan
98-117
Sestertius
Laureate & draped bust right
REX PARTHIS DATVS, Trajan seated left on platform presenting Parthamaspates to kneeling Parthian, SC in ex
Trajan waged the Parthian War from 114 to 117. Roman victory brings Armenia, Mesopotamia and Assyria as new provinces into the Empire.
RIC 667Blindado
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1cd Conquests of Trajan: Armenia and MesopotamiaTrajan
98-117
Sestertius
Portrait, right, IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTI]MO AVG GER DAC PARTHICO PM [TR P COS VI PP]
Armenia in attitude of mourning at Trajan's feet right, Euphrates and Tigris reclining, SC
RIC 642Blindado
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1f 1,000 Years of RomePhilip I
244-249
Sestertius
IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate, draped & cuirassed bust right
MILITARIVM SAECVLVM, Cippus inscribed COS/III; S C across fields
Struck in 248 too commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Rome
RIC 157ABlindado
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1i Last Bid to Revitalize Pagan ReligionJulian II
360-363
AE1
Portrait, right, D N FL CL IVLIANVS P F AVG
Bull, eagle, and two stars, SECVRITAS REIPVB, PCONST in ex.
Julian "the Apostate" issued this coin with the symbols of Jupiter on the reverse as part of his campaign to breath life back into pagan faith.
RIC 318Blindado
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