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Author Topic: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena  (Read 1383 times)

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Offline slokind

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Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« on: March 20, 2007, 12:55:16 am »
I have several Macrinus with this obverse die, in a stylistic manner that is remarkably rugged and noteworthy for the Rome habit of including a bit of drapery on his left shoulder.  This is the best one I've obtained so far, and I only refrained from making it OTD because the other Macrinus are here.  And, as you all know, I love these Attic-reference Athenas that we get in Severan Moesia Inferior.  I just now photographed the coin, and here is the basic description and ID:
•  19 03 07 Æ28 15/34g axis 6h.  Nicopolis ad Istrum.  Issued by Longinus.  Macrinus, laureate, head to r., with drapery showing on the far (his left) shoulder.  AVT K M OPELIOS    SEVÊ MAKRINOS (clearer from AMNG).  Rev. Athena in helmet and wearing short aegis (cf. Parthenos) over peplos with overfold, stg. to l., pouring onto a burning altar the contents of a phiale mesomphalos; her left hand on its rim steadies the shield beside her l. leg.  VP STATI LONGIN    OV NIKOPOLITÔN PR and in exergue OS ISTR.  All the sigmas and epsilons on both legends are squared.  The obv. is Pick AMNG I, 1, no. 1746, but the reverse is no. 1745.  The rev. that Pick described for 1746 is AMNG I, Taf. XV, 17.
Perhaps someone, such as Curtis, can say what may have been the prototype for this distinctive portrait.  The obverse legend is exceptional in spelling out Opelios; and usually they double the wrong letter; here they double neither pi nor lambda.  Pat L.

Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2007, 01:10:35 am »
And here is a flatbed scan of Pick 1746, as listed.  P.L.
• 24 03 03 AE 27  Nicopolis ad Istrum  Issued by Longinus  Macrinus, laureate, head to r. (with a bit of drapery on the left shoulder--which identifies the die).  AVT K M OPELI[OS]  SEVE MAKRINOS.  Rev., Athena stg. l., her r. hand on her shield seen in profile, her l. leaning on her inverted spear, in Corinthian (?) helmet shoved back and aegis (trace of gorgoneion), in overgirt peplos, weight on r. leg.  VP STATI LONGINOV (the ou, the stacked ligature)    NIKOPOLITON PR and across field OS / IS and in exergue TROmega.  This is, to the last detail, Pick AMNG I, 1, p. 447, no. 1746, pl. XV, 17 (from the reverse die of the Paris example).

Offline Tiathena

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2007, 02:48:16 am »
 
   Truly beautiful both, Pat!
  If I may intrude yet another question too?
 
  I’m wondering whether it is at your (ones) leisure, so to speak, or by convention, that in speaking of Athena one says – Athena or Minerva?
  It has, as a rule for myself, been that in speaking of any ‘Athena’ appearing on any Roman coin (including Provincials) I have used Minerva – but perhaps for the Greek Provincials it is better and more appropriate to keep the Greek, it being Roman in all else not-withstanding?
  (Or maybe it’s not ‘Roman in all else’ and that is another contributing factor to which name is appropriate?).
 
  Best,
  Tia
 
Facilius per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur.  ~ Seneca
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Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2007, 08:24:38 pm »
Surely a matter of choice in most cases.  I have one practical reason for calling 'Athena' this goddess on coins with Greek legends (plus of certain coloniae such as Deultum): In Extensis Portfolio and elsewhere I search by keywords, so Ceres, Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Minerva, et al., bring up the coins of the Rome mint (and of course the other denarii, as from Amisos and Laodicea, that are regular Imperial coins, even if oddly spellt sometimes).  Demter, Zeus, Hera, Ares, Athena, et al., bring up the deities on my few Greek coins and all the Greek Imperials and coloniae that use the selfsame types.  That is convenient!
As a matter of scholarship, I never would use a Greek name for an entity such as Bonus Eventus or Mars as Quirinus or Virtus Augusti or Annona, and I strongly prefer the use of their Greek names for figures based on known Greek representations, or, as here, when I see Athena dressed in a narrow peplos with a Classical Phidian aegis: it may be based on a Hadrianic-Antonine imitation, but it is Attic, and it is not Minerva or Menvra.  Apollo and Nemesis and Dionysos don't really have Latin names (Bacchus also is Greek, but it is not his name).  I basically reserve Helios for Rhodes, and for the father of Ikaros, though I'm not sure what the Campanians called the sun on the Republican denarii (no matter).  The sun god that has a major widespread cult is Roman SolPersonifications that exist in both languages' literature, such as Homonoia / Concordia and Tyche / Fortuna I treat on the Keyword Convenience principle, except that, e.g., Fortuna Redux has no Greek equivalent as an idea; it is a Roman Imperial concept.
The only thing that I would say categorically is never to call Apollo a sun god, by any name.  The epithet phoibos is more like gloriosus.  The Romans (apart maybe from some flatulent wordy rhetoricians) NEVER conflated Apollo with the Sun; rather, they replaced, they edged out, Apollo in the emperor's cohort (so to speak) as the cult of Sol Invictus developed and grew.  If someone disagrees with that, he or she has the civil right to do so, but I stand by it and for good reason.  To anyone who quotes Authorities, I refer to that wonderful Novice in Uberto Eco's Name of the Rose.
Pat L.
If I were writing poetry, I'd consider metre, surely; if a novela, I'd put in a speaker's mouth whatever name he would use or that would help characterize him.

Offline Tiathena

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2007, 04:54:28 pm »
 
    I thank you most-kindly again, Pat.
 
  I much-favor your rationale for-such in all respects.
  Lacking such education myself, I’ll have to settle for predicating my own distinctions based on what I at-least know & grasp.
 
  ( A little side-note )*
  For the past – how-long now? – I get about a note per day, or every other from Amazon pushing back the date for shipping Farnell.
  My heart sinks in strained patience.
 
   Best,
   Tia
 
Facilius per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur.  ~ Seneca
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Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2007, 03:27:35 pm »
Back to linkage, or type matching, anyhow.  That rugged portrait with OPELIOS thus spelled out also occurs with Zeus Seated and Asklepios Stg.:
• 27 02 05 Æ            Nicopolis ad Istrum.  Issued by Longinus.  Macrinus, laureate, bare bust with bit of drapery on l. shoulder, to r.  AVT K M OPELIOS   SE[VE MAKRI]NOSRev. Beardless Zeus seated to l. holding patera and scepter.  VP STATI LONGINOV NI    KOP[OLITON PRO and in exergue S ISTRON,  Pick, AMNG I, 1, p. 442, no. 1720, both dies.     
• 16 03 06 Æ27  14.58g axis 6:30h  Nicopolis ad Istrum.  Issued by Longinus.  Macrinus, laureate, head with bit of drapery on his l. shoulder (but cut off at bottom).  [AVT K] M OPELIOS    SEVÊ MA[KRINOS].  This is not the only die that spells out his praenomen without any double letters, but the others don't quite match this one.  Rev. Asklepios stg, half draped, head to left, his snake on its staff raising its head and showing its forked tongue (but Asklepios here holds the staff rather than feeding the snake).  A striking die fault from Asklepios' face to about 10:00h.  VP STATI LONGINOV NIKOPOLITÔN PROS and in exergue ISTRO (or -Ô).  Pick nos. 1756 and 1757 are this kind of Asklepios, so far as described, but neither is paired with an obv. spelling out Opelios (one does not preserve it) AND neither has the rev. legend disposed as here.
The eye on the portrait can be seen well in the right light.   
Pat L.

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Re: Macrinus, very rugged, and Athena
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2007, 03:37:54 pm »
Those links do not give its relative position among other obverse dies, but, if you'll allow it, I think the Diadumenian and Macrinus Hermes Resting (foot on rock), where only the Macrinus has the unusual disposition of the ending of the legend on the reverse, may be indicative.
• [AB] Sept 01.  AE 26  Nicopolis ad Istrum.  Issued by Longinus.  Macrinus, laureate, head to r.  Rev., Hermes resting, to l., kerykeion in his r., his chlamys draped over his r. forearm, with winged shoes, foot on rock.  Legend ending PROS IS, then to l. of rock T and to r. of rock ROmega.  Pick 1753, reverse legend exactly as here.
• 31 01 03 AE 27 Nicopolis ad Istrum.  Issued by Longinus.  Diadumenian, draped bust to r.  K M O[PELL]I DIA      DOUMENIANOS.  Rev., Hermes Resting, r. foot on rock, r. elbow on r. knee (holding kerykeion in r. hand, gone from this example), l. arm akimbo with the chlamys over it.  VP STA LONGEINOV NIKOPOLITON PRO and in exergue OS ISTR.  Pick, AMNG I, 1, p. 468, no. 1849; Varbanov I, no. 2934.  This is not the same obverse die as either, whether considering legends or style.  It has a babyish morbidezza that characterizes several Longinus dies, also with him in a child's garment, and it is an example of Varbanov's obv. legend B (one of those without Antoninus in any form).
I now would describe Diadumenian's garment differently, as a paludamentum over armor from front.
[I do have a Macrinus, worse, of my own, and a prettier Diadumenian, with kerykeion plain, but with an incomplete legend: attached]
Pat L.

 

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