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Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Roman Coins Discussion Forum => Topic started by: palves on May 26, 2022, 08:15:54 am

Title: Opinion on Denarius Plautia - Lucius Plautius Plancus
Post by: palves on May 26, 2022, 08:15:54 am
Hi everyone,
I bought this coin because I like the it, but this is out of my area. can I get your opinion.
weight: 3.69g
diameter: 19mm

Obverse
L•PLAVTIVS: Head of Medusa facing, with a coiled snake on either side
Border of dots.

Reverse
Aurora facing with spread wings, holding palm-branch in left hand and leading four horses of the Sun with right hand

thanks


Lettering: PLANCVS
Title: Re: Opinion on Denarius Plautia - Lucius Plautius Plancus
Post by: Timestheus on May 26, 2022, 09:45:50 am
Here you find Basic Informations: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia/coins/r1/r06212.htm
 
 
However, there is another interpretation for the front:
Quote
The other refers to a tasty episode reported by Ovid and Livy, which occurred to an ancestor of the monetary, C Plautius Venox, censor along with Appius Claudius Blind. In 312 or 311 this magistrate forbade the flautists of the collegium tibicinum from eating their meal in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. The flautists, outraged, fled to Tivoli in protest. Planco's ancestor devised a ruse to bring them back to Rome: they were drunk and transported on a chariot with faces covered by masks (the Gorgon on the right would thus be the mask of a Gorgon). The Aurora chariot a reference to their stealthy arrival in Rome at daybreak. In support of this complex interpretation are the Tibicini festivals, celebrated on June 13, during which the players went around Rome wearing (Gorgonian?) masks and long feminine dresses (Casolari espouses the second interpretation). The monetary magistrate was a brother of L. Munatius Plancus, adopted by the gens Plautia. The types, of great beauty, cleverly allude to an ancient event, but still alive in popular memory, which had among its protagonists an ancestor of his adoptive family. Livy writes (IX, 30) that in 312 the censors Caius Plautius and Appius Claudius Caecus had forbidden the college of flute players, the Tibicines, to celebrate their traditional banquet in the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. They indignantly retreated en masse to Tivoli, with the result that there was no one left in Rome capable of accompanying with music the sacrificial rites. Since the musical component was essential in religious ceremonies, the senate sent ambassadors to Tivoli to solicit the cooperation of the Tiburtines. They, after having tried in vain to persuade the Tibicines to return to Rome, got the better of them thanks to a stratagem, suggested perhaps by Plautio himself: they invited them to their homes so that they could cheer with music their banquets but, after getting them drunk, they loaded them into chariots - asleep and with their faces hidden by masks - and before dawn drove them back to Rome, where they abandoned them in the Forum. Awakened by the first light of day, they were persuaded by the people to stay. To commemorate this event, every year the Quinquatrus Minores, festivals in honor of Minerva, were celebrated in Rome from June 13 to 15, during which the Tibicines consumed a sacred banquet in the temple of Jupiter and performed drunkenly, wearing female masks and robes. Their masks allude to that of Medusa, smiling or sneering, while Aurora leading the four horses of the Sun is the same one that caught them asleep on chariots in the Forum. On June 11, two days before the Quinquatrus Minores, the Matralia were celebrated in Rome in honor of Mater Matuta, she who drives away darkness. Under her name is Aurora, sister of Night, who leads the Sun, son of Night, to take possession of the day.

https://www.lamoneta.it/topic/100770-denario-di-planco-con-medusa-e-vittoria-frontali/
Title: Re: Opinion on Denarius Plautia - Lucius Plautius Plancus
Post by: Meepzorp on May 26, 2022, 06:00:13 pm
Hi Palves,

Here is my example (second coin):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/meepzorp/rr_pt37.htm

Apparently, there is more than one explanation for the reverse.

Meepzorp
Title: Re: Opinion on Denarius Plautia - Lucius Plautius Plancus
Post by: PMah on May 26, 2022, 11:22:48 pm
What sort of opinion are you seeking?
Title: Re: Opinion on Denarius Plautia - Lucius Plautius Plancus
Post by: palves on May 27, 2022, 04:16:30 am
First, thank you everyone for the links. I have already learned a lote more about the coin.

What sort of opinion are you seeking?

I was a bit worried about the spots in the reverse, but most coins I have found online have similar spots and the pattern is not consistent with casting, I think. And as Meepzorp mentions in his coin "is example has flat spots, which is typical for this issue".

thanks