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Author Topic: Julian coin date help?  (Read 639 times)

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thewumpus99

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Julian coin date help?
« on: September 27, 2008, 11:53:19 am »
I've got a question about the reverse inscription of this Julian-era coin.  I found an article on JSTOR that indicated that these inscriptions relate to vows which "were offered annually for the safety of the emperors, but every ten years a particularly impressive ceremony was held to record the fulfillment of those vows for the last decade and renew them for the next" (Bellinger, 1958).

Is the decade schedule for these ceremonies known?  Since this decade ceremony presumably only happened once while Julian was Augustus, is it possible to track down the exact year that this coin was minted?  Alternatively, can I count ten years forward from a certain starting date?


Offline PeterD

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Re: Julian coin date help?
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2008, 12:51:07 pm »
This is what David Sear's website says on the subject

"Vota  (plural of votum). A vow made to a god in order to obtain a divine favour stipulated in advance. The granting of the request obliged the vower to fulfil his promise. This usually took the form of a sacrifice to the deity or an offering to his (or her) temple. Public vota in Imperial times were normally for the welfare of the emperor over a stated period of time (five or ten years) and were regularly undertaken (vota suscepta) and hopefully paid (vota soluta). Sometimes they were more specific, relating to the safety of the emperor on a particularly hazardous journey or military campaign, or the current state of his health. The undertaking and fulfillment of these public vows was frequently recorded on the coinage and in the late Empire especially may provide useful evidence for the chronological arrangement of issues."

The inscription on your (very nice) coin, VOT X MVLT XX means "Ten year vows redeemed, many twenty year vows undertaken". As the combined reign of Julian as Caesar and Augustus was less than ten years he must presumably have made his vows before becoming emperor!
Peter, London

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Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: Julian coin date help?
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2008, 02:02:52 pm »
By this time, the period of the vows had lost any real connection with the time the emperor had been in power for. Jovian lasted about eight months or so, and issued large quantities of VOT V MVLT X coin, which should have meant that he'd served five years as emperor!
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Offline Glenn Simonelli

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Re: Julian coin date help?
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2008, 07:49:43 am »
Since your coin proclaims Julian as Augustus, and he lasted less than two years as Augustus, you know the coin was minted between A.D. 361 and 363.

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