Volusian, temple of Juno

[Potator II]

Hi all
Here is an antoninianus minted in Rome in AD 252 dedicated to Juno by Volusianus.

IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, radiate and draped bust of Volusian right
IVNONI MARTIALI, Juno seated within a distyle shrine, * in right field
3,60 gr
Ref : RCV # 9750, Cohen #45

The precise location of this shrine could be in the Campus Martius, or in the Campus Martialis (see RCV III, p 241, note under # 9730)
The same reverse exists also for Hostilian and Trebonianus Gallus

Regards
Potator

[Varangian]

That has got to be the neatest representation of a temple I've seen on a Roman coin.  Love the pillars!

Nice bust of Volusian, also.

[Jochen]

Very nice details!

[Pscipio]

Indeed very nice, congratulations, potator!

Lars

[Commodo73]

nice temple !   
Yes, it was Juno's and it was located in the Campus Martius.

[Potator II]

it was located in the Campus Martius.

Hi Commodo73,

Do you have any reference to that location of the temple of Juno ?
RCV hesitates between two locations, following different authors who do not seem to agree about that

Thanks in advance
Potator

[Akropolis]

And here it is in bronze (sestertius):

[slokind]

In Bauten Roms auf Münzen und Medaillen,, H. Küthmann and Bernhard Overbeck (for the ancient coins), Munich, 1973, list a bimetallic medallion of Treb. Gallus and Volusian, besides the antoninianus and sestertius for Volusian.  They say that the place where it stood is not known, citing Ernest Nash, Pict. Dictionary, and Haug (in RE, s.v., Juno).  Their suggestion, that it may have been built under Trebonianus and Volusian, is, as they say, based on these coins being its only ones.  Pat L.

[Potator II]

In Bauten Roms auf Münzen und Medaillen,, H. Küthmann and Bernhard Overbeck (for the ancient coins), Munich, 1973, list a bimetallic medallion of Treb. Gallus and Volusian, besides the antoninianus and sestertius for Volusian.  They say that the place where it stood is not known, citing Ernest Nash, Pict. Dictionary, and Haug (in RE, s.v., Juno).  Their suggestion, that it may have been built under Trebonianus and Volusian, is, as they say, based on these coins being its only ones.  Pat L.

Hi Pat
If I understand correctly what you write, the coins are the source to know when this was bilt, but nothing attests where it was bilt ?

Thanks a lot for those precisions, Pat
Very nice sestertius, Akropolis

Regards
Potator

[slokind]

That was Eckhel's opinion, as I read somewhere in Numiswiki or Wikipedia or Lacus Curtius.  So far I found nothing recent and archaeological to contradict opinions from Eckhel to Nash's Pictorial Dictionary.  As I wrote to a friend off line, it would take a round foundation of 3rd century date to say more, but so far I found only recycled citations, no archaeology.  Apparently there was a Campus Martialis not identical to Campus Martius, not that the epithet Martialis wouldn't be OK for either.  Also, we seem to have no mention of that temple or monopteros other than on those coins.  That it looks like a monopteros doesn't mean it didn't in reality have a cella wall, because of coins conventions (see Price & Trell, who don't mention this one, however; see also Tameanko, but I didn't find it there).  We don't even know whether it was a permanent or temporary structure.  Pat L.
 

[Diederik]

What strikes me is the very open front, where there is so much space between the statue and the pillar. The round temples we know have their pillars at an even distance, even pretty close to one another. I would vote for a shrine depicted here.
Would it be a mad idea that this is about a temporary sanctuary for the statue of the goddess while her own temple was being reconstructed? Would there be any proof for this suggestion?

Frans

[slokind]

I'm ignorant on this point: WAS there a permanent cult of Juno Martialis for which to provide either a monopteros pavillion or a permanent temple?  Do we know of a Juno image that is seated, outside of the Capitoline triad?  Are there earlier coins with this legend, i.e., with this epithet, in either nom. or dat. case.  I have RIC only vols. 2, 3, and 4.  Pat L.

[slokind]

Yes, in Reply #7, that nice German book: Bauten Roms auf Münzen und Medaillen, H. Küthmann and Bernhard Overbeck.
But your photo is much better than theirs, itself not bad at all.
Glory!  Beautiful medallion.  Pat L.

[curtislclay]

     According to Dressel, Berlin Medallions, p. 247, Juno with the epithet Martialis is known ONLY from these coins of Gallus and Volusian.
     The coins are also the only proof that Juno Martialis had a temple, since the only other alleged ancient mention is in the so-called regional catalogue of Sex. Rufus, which is actually an invention of Panvinius.

[Varangian]

Wow, that image on the medallion really brings home how beautiful some of the temples in Rome must have been!

[virtvsprobi]

invention of Panvinius

"Onuphrius Panvinius published at Frankfort in 1558, along with his work on the Roman Republic, a tract bearing the name of Sextus Rufus, and entitled De Regionibus Urbis Romae, which he professed to have found in an ancient MS. It corresponds closely with the catalogue of Publius Victor but is less complete, and is much mutilated. The MS. of Panvinius has disappeared, and no codex containing either of these productions is known to exist of a date earlier than the fifteenth century. They are believed by the best topographers to have been compiled at a late period, are not regarded as documents of authority, and have even been stigmatised as modern forgeries. Biondo Flavio, in his Roma Instaurata (Veron. 1482), quotes from an old description of Rome by Sextus Ruffus Vir Consularis a copy of which he had seen in the library attached to the monastery of Monte Casino. There can be little doubt that the piece thus described is the same with that printed by Panvinius ; but there are no grounds whatever for establishing a connection between this personage, whoever he may have been, and Sextus Rufus the historian.[...]" - William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 3, page 813

G/<

[Adrianus]

Hi all,

Another medallion, or rather cast of one in the British Museum. Interesting how on this example the positions of Gallus and Volusian are reversed and the portraits are somewhat different.

Regards,

Adrianus

[Diederik]

I must say that this plastercast has a high degree of 'Victorian' stiffness about it, and I doubt the originality of its original.
Yet, as we stand, the questions about the cult and the temple(s) still remain...

Frans

[Adrianus]

Hi Frans,
I have a bad reputation for questioning the authenticity of coins and particularly engraved gems in various collections. Many are, I'm sure, neo-classical creations. This medallion, however, I inspected in hand at the BM. It seemed perfectly authentic then - I'd be interested what particular stylistic features (apart from a 'Victorian' stiffness) you think are 'wrong'?
Regards,
Adrianus

[Diederik]

Especially the face of Gallus and both men's very straight and long noses, seem more idealised pictures than real-to-life characters. Perhaps I am influenced by what I see on coins, and should realize that these medaliions were more or less personal gifts from the emperor himself and could therefore bear portraits which are made more beautiful/impressive etc. than in reality.

Frans

[curtislclay]

I think the BM medallion is authentic, but the obv. has been tooled and the portraits, especially, have been altered.

For untooled specimens from the same obv. die, with portraits of Gallus and Volusian as you expect them, see Gnecchi, Med. Rom. II, pl. 112.1-2.

[slokind]

I am so glad that this thread is enshrined in Classical Numismatics.  I do not speak for my own efforts, but for the composite of everyone's.  Anyone who studies coins ought to be aware of the questions it raises and answers.  The only note I'd add is that we do know of deliberately temporary buildings, which, like (for example) pavilions at World Fairs, were not made of permanent materials and which sought effects to which stucco was more conducive than marble; they might be gaudier (in both the original and acquired meanings of that word).  There was a parody in vaudeville of the Chicago Exposition containing the lines "After the Fair is over / What will Chicago do / With all those empty boxes / Run up with sticks and glue?"  The Juno Martialis could have been such a temporary concoction (or not: we may never know).  Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts was one such, so well loved that it had to be rebuilt in permanent materials (and is now San Francisco's Exploratorium).  Pat L.

[Dapsul]

I came about this article: Marchetti Longhi, G.: La Juno Martialis nelle monete di Treboniano Gallo e di Volusiano. AnnIstItNum 3 (1956) 65-82. Just in a bibliography; I did not read it actually. Maybe it is of some help.

Frank

[Arminius]

I think Pat L. hit the mark introducing the expression "temporary".
Most temples and modern pavilions are massive, impressive creations but they often tend in the direction of clumsy stiffness - constructed to document power and prosperity for eternity.
The temporary, weightless elegance i see in the depiction on the Juno Martialis coins has not been the role model of those "imperial" buildings.
Maybe we find those "temporary" examples in palace gardens of rulers without an imperial approach.

Akropolis, your 100% coin looks like a die match of my 70% sestertius.


Regards

[Potator II]

Pat and Arminius,

Do you mean something like the bandstands one can find in spa towns ?
I remember seeing some of them either in UK or France, and they look very much like that

Regards
Potator

[slokind]

[slokind]

[Edessa]

[Potator II]

[Robert_Brenchley]

[curtislclay]

[slokind]

[moonmoth]