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Nobilitas on Roman Coins — Their Illustrious Ancestry

You can click on any coin image to see the full coin.

What was Nobilitas?

The reverse of a silver denarius of Commodus showing Nobilitas. The reverse of a silver denarius of Commodus showing Nobilitas.

Rome's hereditary aristocracy had a way of incorporating new blood. Plebeians of merit could be elected to a curule magistracy. Their descendents joined the aristocrats in an unofficial way, becoming "known men," or nobiles; not hereditary patricians, but people whose faces were recognised among the people. Their ancestry, with its record of curule magistracies, was their nobilitas.

So it is likely that when Nobilitas occurs on Roman coins, it is not just a generalised personification of the concept of nobility, but a specific reference to the nobilitas of the emperor.

Given this, it is strange that it was not until the reign of Commodus, in 186 CE, that a personification of nobilitas appeared on a coin. And after that, there were very few uses of the type. Perhaps it was not normally thought necessary to emphasise that an emperor had nobilitas; and of course there were quite a few who did not.

The coin above right is a denarius of Commodus, the first emperor to have a Nobilitas reverse. He was also the first emperor to be born while his father was already emperor, and this might be what the coin, dating from 187 CE, celebrates.

There is also a possible explanation for geta's Nobilitas reverse in 201 CE. Perhaps it was to compensate in some small way for the fact that his older brother had been made Augustus, but Geta had not. If so, it did not help. This difference in treatment had dire consequences later on.

What is Nobilitas holding?

The reverse of a silver denarius of Geta showing Nobilitas. The reverse of a silver denarius of Geta showing Nobilitas.
The reverse of a silver denarius of Severus Alexander showing Nobilitas. The reverse of a silver denarius of Severus Alexander showing Nobilitas.

On some Nobilitas reverses, the personification is holding a small figure who at first sight looks rather like a miniature version of herself.

Now, it happens that an unofficial, but fully recognised, perk of being a "known face" was to have what was called an Imagine, a small figure with a painted mask of wax, made to resemble the person whom they represented.

This privilege was called the Jus Imaginum. A family's Imagines were placed in the atrium of their house, and honored on festival days. So could Nobilitas' small figure represent the Jus Imaginum?

Against this idea is that the Imagine was not created until the person it represented had died. So Nobilitas could not be holding her own Imagine, which could not exist at the same time as she. And, more definitively, the small figure on versions of Nobilitas on gold aurei and some silver denarii, like the coin of Geta shown here, can be seen to be wearing a helmet, so must be either Roma or Minerva. In this case it is Minerva.

Many reference books say this figure of Minerva is the Palladium, but not every image of Minerva is the Palladium. This one is not in the right pose. The Palladium holds a shield and spear; this figure has no shield, and holds a sceptre.

The reverse of a barbarous antoninianus of Tetricus II showing Nobilitas. The reverse of a barbarous antoninianus of Tetricus II showing Nobilitas.
The reverse of a silver antoninianus of Philip I showing Nobilitas. The reverse of a silver antoninianus of Philip I showing Nobilitas.

But then, why Minerva? She represents warlike qualities and wisdom, and perhaps these were qualities that were associated with nobilitas. But this is pure conjecture.

Philip's Nobilitas

Philip I was the fourth emperor to have a Nobilitas reverse. This Nobilitas, from 244 CE, is holding a sphere or globe, with no small figure visible.

Globes like this usually represent the cosmos, but in this case it might represet eternity .

The obverse of a billon follis of Constantine II. The obverse of a follis of Constantine II Caesar with the legend CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB CAES

There is also a rare and expensive antoninianus of Tetricus II with a NOBILITAS AVGG reverse, but that, like the aurei mentioned above, is presently beyond my budget. But I can show you a contemporary imitation of it, the sort of barbarous coin that was made around the fringes of the empire. That's still quite scarce, but within my budget.

Although it is imperfectly struck, you can see that on the Tetricus coin, as on the Philip I antoninianus, Nobilitas carries a tall sceptre and a globe.

Later Nobilitas

Later, coins of the Constantinian dynasty incorporated the concept of nobilitas into the titles of the junior emperors, the Caesars, but without any attempt to illustrate the concept.

This is a typical example; a coin of Constantine II from 317 CE with the obverse legend ending NOB CAES for Nobiles Caesar.

————————  Useful References  ————————

These books provided some, but not all, of the information on this page. Much of the rest came from postings and discussions on the excellent Forum Classical Numismatics Discussion Board.

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities by various writers, edited by William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D. Second edition; my copy was published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, London in 1872, though the preface to this edition is dated 1848.

The Oxford Classical Dictionary by various writers, edited by N.G.L. Hammond and H.H. Scullard. Second edition; my copy was published by Oxford at the Clarendon Press in 1970. Again, a big and heavy hardback, almost A4 size, available on the second-hand market. There is also a third edition.

These books are covered in a bit more detail on my page on coin reference books.


The content of this page was last updated on 26 August 2010

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