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From Coins to History

HAROLD B. MATTINGLY

[PLATES 41-43]

The relation of coinage to history has long been one of my main concerns andmy previous addresses have reflected this interest. This time I shall concentrateon a limited number of cases where either history illuminates coinage or coinsthrow light - sometimes unexpected - on historical contexts. I start with SouthItaly and Sicily. The rich and proverbially luxurious city of Sybaris was destroyedin 510 bc by its neighbour and arch rival Kroton; but the Sybarites refused toaccept the loss of their home. A second Sybaris rose c.455 BC and its coin typesshow that it had firm support from the powerful city of Poseidonia (modernPaestum) (PI. 41, 1-2). It too soon failed, and the inhabitants were again exiled.But a third Sybaris emerged in 446 bc, under Athenian protection and with amixed band of colonists; the Athena head with the old Sybaris bull on its coinsbetray the uneasy compromise of this settlement (PL 41, 3). The Sybaritesquarrelled with the newcomers and were expelled for good; the city changed itsname to Thourioi and for a time ranked as an Athenian colony (PL 41, 4). Athenakept the obverse and the butting bull announced the new management. Messana,on the straits between Italy and Sicily, had a happier history than Sybaris, largelyowing to its splendid sickle-shaped harbour; this attracted much trade andprosperity and was widely advertised with bird's eye views on its archaic coinage.Its old name, Zankle, means sickle (PL 41, 5). Himera, on the north coast ofSicily, more modestly advertises the punning badge of the city on its earlycoinage; the cock is seen as the 'herald of the day' and hemera in Greek means'day'. Soon the cock was joined by his hen (PL 41, 6). Then its place was brutallyusurped by the crab of Akragas, which remained for the decade 482-472 BC -while Himera was dominated by its powerful opponent in the south of the island.The founders of Sicilian Egesta were allegedly refugees from the fall of Troyc.1200 BC, like the Romans. Their fifth century coinage, with mixed Greek andnative legends, combines the dog of the local river-god with a nymph headclosely based on Syracusan models (PL 41, 7). In 418/7 Egesta made amomentous alliance with Athens, being threatened by Selinos and Syracuse; it ledto the Athenian disaster in Sicily in 413 BC. Critics of the alliance in Athens called

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the Egestans 'barbarians', but their coinage and their fine Doric temple (PL 41, 8)show a people desperately anxious to be hellenised.

Coins cannot always talk plainly, but they can at least hint at culture andambience. The Etruscans remain mysterious to us, because we do not know theirlanguage properly and their early coinage proves baffling. Greek mythology andmonsters were evidently favourites with them - as witness the spirited Gorgon'shead and running Gorgon on their coins (PL 41,9-10). An Etruscan funeral cippusof c.300 bc (PL 41, 11) perhaps reveals a little more. A human infant is picturedbeing suckled by a she-animal, possibly a bear. The theme is known from theGreek world: in Arkadia the foster-mother is a bear and in Crete a deer. But, in

view of the close Roman-Etruscan relations from early times, it is tempting to seea link with the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf(PL 41,12). The Etruscan myth, though parallel to the Roman, would differ in nothaving a twin - and the animal of the cippus can hardly be a wolf!

When coins are more explicit there is a danger of reading too precise amessage. A gold coin from Taras seems to show the infant Taras appealing to hisfather Poseidon for help in a crisis (PL 42, 13). The help would have come fromhuman powers, if at all. We know that Sparta twice intervened to protect hercolony from Italian enemies - and so too did Alexander of Macedon's uncle, theking of Epeiros. But we cannot tie this issue precisely to any of the three outsideinterventions. There were no doubt other occasions in the fourth century whenTaras looked in vain for a saviour sent by the god.

The Romans at the start of their coinage are considerably more reticent thanTaras. The first didrachm with Mars/horse head (PL 42,14) was once linked withRome's rapprochement with Carthage in the late 280s against Pyrrhos of Epeiros.But the horse head is not confined to Carthage and is entirely appropriate to Mars.Rather later than the didrachm is a Roman bronze currency bar representing oneof the Indian elephants brought into Italy by Pyrrhos for his expedition of280-275 bc (PL 42,15). The Romans first met the animals in Lucania and calledthem 'Lucanian cows'. Pyrrhos had some she-elephants and calves with him.Several elephants were captured in Pyrrhos's final defeat. The bar obviouslyboasts of this achievement. It is answered on Pyrrhos's side by the Indianelephant symbol of a Taras didrachm (PL 42,16). Even after his retreat from ItalyPyrrhos might have returned (he left a garrison in Taras till 272 bc) with more ofhis formidable beasts.

The elephant has a distinguished numismatic record at Rome. But it is always- apart from the bar - the African kind. The head of one of these adorns the shieldon the reverse of a denarius of M. Metellus of c.125 bc (PL 42, 17). A distantancestor captured some Carthaginian elephants in Sicily in 250 bc and paradedthem in his triumph in Rome. In all, five Metelli celebrate this exploit on theircoinage. Under the Roman Empire African elephants were much sought after forthe wild beast shows in the arenas, and one is shown destined for such a purposein the trading depot at Ostia of an African coastal town (PL 42, 18).

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Imitation of coin types can often reflect contemporary events. The reverse of aRoman denarius of c. 135 bc (PL 42,19) recalls a Roman gold stater of c.215 bc,the height of the war with Hannibal. The stater clearly stressed the alliance ofRome with her Italian friends against Carthage. We cannot tell what resonance ithad with Ti. Veturius and his age, though bold attempts have been made to piercehis secret. Forty years later it was much copied by the Italian allies in their waragainst Rome. They stress the alliance of Italians against Rome and multiply theparticipants in the oath-scene to the point of absurdity (PL 42, 20). Some of theItalian allies had other aims than their incorporation in the Roman state. Theywere bitterly opposed to Rome, looking to Rome's utter ruin and a new order inItaly. The Italian bull goring the Roman wolf (PL 42, 21) carries anunmistakeable message.

In the late Republic direct references to contemporary life become common,though some are more oblique and use the past to comment on the present. Theson of the dictator Sulla couples a bust of Venus, Sulla's protecting deity, with ascene of Sulla receiving the surrender of Jugurtha from Bocchus of Mauretania(PL 42, 22). This was part of Sulla's clever propaganda. The scene had beeninscribed on Sulla's signet ring and claimed that Sulla, a junior officer, had endedthe war which his commander C. Marius had failed to achieve in the field. Fiftyyears later the 'lie' clearly remained potent. Also in the 50s bc the son of agovernor of Sicily struck an interesting coin (PL 42, 23). On the reverse thegovernor is seen raising the prostrate province after the trauma of a slave war. Infact he made a fortune in Sicily and used dubious methods to finish off the slaves.Put on trial in Rome in 99 bc he was saved by his advocate - who won acquittalby insisting that Rome needed men of valour/Virtus in the present critical times.The obverse of the son's coin suitably celebrates Virtus. Pompey's undoubtedachievements were more truthfully displayed in coins of two curule aediles in 58bc. The reverse celebrates the family history of one aedile, while the obverseshows the Nabatean king Aretas submitting to Pompey and Rome (PL 43, 24). Inthe 50s bc the Republic was in serious decline and there were fears that anothermight emulate Sulla and seize supreme power. M. Brutus, later Caesar's assassin,used his coinage in 54 bc to proclaim Libertas on the obverse and his ancestorwho drove out the tyrannical Tarquins on the reverse (PL 43, 25). Brutus wouldnot fail the Republic in its need.

Coins can also tell us what rulers looked like or how they wanted to appear.The very rare gold stater struck for the Roman general/statesman Flamininus bysome Greek town in the 190s presumably gives us a good likeness, since duringhis years in the East he could have sat for some Greek artist (PL 43, 26). The firstRoman to have his image put on a Roman coin was Julius Caesar as 'perpetualdictator' in 44 bc: the reverse shows the images of supreme power (PI. 43, 27).There are no life-time portraits of his great rival Pompey; but Pompey's adherentscontinued the struggle after his death, presenting Pompey with the features ofNeptune and a war-galley on the reverse recalling Pompey's supremacy at sea

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(PL 43, 28). The Gallic leader Vercingetorix had been Caesar's implacable enemyduring the Roman conquest of Gaul and some have thought that a brilliant coinimage is a portrait. Probably it is not, but the sympathy shown in the head and theGallic chariot group of the reverse (PL 43, 29) reveals that Romans could havesympathy for courageous resistance and pity for the fate of the vanquished - aswe see on Trajan's column. Bronze coins of Nemausus (NTmes) give us goodlikenesses of Augustus and his right-hand man Agrippa. The reverse is somewhatmysterious. What is a crocodile doing so far from home? (PL 43,30) It may oweits place to the fact that some of the colonists had served in Egypt.

Roman emperors were plagued with internal feuds, of which coins tell much.Nero's mother Agrippina tried to rule through him during his minority (ad 44-9)after Claudius' death. On silver and gold her portrait appears on the obverse withNero and her titles; his are relegated to the reverse (PL 43, 31). Tacitus depictsthis fascinating struggle for power and the coins seem to support him. But Tacitusis notoriously unfair to the character and performance of Tiberius after the deathof his son and heir Drusus in ad 23. A charming dupondius of ad 23 showsTiberius' two grandsons emerging from horns of plenty (PL 43, 32). They weretwins and the surviving twin was always known by the affectionate diminutiveTiberius Gemellus. We do not know who chose the imperial coin-types or at whatpolitical level, but this was surely selected to appeal to the Emperor's deep familyaffection and it reveals an altogether better side to his character than thatdisplayed by Tacitus, Suetonius and Robert Graves.

With this I close my study of the fascinating interplay between history andcoinage. There is much more that could be said than time or the audience'spatience would allow, but this may suffice to rouse people's interest and raisesimilar questions about coinage other than the ancient.