Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XII 29 September 2016
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Civil War, Vindex AR Denarius. Uncertain mint in Gaul, AD 68. MONETA, head of Juno Moneta to right, PACI•P•R, clasped hands holding winged caduceus. Martin -, cf. 55 for obverse type and 41-43 for reverse type; BMC -; RIC -; C. -; Nicolas -. 3.83g, 17mm, 6h.
Near Extremely Fine. Unique and unpublished. Of great numismatic interest.
Vindex was a descendent of a family of chieftains granted Roman citizenship during the time of Julius Caesar and who were admitted to the Senate by Claudius. On account of this it is tempting to view his revolt as a campaign for Gallic independence. The numismatic evidence, however, suggests the contrary and demonstrates that rather than having an anti-Roman agenda, Vindex was specifically anti-Neronian and anti-tyrannical. Indeed, allegedly in one of his speeches he condemned Nero on all fronts, only complimenting him when he stated he had done the right thing putting his own mother to death, as she had borne such a monster. His coinage employs consistently Augustan propaganda, recalling the great Pax inaugurated by Augustus following his defeat of Marc Antony, as seen on the reverse of this coin.
The coins of Vindex are notoriously rare and difficult to obtain. Until relatively recently they had largely been ignored by scholars, though in the 1970s Peter-Hugo Martin, Colin Kraay and Etienne-Paul Nicolas all published studies on this obscure series. Despite the revolt being brief, a matter of just a few months, the coinage is exceptionally diverse. This is due in great part certainly to the large number of men Vindex was able to call to his standards - by his account, over 100,000 though more probably about 20,000 as reported by Plutarch - and the need to pay them.
This remarkable and unique coin pairs Juno Moneta (Juno 'who warns') with a reverse type that is only otherwise known with an obverse type featuring a female head and the legend BONI EVENT (Martin 41-43). The Juno obverse was previously known only with a reverse that reproduced the types of T. Carisius (Crawford 464/2), which had been struck a little over a century before. In that context the head of Juno Moneta must be connected to the coinage implements depicted on the reverse (namely the dies and tongs), and her depiction should be understood to be in the guise of the protectress of the money.
Juno Moneta's appearance here cannot be a mere error of mixed die sets, since the portrait is of a significantly superior style to that used to strike Martin 55, which is crude and shrewish. It is worth noting that the obverse type of Juno Moneta is also used on the denarii of L. Plaetorius Cestianus (Crawford 396/1), where it is paired with a reverse type of no connection to monetary matters. The massive 10th Century encyclopedic work known as the Souda draws on old oral traditions that Juno had counselled the Romans to undertake none but just wars. Roman tradition also revered Juno as a protectress who warned of impending disaster and of how to avert it; Cicero suggests that the name Moneta derived from the verb 'monere', because during an earthquake, a voice from her temple had demanded the expiatory sacrifice of a pregnant sow to stay the tremors. He also connects her epithet to the old legend wherein Juno's sacred geese had warned the Roman commander Marcus Manlius Capitolinus of the surprise attack made by the Gauls during the siege of the city in 390 BC. We may therefore interpret her presence in this instance as being that of a protectress of the Roman people, and patroness of a just effort to remove the cancer at the heart of the empire.
Near Extremely Fine. Unique and unpublished. Of great numismatic interest.
Vindex was a descendent of a family of chieftains granted Roman citizenship during the time of Julius Caesar and who were admitted to the Senate by Claudius. On account of this it is tempting to view his revolt as a campaign for Gallic independence. The numismatic evidence, however, suggests the contrary and demonstrates that rather than having an anti-Roman agenda, Vindex was specifically anti-Neronian and anti-tyrannical. Indeed, allegedly in one of his speeches he condemned Nero on all fronts, only complimenting him when he stated he had done the right thing putting his own mother to death, as she had borne such a monster. His coinage employs consistently Augustan propaganda, recalling the great Pax inaugurated by Augustus following his defeat of Marc Antony, as seen on the reverse of this coin.
The coins of Vindex are notoriously rare and difficult to obtain. Until relatively recently they had largely been ignored by scholars, though in the 1970s Peter-Hugo Martin, Colin Kraay and Etienne-Paul Nicolas all published studies on this obscure series. Despite the revolt being brief, a matter of just a few months, the coinage is exceptionally diverse. This is due in great part certainly to the large number of men Vindex was able to call to his standards - by his account, over 100,000 though more probably about 20,000 as reported by Plutarch - and the need to pay them.
This remarkable and unique coin pairs Juno Moneta (Juno 'who warns') with a reverse type that is only otherwise known with an obverse type featuring a female head and the legend BONI EVENT (Martin 41-43). The Juno obverse was previously known only with a reverse that reproduced the types of T. Carisius (Crawford 464/2), which had been struck a little over a century before. In that context the head of Juno Moneta must be connected to the coinage implements depicted on the reverse (namely the dies and tongs), and her depiction should be understood to be in the guise of the protectress of the money.
Juno Moneta's appearance here cannot be a mere error of mixed die sets, since the portrait is of a significantly superior style to that used to strike Martin 55, which is crude and shrewish. It is worth noting that the obverse type of Juno Moneta is also used on the denarii of L. Plaetorius Cestianus (Crawford 396/1), where it is paired with a reverse type of no connection to monetary matters. The massive 10th Century encyclopedic work known as the Souda draws on old oral traditions that Juno had counselled the Romans to undertake none but just wars. Roman tradition also revered Juno as a protectress who warned of impending disaster and of how to avert it; Cicero suggests that the name Moneta derived from the verb 'monere', because during an earthquake, a voice from her temple had demanded the expiatory sacrifice of a pregnant sow to stay the tremors. He also connects her epithet to the old legend wherein Juno's sacred geese had warned the Roman commander Marcus Manlius Capitolinus of the surprise attack made by the Gauls during the siege of the city in 390 BC. We may therefore interpret her presence in this instance as being that of a protectress of the Roman people, and patroness of a just effort to remove the cancer at the heart of the empire.