Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Etruria, Populonia AR Didrachm. 4th century BC. Head of Turms left, wearing winged petasos, Etruscan legend 'poepl' around; all within dotted border / Blank. EC I, 11 (O1); SNG Firenze 70; I. Vecchi, 'A new Etruscan toponym for Populonia: poepl' in Schweizer Münzblätter 268, 2017, pp. 91-2 (this coin); I. Vecchi, 'Un nuovo toponimo per Populonia: poe-p-l' in Monete Antiche 97, 2018, pp. 3-4 (this coin); I. Vecchi, 'A New Ancient Discovery', Coin News January 2018, p. 39 (this coin). 8.32g, 22mm.
Good Extremely Fine. In incredible state of preservation, and one of the very finest of all surviving Etruscan coins. Of the greatest rarity - one of only four known examples, and together with the following lot, the only two in private hands.
From the collection of a Swiss Etruscologist;
This coin published in Schweizer Münzblätter 268, 2017; Monete Antiche 97, 2018; Coin News January 2018;
Ex VCV Collection, Roma Numismatics X, 27 September 2015, lot 23.
Populonia was defined as a polis by Ptolemy (Geography 3.1.4), who used the Greek term Ποπλωνιον, while the Latin authors used various toponyms including: Populonium, Populonia and the ethnic Populonenses, cf. BTCGI XIV, Populonia pp. 199-202. However, this word is not attested in Indo-European languages outside of Italy and the populus family of words may have been borrowed from Etruscan in the first place, cf. Rix 1995.
The etymology of Populonia is very complicated and has been much discussed by Latin and Etruscan etymologists. The presence of the above new word poepl is earlier than the previously recorded toponyms for Populonia and puts in doubt whether the deity Fufluns is connected with Populonia, as is commonly presumed, at least in the 4th century BC before the thorough Romanisation of Etruria and the subsequent assimilation of toponyms. It is much more likely that poepl is a contraction connected to the Proto-Italic *poplos and obviously related to the Umbrian publu/poplum ('group of brandishers', i.e. soldiers) and Latin populus, populum, populi ('a people, as forming a political community, the public, a district or nation'). It is also related to the Oscan puplunai, a title of Juno meaning: 'she who increases the number of the people' possibly in the sense of the iuvenes, i.e. 'the army', (cf. ImIt I, pp. 535-7, Teanum Sicicium 4-6). Livy states in book 5 of Ab Urbe Condita that Juno/Uni was originally an Etruscan goddess of the Veientes, who was ceremonially adopted into the Roman pantheon after Veii was sacked in 396 BC.
There is a general consensus that the Etruscan deities were not originally envisioned in human form, but instead as generalised, aniconic and fairly mysterious forces which manifested themselves through their effects. Several observations support this hypothesis, such as the lack of clarity regarding the sexes of the deities, some of whom are variously portrayed as both male and female. It is also apparent that the depiction of the Etruscan gods broadly follows those of Greek deities, but only in so far as a comparable Greek god could be found for an Etruscan one. Gods for whom a Greek counterpart could not so easily be found were thus not assimilated with Greek mythology.
The Etruscan god Turms generally fulfilled the same functions as his Greek and Roman counterparts Hermes and Mercury, being the god of commerce and the messenger between mortals and the immortal gods. In a uniquely odd way however, the Etruscans divided the Greek Hermes into two gods - Turms, who was associated with Tinia (Zeus), and Turms Aitas, associated with Aita (Hades). The latter appears to fulfil the role of a psychopomp, (from the Greek word psychopompos, literally meaning the 'guide of souls'), thus indicating at least a partial syncretism of the Greek Charon and Hermes. Meanwhile the Etruscan Charun, confusingly, is perhaps best seen as a death daimon and a guardian of the dead and of the underworld.
Turms therefore cannot be understood to be simply a local form of Hermes as he is in the Roman pantheon; while he inarguably retains all of the visual attributes of the Greek source of his depiction like the winged cap, Turms (like the other Etruscan gods) more importantly represents specific functions or myths from archaic Etruscan belief which are still poorly understood.
Good Extremely Fine. In incredible state of preservation, and one of the very finest of all surviving Etruscan coins. Of the greatest rarity - one of only four known examples, and together with the following lot, the only two in private hands.
From the collection of a Swiss Etruscologist;
This coin published in Schweizer Münzblätter 268, 2017; Monete Antiche 97, 2018; Coin News January 2018;
Ex VCV Collection, Roma Numismatics X, 27 September 2015, lot 23.
Populonia was defined as a polis by Ptolemy (Geography 3.1.4), who used the Greek term Ποπλωνιον, while the Latin authors used various toponyms including: Populonium, Populonia and the ethnic Populonenses, cf. BTCGI XIV, Populonia pp. 199-202. However, this word is not attested in Indo-European languages outside of Italy and the populus family of words may have been borrowed from Etruscan in the first place, cf. Rix 1995.
The etymology of Populonia is very complicated and has been much discussed by Latin and Etruscan etymologists. The presence of the above new word poepl is earlier than the previously recorded toponyms for Populonia and puts in doubt whether the deity Fufluns is connected with Populonia, as is commonly presumed, at least in the 4th century BC before the thorough Romanisation of Etruria and the subsequent assimilation of toponyms. It is much more likely that poepl is a contraction connected to the Proto-Italic *poplos and obviously related to the Umbrian publu/poplum ('group of brandishers', i.e. soldiers) and Latin populus, populum, populi ('a people, as forming a political community, the public, a district or nation'). It is also related to the Oscan puplunai, a title of Juno meaning: 'she who increases the number of the people' possibly in the sense of the iuvenes, i.e. 'the army', (cf. ImIt I, pp. 535-7, Teanum Sicicium 4-6). Livy states in book 5 of Ab Urbe Condita that Juno/Uni was originally an Etruscan goddess of the Veientes, who was ceremonially adopted into the Roman pantheon after Veii was sacked in 396 BC.
There is a general consensus that the Etruscan deities were not originally envisioned in human form, but instead as generalised, aniconic and fairly mysterious forces which manifested themselves through their effects. Several observations support this hypothesis, such as the lack of clarity regarding the sexes of the deities, some of whom are variously portrayed as both male and female. It is also apparent that the depiction of the Etruscan gods broadly follows those of Greek deities, but only in so far as a comparable Greek god could be found for an Etruscan one. Gods for whom a Greek counterpart could not so easily be found were thus not assimilated with Greek mythology.
The Etruscan god Turms generally fulfilled the same functions as his Greek and Roman counterparts Hermes and Mercury, being the god of commerce and the messenger between mortals and the immortal gods. In a uniquely odd way however, the Etruscans divided the Greek Hermes into two gods - Turms, who was associated with Tinia (Zeus), and Turms Aitas, associated with Aita (Hades). The latter appears to fulfil the role of a psychopomp, (from the Greek word psychopompos, literally meaning the 'guide of souls'), thus indicating at least a partial syncretism of the Greek Charon and Hermes. Meanwhile the Etruscan Charun, confusingly, is perhaps best seen as a death daimon and a guardian of the dead and of the underworld.
Turms therefore cannot be understood to be simply a local form of Hermes as he is in the Roman pantheon; while he inarguably retains all of the visual attributes of the Greek source of his depiction like the winged cap, Turms (like the other Etruscan gods) more importantly represents specific functions or myths from archaic Etruscan belief which are still poorly understood.