Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVIII 29 Sep 2019
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T. Carisius AR Denarius. Rome, 46 BC. Head of Sibyl Herophile right, hair elaborately decorated with jewels and enclosed in a sling and tied with bands / Sphinx seated right; T•CARISIVS above, III•VIR in exergue. Crawford 464/1; BMCRR Rome 4061; RSC Carisia 11. 4.02g, 18mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; old cabinet tone.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 46, 2 April 2008, lot 427.
The traditional interpretation of this type is that it depicts the head of the Sibyl Herophile (said to have been born at Gergis in Troas) and a sphinx, which are the types of coins struck at Gergis circa 350-300 BC, and that this is intended to be a reference to the Trojan origins of Julius Caesar's ancestor Aeneas. This is however a very weak argument. In a well reasoned investigation of the type, D. Woods (Carisius, Acisculus, and the Riddle of the Sphinx, American Journal of Numismatics Vol. 25, 2013) observes that the identification of the obverse portrait as that of Herophile is based on nothing more than a passing resemblance of the types to those of Gergis, an obscure city of little note, some three hundred years earlier and thus had Carisius wished to make a reference to Caesar's Trojan origins this would be a poor and highly oblique manner of doing so. Woytek (Arma et Nummi, 2003) suggests that Atia had inherited her sphinx signet rings (famously used by Octavian) from Caesar, so that the sphinx was Caesar's seal, and that was why Carisius chose this device. Unfortunately the only attested seal of Caesar is Venus in armour (Dio 43.43.3). Woods suggests that a more likely explanation is that the sphinx, famous for its riddle, is a punning allusion to the moneyer's cognomen (which is not preserved), but in this hypothesis probably Balbus ('he who stammers, or speaks obscurely'). As for the obverse bust meanwhile, lacking any identifying features (and absent the prominent SIBYLLA of M. Torquatus' denarii), Woods argues this is probably the head of the reverse sphinx given its decidedly un-Roman headdress.
Extremely Fine; old cabinet tone.
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 46, 2 April 2008, lot 427.
The traditional interpretation of this type is that it depicts the head of the Sibyl Herophile (said to have been born at Gergis in Troas) and a sphinx, which are the types of coins struck at Gergis circa 350-300 BC, and that this is intended to be a reference to the Trojan origins of Julius Caesar's ancestor Aeneas. This is however a very weak argument. In a well reasoned investigation of the type, D. Woods (Carisius, Acisculus, and the Riddle of the Sphinx, American Journal of Numismatics Vol. 25, 2013) observes that the identification of the obverse portrait as that of Herophile is based on nothing more than a passing resemblance of the types to those of Gergis, an obscure city of little note, some three hundred years earlier and thus had Carisius wished to make a reference to Caesar's Trojan origins this would be a poor and highly oblique manner of doing so. Woytek (Arma et Nummi, 2003) suggests that Atia had inherited her sphinx signet rings (famously used by Octavian) from Caesar, so that the sphinx was Caesar's seal, and that was why Carisius chose this device. Unfortunately the only attested seal of Caesar is Venus in armour (Dio 43.43.3). Woods suggests that a more likely explanation is that the sphinx, famous for its riddle, is a punning allusion to the moneyer's cognomen (which is not preserved), but in this hypothesis probably Balbus ('he who stammers, or speaks obscurely'). As for the obverse bust meanwhile, lacking any identifying features (and absent the prominent SIBYLLA of M. Torquatus' denarii), Woods argues this is probably the head of the reverse sphinx given its decidedly un-Roman headdress.