Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XX 29-30 Oct 2020
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Anonymous AR Didrachm (Quadrigatus). South Italy (Neapolis?), 300-276 BC. Bearded head of Mars left, wearing crested Corinthian helmet; oak spray behind / Head of bridled horse right, [R]OMANO inscribed on base; stalk of grain behind. Crawford 13/1; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 1; HN Italy 266. 6.88g, 20mm, 6h.
Near Extremely Fine; old cabinet tone.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
This beautiful aureus of Octavian is notable for its unusual depiction of Victory on the reverse. This was the first time an image of Victory in this style had been used on the Roman coinage, and its introduction at this particular point in time is significant.
Following his victory at Actium, Octavian was necessarily striking considerable quantities of coinage to pay the demobilised soldiers of both sides. Never one to waste an opportunity to deploy symbolism appropriate to the moment, the reverse type of this coin is an emotionally, historically and politically charged emblem: portraying the gold statue of the goddess Victory, this coin (like the monument it represented) was a tangible visual reminder of Rome's great past as well as her aspirations for the future.
The statue depicted is that of the Nike of Tarentum, originally commissioned by the Hellenistic King Pyrrhus of Epirus nearly two and a half centuries earlier and erected to celebrate his initial victory against the Roman Republic. The statue was likely removed to Rome in 209 BC when the city was retaken in the Second Punic War. The spoils plundered from Syracuse two years earlier had evoked an appreciation of Greek art and fuelled a hunger for the ornaments of other conquered cities (Livy, History of Rome, XXV.40.2; Plutarch, Life of Marcellus, XXI.3-4). Tarentum was thus duly stripped of all its portable statues and paintings, denuded of its adornments save only the largest of monuments that could not be moved.
In 29 BC Octavian dedicated the Altar of Victory in the Curia, the Roman Senate House, decorated with the spoils of Egypt and surmounted by this statue "thus signifying that it was from her that he had received the empire" (Cassius Dio, Roman History, LI.22.1). As C.H.V Sutherland notes, this also neatly avoided directly referencing Actium, whose "memory was always involved with that of Antony and the horrors of civil war".
The Altar of Victory became the place where senators were to burn incense and pour a libation of wine before taking their seats (Suetonius, Life of Augustus, XXXV.3) and where they would annually offer prayers for the welfare of the empire and where they took their oaths and pledged themselves on the accession of new emperors. More than simply rich decoration, the statue and its accompanying altar were to become "one of the most vital links between the Roman state and Roman religion. It was eventually removed from the Curia by the Christian emperor Constantius II in 357 and though later restored, removed and restored again "the fate of the Altar and Statue of Victory was finally sealed by the law of 408 against heathen statues" writes J.J. Sheridan (The Altar of Victory-Paganism's Last Battle, 1966) citing Codex Theodosianus XVI, 10, 19.
Near Extremely Fine; old cabinet tone.
From the inventory of a UK dealer.
This beautiful aureus of Octavian is notable for its unusual depiction of Victory on the reverse. This was the first time an image of Victory in this style had been used on the Roman coinage, and its introduction at this particular point in time is significant.
Following his victory at Actium, Octavian was necessarily striking considerable quantities of coinage to pay the demobilised soldiers of both sides. Never one to waste an opportunity to deploy symbolism appropriate to the moment, the reverse type of this coin is an emotionally, historically and politically charged emblem: portraying the gold statue of the goddess Victory, this coin (like the monument it represented) was a tangible visual reminder of Rome's great past as well as her aspirations for the future.
The statue depicted is that of the Nike of Tarentum, originally commissioned by the Hellenistic King Pyrrhus of Epirus nearly two and a half centuries earlier and erected to celebrate his initial victory against the Roman Republic. The statue was likely removed to Rome in 209 BC when the city was retaken in the Second Punic War. The spoils plundered from Syracuse two years earlier had evoked an appreciation of Greek art and fuelled a hunger for the ornaments of other conquered cities (Livy, History of Rome, XXV.40.2; Plutarch, Life of Marcellus, XXI.3-4). Tarentum was thus duly stripped of all its portable statues and paintings, denuded of its adornments save only the largest of monuments that could not be moved.
In 29 BC Octavian dedicated the Altar of Victory in the Curia, the Roman Senate House, decorated with the spoils of Egypt and surmounted by this statue "thus signifying that it was from her that he had received the empire" (Cassius Dio, Roman History, LI.22.1). As C.H.V Sutherland notes, this also neatly avoided directly referencing Actium, whose "memory was always involved with that of Antony and the horrors of civil war".
The Altar of Victory became the place where senators were to burn incense and pour a libation of wine before taking their seats (Suetonius, Life of Augustus, XXXV.3) and where they would annually offer prayers for the welfare of the empire and where they took their oaths and pledged themselves on the accession of new emperors. More than simply rich decoration, the statue and its accompanying altar were to become "one of the most vital links between the Roman state and Roman religion. It was eventually removed from the Curia by the Christian emperor Constantius II in 357 and though later restored, removed and restored again "the fate of the Altar and Statue of Victory was finally sealed by the law of 408 against heathen statues" writes J.J. Sheridan (The Altar of Victory-Paganism's Last Battle, 1966) citing Codex Theodosianus XVI, 10, 19.