Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXVII 22-23 Mar 2023
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Anonymous AR Didrachm. Rome, 269-266 BC. Head of Hercules to right, wearing taenia, with club and lion-skin over shoulder / She-wolf standing to right, head to left, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; ROMANO in exergue. Crawford 20/1; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 28; RSC 8. 7.10g, 22mm, 9h.
Extremely Fine; well-centred, beautiful light cabinet tone with hints of golden iridescence.
Acquired from Bertolami Fine Arts - ACR Auctions.
While Pliny writes "the Roman people did not even use silver coin before the defeat of Pyrrhus" which took place in 275 BC, modern scholars can scarcely hope to be as categorical as the ancient author (NH xxxiii, 42). It is clear, however, that the silver didrachm emerged at some point during the early 3rd century BC, weighing around 6.8g or six scruples, consistent with the weight of a south Italian Greek didrachm. Thomsen suggested that this Hercules / Wolf type can be conclusively dated to 269 BC, since the type alludes to the consuls of that year, C. Fabius Pictor, of whom Hercules was the patron, and Q. Ogulnius L. f. Q. n. Gallus, whose ancestors Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius had as curule aediles used fines collected from violators of usury laws to erect a statue of the she-wolf in 296 BC (ERC III, p. 120). Mitchell, however, assigns the date of this issue much earlier, to the date of the statue's erection, and argues that the legend ROMANO, which appears on four early didrachms, indicates that this coinage was struck outside Rome, as opposed to the later didrachms which bear the legend ROMA ('A New Chronology for the Romano-Campanian Coins', NC 1966, pp.66-7). Mattingly had suggested earlier that the latter legend "might seem to indicate the sovereignty of Rome more explicitly" ('The Various Styles of the Roman Republican Coinage', NC 1949, p.63.).
Crawford meanwhile believes that although basing the date upon the family histories of the consuls is misconceived, since he argues that it was in fact the censors who were responsible for issues of the didrachm (RRC p.714), he nonetheless also dates it to 269 BC noting that of the four issues of silver didrachms it is the first to bear distinctly Roman imagery. He suggests the portrait of Hercules may be that of Hercules Victor, which would be "highly suitable for a coinage struck from the spoils of war and perhaps reflecting the Roman ideology of military prowess" after the victory against Pyrrhus (RRC p.714).
Following the sporadic didrachm issues, the so-called Quadrigati emerged in the latter half of the 3rd century and were eventually issued in large quantities throughout the Punic Wars. At some point circa 214-212 the denomination was replaced by the denarius, a shift that would prove decisive and would dominate Roman coinage for centuries to come. Nevertheless, the wolf type, which is rendered for the first time so masterfully on this early didrachm, would endure as an iconic and patriotic symbol of Rome on coinage well into the imperial period and beyond, eventually achieving a satisfying historical circularity when it was employed on the municipal coinage of Rome under the Ostrogoths for what was to be the last issue of coinage struck by the ancient Romans in their own name.
Extremely Fine; well-centred, beautiful light cabinet tone with hints of golden iridescence.
Acquired from Bertolami Fine Arts - ACR Auctions.
While Pliny writes "the Roman people did not even use silver coin before the defeat of Pyrrhus" which took place in 275 BC, modern scholars can scarcely hope to be as categorical as the ancient author (NH xxxiii, 42). It is clear, however, that the silver didrachm emerged at some point during the early 3rd century BC, weighing around 6.8g or six scruples, consistent with the weight of a south Italian Greek didrachm. Thomsen suggested that this Hercules / Wolf type can be conclusively dated to 269 BC, since the type alludes to the consuls of that year, C. Fabius Pictor, of whom Hercules was the patron, and Q. Ogulnius L. f. Q. n. Gallus, whose ancestors Gnaeus and Quintus Ogulnius had as curule aediles used fines collected from violators of usury laws to erect a statue of the she-wolf in 296 BC (ERC III, p. 120). Mitchell, however, assigns the date of this issue much earlier, to the date of the statue's erection, and argues that the legend ROMANO, which appears on four early didrachms, indicates that this coinage was struck outside Rome, as opposed to the later didrachms which bear the legend ROMA ('A New Chronology for the Romano-Campanian Coins', NC 1966, pp.66-7). Mattingly had suggested earlier that the latter legend "might seem to indicate the sovereignty of Rome more explicitly" ('The Various Styles of the Roman Republican Coinage', NC 1949, p.63.).
Crawford meanwhile believes that although basing the date upon the family histories of the consuls is misconceived, since he argues that it was in fact the censors who were responsible for issues of the didrachm (RRC p.714), he nonetheless also dates it to 269 BC noting that of the four issues of silver didrachms it is the first to bear distinctly Roman imagery. He suggests the portrait of Hercules may be that of Hercules Victor, which would be "highly suitable for a coinage struck from the spoils of war and perhaps reflecting the Roman ideology of military prowess" after the victory against Pyrrhus (RRC p.714).
Following the sporadic didrachm issues, the so-called Quadrigati emerged in the latter half of the 3rd century and were eventually issued in large quantities throughout the Punic Wars. At some point circa 214-212 the denomination was replaced by the denarius, a shift that would prove decisive and would dominate Roman coinage for centuries to come. Nevertheless, the wolf type, which is rendered for the first time so masterfully on this early didrachm, would endure as an iconic and patriotic symbol of Rome on coinage well into the imperial period and beyond, eventually achieving a satisfying historical circularity when it was employed on the municipal coinage of Rome under the Ostrogoths for what was to be the last issue of coinage struck by the ancient Romans in their own name.