American Classical League

ROMAN COINS FOR LATIN CLASS

Author(s): Malcolm Donalson
Source: The Classical Outlook, Vol. 56, No. 1 (SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 1978), pp. 9-11
Published by: American Classical League
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43933968
Accessed: 17-04-2020 08:06 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Classical League is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to The Classical Outlook

This content downloaded from 156.213.53.55 on Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:06:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE CLASSICAL OUTLOOK Page 9

recommend
writings, disgusted with the mundane slide-making as a hobby
rite for coins. From the earliest Ameri-
for Latin
interests of his contemporaries. teachers. Second, there are
Clear- can coin this goddess was portrayed in
ly, Juvenal was idealistic and
Roman quite
coins. It is the second of these her classical garb, often with her coni-
probably had he lived two
aidscenturies
which we would like to briefly
cal liberty cap (which was actually
previously would have notconsider here.
undertaken worn by newly-released Roman slaves
literature as a means of expressing Roman coins are relatively inexpen- in antiquity). In 1836 American coins
his
opinions but would have remained sive and easyan
to come by; particularly first showed Liberty holding the cap on
obscure flag-waver-rather, standard-
many bronze pieces (although there area cane. The Romans used to strike a
waver - of the early Empire. As notably
others, Duff,tetradrachms of some slave with such a cane before dismis-
in the introduction to Juvenal's Satires silver content from Alexandria, which sing him as a free man, wearing the
( D . IVNII IVVENALIS , J.D. Duff, ed., are well known). Replicas of Roman liberty cap (slaves were forbidden to
Cambridge: University Press, 1966, in- coins are likewise easily purchased; the cover their hair). On the day that Julius
tra. : p. xxxvii) says: American Classical League has sets, Caesar was assassinated Brutus and his
and others are available in Biblical companions went out of the Senate
His hottest wrath seems to be re-coinage formats. These links with the
bearing a cap on a pole, too.
served for the most venial faults; past are readily available since the The Ro- great god of commerce and trade
improprieties and breaches of so- mans hoarded coins in basements, known as Mercurius to the Romans (his
cial convention are, in his eyes, under walls - even in jars buried right name gives us the English "com-
worse than crimes. in the ground. Coins were simply lost merce" and "merchant") has been
as well, and many hundreds have beenutilized by Americans to emphasize the
According to Duff then, Juvenal isfound outside ancient city gates. prosperity of their Republic. One
more of a moralist condemning the ex- The Romans used their currency for Roman silver denarius may be seen as
cesses of the prominent men of thispropaganda. Among the themes arethe inspiration of our own Mercury
society than a man expressing his viewspeace and safety from the "barbari," dime.
on the entire social structure of the largesses and doles for the poor, an- On the reverse of an 1863 Civil War
time. Also, Juvenal does nothing butniversaries of imperial reigns, and token is a figure of Minerva, goddess of
criticize and offers no solutions for military achievements (in which thewar, or at least the "Union" per-
what he has found. For this reason, he emperor appears as much larger than sonified in the crested war helmet and
was not widely ready during his the puny figure representative of thegown of Minerva. Figures with the at-
lifetime as most considered him merely defeated enemy). American money hastributes of Vulcan, god of the forge,
a dissident. In the Middle Ages, how- also glorified the existing government Apollo, driver of the sun-chariot,
ever, Juvenal's adherence to the and its ideals. Ceres, supervisor of the grain harvest,
philosophy of moderation and con- Many of the symbols utilized by the and other classical deities have ap-
demnation of excess was highly re-American numismatists were borrowed peared on U.S. paper bills.
garded and used as a model for con-
from the Roman past. The wreath is For centuries no mortal appeared on
duct. common; one of the many ways theRoman coins. Only the gods rated such
Thus, the change in social and Romans used this symbol was on thean honor. In the East, in Hellenistic
economic conditions in the first "multa vota" coins celebrating the kingdoms, the portraiture of kings sig-
hundred years of the Empire emperor's
had anniversary on the throne. nified their divinity: often they were
greatly affected the attitudes ofThe
thefasces - the bundle of rods and identified with the classical gods, par-
people. The surging middle class did
protruding axe which signified the
ticularly Zeus, Herakles, and
not ask what they could do for their Dionysius. After Scipio Africanus'
power of Roman magistrates-are well
country, but what the Empire couldknown
do to Americans (e.g., the reverse
conquest of Hannibal, he was deemed
of the
for them. Also, with no great patrons of Mercury dimes). Some Roman worthy, at least after his death, of coin
literature who demanded quality coins equalshow not only the fasces them- portrayal. Later military statesmen
to that of the Augustan Age, writers selves but the "lictores" bearing them
such as Pompey the Great and Julius
merely flattered the wealthy. Other Caesar were shown often on renewed
before a government official; inciden-
men with different interests, mostly thewe also may see the fasces on issues
tally, the during their own lifetimes.
increasing number of Christians, walls quite of the U.S. Congress at Caesar was first to appear with the in-
probably spoke against the excesses of
Washington. Stars, so familiar as na-
scription "Divus" - "divine". He and
society. Juvenal, by chance or by tional plan, symbols in modern times, appear
his nephew Octavian were the first
did his preaching with a pen. on Roman money (e.g., coins illustrat-
Roman rulers to flirt with divinity. On
ing the "sidus Iulianum", a comet vis-
Octavian 's coins his new title appeared:
ible upon the death of Julius Caesar).
Augustus, heretofore applied only to
ROMAN COINS The eagle, "rex avium," and sacred togods. Even today American coins show
FOR LATIN CLASS Jupiter, symbolized the Roman power only deceased Presidents.
and now is an American symbol, found Earlier paper money portrayed a
By Malcolm Donalson
Marianna High School on our coins from 1792 to the present.
number of persons clad in Roman cos-
Marianna, Florida Some of our own portrayals were di- tumes. The bust of Washington on our
rectly inspired by Roman versions. present quarter is based on a marble
Naturally, the Romans illustratedbusta by the same sculptor, Houdon.
theretheareteacher
For there a couple
areofa couple
"tangibles"
of Latin of in "tangibles" high school great variety of gods on their coinage.
The neo-classical style which he rep-
which should not be overlooked as aids Under the Empire the memory of the resented imitated Greek and Roman
in teaching Roman culture. First, there Republic lingered for many genera- work in leaving the hero bare-chested,
is the neo-classical architecture of tions. Hence the goddess as in this depiction of the first Presi-
America, relating to which we should "Libertas "-Miss Liberty-wasdent. a favo-

This content downloaded from 156.213.53.55 on Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:06:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Page 10 THE CLASSICAL OUTLOOK

In the news of late has been the de- impression, at least, of the older coins' greatly facilitated by the fact that there
bate in our Congress as to whether avalue. are records of the triumviri. American
famous American woman, Susan B. When the student sees Roman coins currency has also shown the mint ar-
Anthony, should appear on a new coin. for the first time, the lack of uniformtist's initial.
For many years the Romans utilized theroundness will be of interest. His or her Just as American coins include mint
images of goddesses (including Liber- reaction will doubtlessly be to assume marks such as "D" for Denver, the
tas) but none of those of mortals. Under that "in those days" the Romans were Romans, too, used "M" for Milan
the Empire, however, things changed. simply incapable of making round (Mediolanum), "K" for Constan-
The Emperor's wife, mother, sister, or coins. This notion should be corrected tinople (Konstantinopolis), etc. The
daughter might appear on coins. On right away. The Romans (and GreeksRomans continued the Greek usage of
one occasion even a grandmother was and Persians before them) made all encircling the coin design with dots; we
shown - that of the youth Elagabalus, their coins with a pair of "dies" whichsee this custom preserved on our own
in the third century A.D. bore the obverse and reverse designs of issues. Of course we have used the
Vast sums of money were required to the coin. One die was placed in theRoman numerals, particularly on the
pay the Roman legions, whose position surface of an anvil; the other was on thedates of paper bills, but on some of the
and wages began to improve under the end of a metal "punch." Unshapedcoinage as well. The student should
emperors (notably Septimius Severusmetal was put in between and a hammerknow incidentally, that our B.C. -
and his sons). A huge portion of ourblow to the punch set the design. SinceA.D. dating was first begun in the late
own national budget goes for defense the work was done manually, the diesRoman - early Byzantine period at
programs. When Emperor Commodus might not be perfectly aligned. HenceRome.
was strangled in 193 A.D., the Praeto- every coin was practically unique. The Nicks or cuts around the edges of
rian Guard actually auctioned the impe- roundness of the resulting coin was not Roman coins were made deliberately to
rial throne, selling it to the man who thought to be as important as it is today.enable the holder to see that the coin
could provide the most coins - one Then, too, although the die-cutterswas not a sandwich of cheap metal.
Julianus. The importance of the army is were artists, the mint- workers who These nicks are the ancestors of the
reflected in the inscriptions and reliefs "struck" the coins might be slaves,"milled" or serrated edges of modern
found on the money itself. 4 4 Virtuti who took less interest in their work's coins.
Exercitus" - 4 'to the courage of the quality. To learn whether the Romans The Latin mottoes and abbreviations
army" - is just one example of the were capable of making a circle theon our modern coins also reflect our
moral support given the military via the student need only look at pictures of theRoman heritage. "E pluribus unum"
money with which it was paid. In fact, Pantheon's dome, or even of the hoops ("one from many") was an idea very
the English term "soldier" derives rolled by Roman children. often applied to the Roman Empire, as
from "solidus," the name of a gold Another feature may be of interest. Ifpoets praised Rome for making "one
coin which later Roman troops re- there are similar coins of one emperor'scity" of all the diverse nations she had
ceived. reign (Constantine is very popular) thesubdued. "Annuit coeptis" ("He has
The importance of the mints of the student may notice that the obverse and beheld our undertaking") expresses a
Empire is evident when we realize that reverse designs are not always in the notion long held by the Romans - that
a usurper of the throne deemed it neces- same relationship to one another, i.e., the gods watched over their destiny as a
sary to acquire one of them to pay his one coin may have both with their topnation. On their coins the images of
supporters. In fact, one poor man who sides facing the same direction while Jupiter, Mars, and others assured the
made a localized attempt would be al- another may show the two in the oppo-citizens of Rome that the gods would
most unknown to us save for his coins. site postion - like our American coins. protect them. "In God We Trust" has
Marius, as he was known, lasted just A misconception which will arise if its counterparts, e.g., "Iuppiter
one day after his "elevation" to the the student examines Byzantine coins Stator," or "Mars Ultor." "Novus
throne. (whether real or pictured) is that the Ordo Seclorum' ' refers to the hope for a
If the student compares the dimes artists of that later period were less cap-new era of history (literally, a "new
and quarters of yesteryear with those of able than their Greek and Roman order of ages") with the United States
today, he will note the copper forerunners. Although in terms of clas- a predominant role. This was a
playing
"sandwiching" of the more recent sical art this may be true, it should be familiar to the Romans; their
concept
ones. The Romans, too, debased their explained that the Byzantine "hiera- poets often expressed it in terms of a
coins, and for much the same reason. tic" art tended to depart from the Age, and on their coins such
Golden
Suffering from inflation and a desire onrealism of classical models quite delib- expressions as "Pax Ubique" ("Peace
the part of the government to increaseerately. Later Byzantine coins reflect Everywhere") tell of similar hopes in
taxation led Emperor Nero to devalue the compromise tradition stemming the ancient world. Some fourth century
the denarius - the basic coin of the Re- from the long "Iconoclasm" coins which are easy to find bear the
public and the Empire - by simply controversy - the quarrel as to whether common inscription, round the em-
lowering the silver content. Subsequent images should be used in Christian peror's profile portrait, "DN-P-F-
emperors continued Nero's policy, worship. AVG", i.e., "Dominus Noster . . .
with the result that by the third century On our American paper money we Pius Felix Augustus" ("Our Lord . . .
the denarius had very little purchasing find the signature of our Secretary of the Dutiful and Happy Emperor' ' ). The
power. The "antoninianus," a silver the Treasury. The Romans during the idea was that if the emperor could be
coin first struck by Emperor Caracalla Republic included the initial of the fam- described as "Pius et Felix," then the
(Antoninus) fell from its original purity ily to which the mint officer, or trium- Pax Romana was sustained and the
to less than half on one per cent silver in vir, belonged. This initial served to Romans could rest assured that order
just over one hundred years. A "silver safeguard the coin's weight and preci- was maintained.
wash" was sometimes used to give the ous metal content. Dating these coins is The profile portraits of the emperors

This content downloaded from 156.213.53.55 on Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:06:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE CLASSICAL OUTLOOK Page 1 1

have inspired similar bust Temple of Janus

portraits on with its doors closed, Classical Mythology. By Mark P.O.
coins ever since, as is evident on the
signifying peace; and so on. Morford and Robert J. Lenardon.
money in our own pockets. WeIndeed,
have already mentioned the Second Edition. New York: David
hoardingof
until our Revolution, the portraits so the
common in the ancient McKay Company, Inc., 1977. Pp.
English king even showed world.
our British
In regard to coin collecting it is xvi and 524. Cloth $14.95. Paper
ruler wearing a Roman laurel wreath.
thought that none other than Augustus $7.95.
Caesar was
If we may refer once more toa numismatist
the of sorts. For An extended review of Classical
other "tangible'' most easily
someavailable
coins, at least, collecting cannot Mythology is not necessary since it has
to classicists in America, i.e., the as
have been neo-
profitable as today since been available since its original
classical architecture that abounds we ancient coins were often in circulation publication in 1971 to thousands of
can relate it to our brief coin study. for centuries. students who have had little or no
When the student sees the Lincoln In short the American teacher of La-
background in Classics but who want a
Memorial on our penny, he shouldtin,
be Greek, classical mythology, etc.,comprehensive survey of classical
aware of the building's Doric Greek
has some direct links with the Greco-
mythology. This book is not an indepth
inspiration. More important fromRoman
the heritage which should not beanalytical study, nor does it provide
overlooked. In the experience of theextensive bibliographies but rather
Roman standpoint is Jefferson's Mon-
ticello on the nickel. The student author the students always show somedraws very generously from the
should learn that Thomas Jefferson was enthusiasm for the Roman coins, principal literary sources in translation
architect of such neo-classical struc- whether holding and examining authen-to present 4 'The Myths of Creation; The
tures and that Monticello itself was in- tic pieces or exchanging replicas as Gods" (Part I); "The Greek Sagas;
spired directly by the Pantheon at gifts or prizes. The best aspect of the Greek Local Legends" (Part II); and
Rome, the temple of all the gods. There coin study is perhaps that one can re- "The Survival of Classical
main right at home to pursue it. NoMythology" (Part III). There is a b
were favorite national shrines pictured
on the Roman's own coins - the Tem- expensive field trip to a sometimes dis- select bibliography and indice
ple of Jupiter of the Capitoline; thetant museum is necessary. passages translated from ancient
authors; mythological and historical
persons, subjects and place names; and
authors, artists, composers, subjects,
and titles. There are twenty-two maps
and genealogical charts and twenty-six
illustrations are also included.
BOOK REVIEWS In the second edition certain
corrections have been made as a result
of comments of colleagues and students
on the first edition. The introduction
and the chapter on music have been
expanded; the legend of Cupid and
Aspects of Antiquity: Discoveries and of the Etruscans; the Etruscans
remains Psyche has been added; and the legends
Controversies. By M.I. Finley. A
and early Rome; the silent womenof ofTheseus and Perseus have been
Pelican Book. Second Edition. New
Rome's upperclasses; the true moved from one chapter to separate
York: Penguin Books, 1977. Pp. historical Emperor Diocletian; chapters. More Pindar and Ovid
216. Paperback. $2.50. Manpower and the Fall of Rome; the
translations have been provided and the
Originally published in the United story of a slave turned slave trader;
aids supporting the main body of the
States in 1968 and reprinted a dozen three views of the historiography ofwork have been strengthened.
times since, M.I. Finley' s Aspects ofChristian origins; and the Year One
Antiquity has been revised and bequeathed to us by the The authors repeat their original
expanded and in some cases essays Greek-speaking monk, Dionysius purpose which remains "to provide
have been retitled. In all cases the readers who have little or no
Exiguus, who lived in Rome during the
fifteen essays by one of the most background in the classical literatures
first half of the sixth century.
productive interpreters of classical with a survey based as far as possible on
Professor Finley writes crisply,
antiquity in the English-speaking world the classical texts presented in
clearly, and authoritatively. He knows
remain highly readable and unfailingly translation or on our own reading of the
the scholarship but he also knows the
provocative. Professor Finley, who classical sources" (p. ix).
modern world, to which he always tries
was once a member of the faculty at to relate his material. Though one Classical
may Mythology will certainly
Rutgers University and since 1955 has
not always agree with his views,not what
satisfy those who are looking for a
taught at Cambridge University, he says deserves careful attention bookand that deals in depth with the
England, where he is now Professor excites
of interest in classical antiquity in
interpretation of classical myths or one
Ancient History, ranges over the Greek
a very positive way. that discusses the nature of myth in
and Roman worlds incisively dealingTeachers will, indeed, welcometerms thisof contemporary anthropology or
with such topics as the archaelogical
expanded and revised edition of comparative mythology. What they
discoveries of Minoan Crete and Aspects of Antiquity y which they will will find is basic information about
Mycenaean Troy; the poetry of Pindar;
want to commend warmly to their some very basic myths.
the moral aspects of the historian
students.
Thucydides; the trial of Socrates and - John E. Rexine John E. Rexine
Athenian society; Plato and practical Colgate University Colgate University
politics; Diogenes the Cynic; the

This content downloaded from 156.213.53.55 on Fri, 17 Apr 2020 08:06:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms