Roman Coins
Author(s): H. Mattingly
Source: The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Sep., 1937), pp. 170-171
Published by: British Museum
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4421999 .
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L.
a,
ROMAN SILVER COINS FROM THE DORCHESTER HOARD
b,
ROMAN COINS
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93.
RARE SASSANIAN COINS.
DR
C. DAVIES
SHERBORN,
a
frequent
benefactor of the
Department
of Coins and
Medals,
has
given forty-six
Sassanian
silver coins
ranging
in date from
Shapur
I
(A.D. 241-72)
to the last
monarch of the House of
Sasan,
Yezdigird
III
(A.D. 632-5 1).
The
acquisition
is of
importance
in that it adds a number of rare coins
with dates and
mint-signatures
hitherto not included in the National
Collection.
Among
them is one of the uncommon hemidrachms of
Shapur
I
(P1.
XLIXc,
I).
Besides drachms of Bahram
IV,
Kobad
I,
Khusrau
I,
Hormazd
IV,
and Khusrau
II,
the
gift
includes a few
struck
by
two of the last Sassanian monarchs whose
reigns
were
tragically
terminated,
and whose
coinage
was
very inadequately
represented
in the Museum. Kobad
II,
who murdered his father
Khusrau Parviz in A.D.
628,
reigned only
six
months,
although
his
coins are all dated
(P1.
XLIXc,
2)
in the
year
2. The
royal parricide
was succeeded
by
his
seven-year-old
son Ardashir III
(A.D. 628-30),
who not
long
afterwards was killed
by
a
usurper,
with the con-
nivance,
it is
said,
of the
Byzantine Emperor
Heraclius. One of the
boy prince's
coins dated in his first
year
is shown
(P1.
XLIXc,
3)-
J.
WALKER.
94.
ROMAN COINS.
T
HROUGH the
generous
kindness of Mr H. C. Hoskier the
Museum has received three valuable accessions to its series of
Roman coins and medallions. One
(P1.
L
b,
I),
a rare aureus of
Commodus of the
year
A.D.
189,
shows on its reverse 'Mars
Pacifer',
the
war-god
as
bringer
of
peace-an appropriate patron
for Rearma-
ment,
in the sense which we trust that it
may
hold. A second
(P1.
Lb,
2),
a
gold quinarius
of Faustina the
Younger,
struck
c.
A.D.
1
55,
bears on its reverse the dove with the
legend
CONCORDIA,
as
symbol
of her
happy marriage
to Marcus Aurelius. This is a
good
specimen
of a rare denomination. The third
(P1.
Lb,
3),
a medal-
lion of Commodus without exact
date,
has on the reverse an elaborate
scene of sacrifice
by
the
Emperor
in front of a
temple-voTA
PVBLICA.
The
edge
has been turned
(Contorniate), possibly
to
enable the
piece
to be used as a counter in some
game.
170
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A few recent
purchases
also deserve
special
note. An aureus of
Septimius
Severus,
C. A.D.
198,
in curious Eastern
style, perhaps
shows the work of a mint hitherto unknown
(P1.
Lb,
4).
From
a recent hoard in the Balkans comes a beautiful denarius of Severus
Alexander
(P1.
Lb,
6),
of
A.D.
226,
showing
on its reverse the
Emperor
in his
triumphal
car,
and also a denarius of
genuine
histori-
cal
importance,
the first coin
yet
recorded of Diadumenianus
(P1.
Lb,
5),
son of Macrinus
(A.D. 217-18),
as
Augustus.
The
Historia
Augusta speaks
of the
young prince regularly
as
Augustus:
our new coin shows that it was not
quite
so
completely wrong
as we
had
thought. Finally,
one
important
addition has been made in the
Byzantine
series-the solidus of Basil I
(P1. Lb,
7),
his second wife
Eudocia,
and his son
by
a first
wife,
Constantine
(A.D. 869-79):
Wroth in the Museum
Catalogue
had to use the Paris
specimen,
then
the
only
one
known,
for his illustration.
H.
MATTINGLY.
95-
EARLY PRINTED
ROMANCES.
THE
Library
has
recently
been able to
augment
its collection of
early printed
romances
by
three remarkable
pieces
from the
library
of Mr A. W. M.
Mensing,
which was
specially
rich in this
class of book. The earliest of the three is a
copy
of a French version
of the Italian
Trabisonda
historiata,
under the title of La
conqueste
du
trespuissant empire
de trebisonde et de la
spacieuse
asie,
printed
for
Yvon Gallois at Paris on
19
March
1517-18.
It is a
carefully printed
quarto,
illustrated with
twenty
woodcuts of
varying
merit,
the best
of which is that on the
title-page, representing Reynaud
de Montau-
ban,
the hero of the
story, making
a
triumphal progress
on horseback
under a
canopy
of state. The edition antedates
by
about fifteen
years
the earliest
previously
in the
collection,
and the
copy
now
acquired
is a
very good
one in a
stamped
leather
binding
of the time. Press-
mark: C.
97.
bb.
3
1. Next comes Van
Jason
ende
Hercules,
a Dutch
translation of the French histories of
Jason
and of
Hercules,
in the
folio edition of
Jan
van
Doesborch,
Antwerp, 1521,
of which text
no
printing prior
to
1556
was hitherto to be found in the
Library.
The book consists of two
parts,
the earlier
completed
on 8 Novem-
ber,
the later on 12
December,
with a collective title of which the
171
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