kevikens

I think I can hear the chorus of frogs croaking here, Breka kax,koax, koax

Excellent post. Quite some time ago I attended a Roman Catholic seminary and part of the curriculum was sacred music. At that time we still chanted Gregorian Chant (in Latin) and the subject of when that form of music appeared was part of the course. Of course, Gregorian Chant, at least as we used it, was medieval in origin and practice, several centuries after the collapse of the Western Empire. Our studies did include, however, what the Church "thought" it may have sounded like and I wish I had paid more attention to that. I seem to remember, however, that the Byzantines had a liturgy, including their version of chant, which of course did survive, possibly unchanged into our Middle Ages. It might be instructive to research Orthodox Catholic liturgical music to see if theirs has retained some of their music from the Ancient History period that can be identified as such. By the way, I have since learned something that Hollywood has botched up. The Roman Army did NOT use drums either for keeping marching order or conveying orders on the battlefield. For these they used brass wind instruments like the tuba and various kinds of "horns". Ancient navies may have used a kind of percussion log or chunk of wood for rowers to keep the oar stroke in unison., but not the Roman Army for anything at all. Percussion instruments were used in Ancient Rome but were used for ceremonies and celebrations, especially religious ones. Again, great post and I hope to read plenty of responses to it.

Yes. If learned authors and historian are going to foul up their stories and accounts with demonstrable errors it will be getting their financial facts fouled up because they have no idea about the actual coins and currencies of the time period they are writing about.

Must be twice as fierce as the average lion.

I have found that the tetras of Elagabalus seem to be a bit better in fabric and appearance. These examples here look a lot better to me than most of the ones I have seen of Caracalla.

On both of our coins Trajan Decius looks like he drinks nothing but posca for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blurb on the long minted tetradrachms of Alexandria, something like 600 years. There is another long issued tetradrachm series, about 500 years, which is interesting to compare with its Alexandrine cousin, namely the tetradrachm of Seleucid and Roman minting out of Antioch. The similarities and differences are fascinating. Both mints were named after early rulers of the Greeks following the demise of Alexander, the Ptolemies continuing the Alexandria name with the Seleucid monarchs giving the name of Antiochus I to their new Seleucid foundation. Both cities initiated a series of tetradrachms which lasted almost 300 years as Greek coins and then an almost another 300 years as coinage of Imperial Rome. The Seleucid mint of Antioch issued tetradrachms mostly on the Attic standard of about 16-17 grams of a very fine silver but like the tetras of Alexandria they began to be debased for the same reason, problems with an expanding Rome. One major difference between the two coinages was that the Alexandrian tetradrachms always used the image of Ptolemy 1 whereas the Seleucids commonly placed the image of the different reigning monarchs on their silver coinage. I would also venture the opinion that fabric and design of the Antiochene coinage was consistently higher than the Ptolemaic issues. Both cities fell under Roman control by the mid First Century BC, Antioch to Pompey and Alexandria to Octavian. Both cities had their mints taken over by the Romans who began to issue their own imperial versions with the head of the current Caesar on them. Both series also began the inevitable being debased process, though the Antioch coins held their silver fineness consistently higher than their Alexandrine counterpart. The Alexandrian coinage continued until the great coinage reforms of Diocletian circa 290's AD while the Antiochene coinage was ended abruptly by the Sassanian Persian invasion of the mid 250's AD. Still, not a bad run considering how briefly some coinages of other civilizations have lasted less than one century before collapsing. I have a few coins from Antioch posted here, though some of these coins may have been issued at mints outside of Antioch itself. From left to right and top to bottom they are first, a tetradrachm of Demitrios I of excellent style weighing a respectable 16.14 grams with Tyche (Fortuna) on the reverse minted about 160 BC It is Sear 7014 sim. Second, to its right is a well struck issue of Antilochus VIII with a standing Zeus. It weighs 15.96 grams and is Sear 7143 and was minted about 115 BC. The third coin is of King Philip who was the last Seleucid monarch. The inscription on the reverse is stylized and difficult to read, perhaps by design, as Roman authorities continued minting this coin well after Phillip had died as a kind of familiar trade coin. The Maria Theresa taler of the ancient Levant being found in hoards even a bit after 200 AD.. It weighs 15.89 grams. The next five coins were issued under the authority of the Roman Empire and used Greek instead of Latin in the inscriptions. The first of these Imperial tetradrachms is of Galba, next is one of Domitian, and then Nerva. They are slightly debased silver (averaging about 85% fine silver) and weighing on average about 14.5 grams They probably passed as three denarii in the market place. The next to the last Imperial tetradrachm is of Caracalla and by this time (as was also the case of his denarii) was well debased to about 35% fine silver and were issued in enormous quantities to pay for his campaign against Parthia. They are often found in today's market at reasonable prices, in somewhat of a rough form and, in my opinion, were carelessly struck. One interesting note about these coins is that they may not usually have been issued directly to the troops but were more likely issued to contractors and suppliers as they are found in only small numbers in what seem to be soldier hoards but form a very high percentage of large caches. Perhaps. Lastly, is a tetra of Trajan Decius by which time the coin was heavily debased to about 10-12 % fine silver, though the weight is a not so terrible 12.4 grams. In order, these last five Roman issues are Sear Geek Imperial 680, Prieur 143, Prieur 149, Sear Greek Imperial 2676 Astarte Mint of Sidon, and lastly Sear Greek Imperial 4209. For those interested in these coins, the Roman versions, anyway I highly recommend the Sear Greek Imperial book and for the information on the metrology of the Roman coins I recommend Harl, pp 137-200 and Butcher p 576 ff. I hope readers enjoy this post and will contribute images of their own and commentary about this issue of interesting coinage.

Right you are. With the proper name I was able to find a good deal about it. What I cannot do is to figure out its date of minting. I found it in a junk box while searching for ancients. Now I'll have to figure out what to do with it since feudal Japan is not much of an interest to me. Thank you very much for the right connection.

I am out of my league on this. I am guessing the Indian Sub Continent on this. It appears to be silver weighing ca. 5.5 grams and is globular shaped. Any help appreciated. Thanks

If the price had been right I think I might have bought it. I can't see any problems with it and the weight is correct. if you ever send it out please tell us what the results were when it came back.

That coin of Sabina is one of the best of her I have ever seen!

Indeed it does.

Splendid display. I wish I had something like this to browse through at a show or shop.

Interesting. I wonder if the Diocletian era and afterwards have their follis coins from the Alexandria mint thick and dumpy in the fourth and fifth centuries. It would be fascinating to discover that the Alexandria mint, whether turning out tetradrachms, folles, or nummi had gotten so used to that kind of fabric that they continued the practice right up to the Arab conquest.

Thanks. I did not know that there was an octodrachm. I guess I see the doubling sign of the radiate crown found on the earlier dupondius and the later antoninianus.