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Faustina Friday – Snake Biga Edition!


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Friday felicitations, fellow Faustina fanatics! I hope you have a great weekend!

I have always wanted a snake biga coin and when this one with Faustina the Younger came up for auction, I knew I had to get it. Yeah, yeah, I hear you condition cranks laughing. But it's a snake biga! It's a Faustina! It's a Faustina snake biga!

The coin is from Cyzicus in Mysia and depicts Demeter holding a torch in each hand and driving her serpent-drawn chariot.


1057219550_FaustinaJrCyzicusDemeterinsnakebiga.jpg.81a4cfaa97d02e374e578ad2fcd24ff9.jpg

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman provincial Æ 25.4 mm, 10.73 g, 7 h.
Mysia, Cyzicus, AD 169-175.
Obv: ΦΑVСΤΕΙΝΑ СΕΒΑCTH, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: ΚVΖΙΚΗΝ ΝΕΩΚΟΡ, Demeter standing in biga drawn by coiling serpents, right, holding torch in each hand.
Refs: RPC IV.2,
17502 (temporary); BMC –; Mionnet II –; Wiczay –.


THE ATTRIBUTES OF DEMETER FEATURED ON THE COIN[1]

A flaming torch

Demeter carried a flaming torch in her search for Persephone in the underworld. She was often depicted in art holding one or two torches as her attribute. One of the most frequently encountered depictions of Demeter in numismatics is of the goddess holding grain ears and torch. The ancient sources note:

  • Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 48 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic c. 7th or 6th B.C.):

    "Then for nine days queenly Deo wandered over the earth with flaming torches in her hands [in search of her daughter Persephone]."
  • Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 4. 3 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian c. 1st B.C.):

    "After the Rape of Kore, the myth goes on to recount, Demeter, being unable to find her daughter, kindled torches in the craters of Mt Aetna and visited many parts of the inhabited world."
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 354 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic c. 1st B.C. to c. 1st A.D.):

    "Ceres [Demeter] sought her child vainly in every land . . . She lit pine-torches, one in either hand, at Aetna's fires, and through the frosty dark bore them unsleeping."
  • Statius, Thebaid 12. 270 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic c. 1st A.D.):

    "The bereaved Ceres [Demeter] lighted her torch and from Aetna's rocks cast the shifting glare of the mighty flame here over Sicily, there over Ausonia, as she followed the traces of the dark ravisher [Hades]."


A serpent-drawn chariot

The serpent, a creature which represented rebirth (i.e. molting) in nature and the fertility of the earth, was the animal most sacred to Demeter. A pair of winged serpents drew her chariot, which she then gave to Triptolemus. Many coins depict Triptolemus driving this chariot. The ancient sources read:

  • Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 77 (from Strabo 9. 1. 9) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic c. 8th or 7th B.C.):

    "And it is from the hero [Kykhreus] that the serpent Kykhreides took its name--the serpent which, according to Hesiod, was fostered by Kychreus [on Salamis] and driven out by Eurylokhos because it was damaging the island, and was welcomed to Eleusis by Demeter and made her attendant."
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 643 ff (after A.D Melville, transl.):

    "Bounteous Ceres [Demeter] yoked her Angues Gemini (Serpent-Pair) to her chariot and fixed the curbing bits and made her way between the earth and sky to Tritonia's city [Athens], and brought the chariot to Triptolemus, and gave him seed and bade him scatter it [throughout the earth, teaching mankind the practice of agriculture]. Partly in virgin land and part in fields long fallow . . . then [after he had finished his task, she] bade the youth of Mopsosius [Triptolemos] drive her Iugales Sacri (Sacred Yoke) homeward through the air."


267270409_Snakebigaoverview.jpg.033f6431e8b75533a8e104510deba637.jpg

2113115911_Snakebiga.jpg.9d6da3feedd4eb37a47156950fe2ce12.jpg

Demeter presenting her serpent-drawn chariot to Triptolemus while Medea looks on. Apulian red figure volute-crater from Canosa. Attributed to the Underworld Painter, ca 320 BC. Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 3296. Overview[2] and close-up.[3]


I like coins with such mythological themes. Do you have any coins depicting a serpent-drawn chariot? Please post comments and any coins you deem relevant!

~~~

Notes


1. "DEMETER ESTATE & ATTRIBUTES." Theoi.com,
www.theoi.com/Olympios/DemeterTreasures.html.

2. Rebaudo, Ludovico. "The Underworld Painter and the Corinthian Adventures of Medea: An Interpretation of the Crater in Munich." Engramma,
http://www.engramma.it/eOS/index.php?id_articolo=1380.


3. "O28.7 Medea & Triptolemus." Medea & Triptolemus - Ancient Greek Vase Painting, Theoi.com, https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/O28.7.html.

Edited by Roman Collector
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Nice post and coin as always @Roman Collector  I have a Roman Republican snake biga denarius that is in serious need of an upgrade; it is a Fourree with all the plating stripped off, and then a serious case of bronze disease - the reverse photos is askew (I have trouble seeing through my camera viewer, and just seeing in general) - the two serpents are just visible through the pitting.  There are other, far nicer (and silver) examples owned by Forum members; I hope they will share them:

603169070_RR-Volteia76BCdenariusCeresBigaofSnakes-MINE2017(1).jpg.ac1a62abd4dfd46901b6bc72583b0bf5.jpg

Roman Rep.  Fourrée Denarius M. Volteius M.f.  (78 B.C.) Rome Mint (imitation)  

Head of Bacchus right wearing ivy wreath / Ceres in biga drawn by two serpents, [symbol behind?], [M.VOLT]EI[. M.F.] in exergue. Crawford 385/3; Volteia 3. (3.01 grams / 18 mm) eBay Dec. 2017  

 

 

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12 hours ago, seth77 said:

Lovely snakes, how was the dating established?

The date is from RPC. I have wondered, too, how the dating was established. Usually, RPC does not provide a date without some evidence. I suspect there is hoard data or something, though this is just speculation on my part.

Dating the imperial coins of Faustina by hairstyle is inexact at best because dies with older hairstyles remained in use after the introduction of new ones. For the provincial coins of Faustina, hairstyle is even less reliable. In the provincial series, her hairstyle is only reliable as a terminus post quem.

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Roman Egypt. Alexandria. Hadrian, AD 117-138. Billon Tetradrachm (24.5mm, 13.72g, 12h). Dated RY 21 (AD 136/137). Obv: AVT KAIC TPAIA A∆PIANOC CЄB; Laureate bust left, slight drapery. Rev: Triptolemus driving biga of serpents right; L to left, KA (date) to upper right. Ref: Köln 1212; Dattari (Savio) 1484-6 & 7475-6; K&G 32.723; RPC III 6135; Emmett 900.21. 

image.jpeg.1542fd273561174217e284cc7d225ec7.jpeg

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As I mentioned in my "top Roman Republicans" thread, I still had two Republican coins purchased in 2022 to write up (nos. 79 & 80 in my Republican collection). I finally wrote up one of them, an M. Volteius snake biga denarius -- even though I missed my self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline! -- but decided that it doesn't quite merit inclusion among my very favorite Republican coins for the year, and fits better in this thread anyway. (I had been looking for a couple of years for a specimen of the type, and bid unsuccessfully on several superb examples, all of which went for more than $1,000, one of them for well above $2,000. So I ended up buying this example at retail instead, back in August, for less than $300, a fraction of that cost. The obverse is somewhat off-center and both sides show some wear, including on the snakes themselves, but I'm very pleased with it nonetheless.)

Roman Republic, M. [Marcus] Volteius, AR Denarius, 78 BCE (Crawford) or 75 BCE (Harlan). Obv. Head of Liber [see Crawford, Harlan, Yarrow] or young Bacchus [see BMCRR & Sear, both of which make a "Liber or Bacchus" identification] right, wearing ivy wreath / Rev. Ceres standing in biga of snakes right, holding torch in each hand, searching for her daughter Proserpina; behind, control symbol of thyrsus; in exergue, M•VOLTEI•M[•F]. 17 mm., 3.87 g. Crawford 385/3; RSC I Volteia 3 (ill. p. 100); BMCRR I 3160; RBW Collection 1416 (ill. p. 291); Harlan RRM I Ch. 12 pp. 66-68 [Michael Harlan, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (Vol. I) (2012)]; Yarrow pp. 168-169 & ill. p. 170 fig. 4.8 [Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021)]. Purchased 8 Aug 2022 from Lucernae Numismatics, Alcala la Real, Spain.*

image.jpeg.267d99455786e4cae6c55119d3ceeceb.jpeg

* This coin, depicting Liber (or Bacchus) on the obverse and Ceres in a biga of snakes on the reverse, searching for Proserpina -- one of five coins issued by M. Volteius as moneyer during that year -- relates, like the other four Volteius coins, to one of the five principal agonistic festivals which were celebrated annually at Rome. This one relates specifically to the Ludi Cereales, the games of the goddess of grain, held from 12 to 19 April each year. See Harlan RRM I p. 62 (citing Mommsen); see also Yarrow pp. 168-169:

“Crawford suggests [Vol. I p. 402] that the issue is anticipating the moneyer’s campaign for an aedileship and encodes a promise of largitones, or generosity, in his potential staging of the games. Yet, different magistrates oversaw each of these games: the ludi Cereales fell under the purview of the plebeian aediles; the ludi Romani under the curule aediles; and the ludi Apollinares under the praetor urbanes. The moneyer cannot be campaigning for all simultaneously. Instead, we might want to think about this series as a miniature fasti (calendar) or symbolic representation of the religious year.”

Regarding the design of this type, the identification of the obverse head as Bacchus or Liber would ordinarily be immaterial. See Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London, 1990) at p. 33 (entry for “Bacchus”): “For the Romans . . . . [Bacchus] was generally identified with the Italian deity Liber, whose name is probably derived from the same root as the word ‘libation,’ suggesting that in Italy he was an earth or vegetation spirit who could be worshipped by pouring offerings upon the ground. . . . Bacchus appears rarely upon Roman imperial coins (and when he is given a name, he is called Liber). He is shown as a youthful male figure, nude or partly draped, perhaps with a wreath of ivy leaves.” On this type, however, given the reverse design of Ceres searching for her daughter Proserpina (see below), a specific identification of the obverse as Liber is important because of the play on words with “Libera”: see Jones, op. cit. at pp. 167-168 (entry for “Libera”), explaining that Libera “is an alternative name for Proserpina the daughter of Ceres,” noting “the building of a temple to Ceres, Liber and Libera after the city had been saved from famine in the 4th century BC.” See also Harlan RRM I pp. 67-68, stating that the ivy wreathed head of Liber “was intended to recall the dedication of the temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera built at the foot of the Aventine near the Circus Maximus where the games of Ceres were held. The temple was dedicated in 493 on 19 April, which in Republican times was the closing day of the festival.”

The reverse design, depicting Ceres in a biga of snakes holding two torches, evokes “the well-known story of the abduction of Ceres’ daughter Proserpina by Pluto and the world-wide search made by Ceres to recover her,” a myth that “explains the yearly cycle of food production” and was originally an ancient Greek myth “adopted by the Romans when they assimilated the Greek Demeter with their native Ceres.” Id. p. 67. The story is recounted by many ancient authors, in both its Greek and Roman versions. See the quotations collected by @Roman Collectorat https://www.numisforums.com/topic/1193-faustina-friday-–-snake-biga-edition/#comment-20720. Thus, I will limit myself to a quotation from Ovid, Fasti, Book IV, April 12: The Games of Ceres (A.S. Kline verse translation, 2004, at https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367858). This portion recounts the beginning of Ceres’ search, as she leaves her home of Sicily, flying over the waves in a chariot drawn by two yoked serpents, holding two torches in her hands to light the dark:

“Like the bird mourning for her lost Itys.
Alternately she cried: ‘Persephone!’ and ‘My daughter’,
Calling and shouting both the names in turn,
But Persephone heard not Ceres, nor the daughter
Her mother, and both names by turns died away:
If she spied a shepherd or farmer at work,
Her cry was: ‘Has a girl passed this way?’
Now the colours faded, and the darkness hid
Everything. Now the wakeful dogs fell silent.
High Etna stands above vast Typhoeus’ mouth,
Who scorches the earth with his fiery breath:
There the goddess lit twin pine branches as torches:
And since then there are torches handed out at her rites.
There’s a cave, its interior carved from sharp pumice,
A place not to be approached by man or beast:
Reaching it she yoked serpents to her chariot,
And roamed the ocean waves above the spray.”

Harlan suggests that a reenactment of this story was probably a part of the ceremonies of the Ludi Cereales, which (as Ovid mentions in the quotation above) included the passing out of torches to the populace as they entered the Circus Maximus. Harlan RRM I at p. 67.

Finally, the control-symbol behind Ceres on the reverse is unquestionably a thyrsus, despite the unusual spear-like point at the bottom end. Compare with the more common depiction of a thyrsus (with no point at the bottom end) used as a control-symbol on the obverse of my specimen of Crawford 385/4 (the M. Volteius type depicting Cybele in a biga of lions on the reverse), behind the head of Attis or Corybas: 

image.jpeg.7c27be94a1228d85c6cacf6290311b89.jpeg

However, out of the 60+ control-symbols listed for the snake biga type in Crawford (see Table XXXIV at Crawford Vol. I p. 400), the thyrsus is the only possibility for the symbol on my specimen, spear-point notwithstanding. I found at least 17 other examples of the thyrsus control-symbol for this type at CRRO, all with a spear-point at the bottom. Note that the common association of a thyrsus with Bacchus must be a mere coincidence in this case, given that the thyrsus is only one of a great many control-symbols used.

 

Edited by DonnaML
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7 hours ago, DonnaML said:

As I mentioned in my "top Roman Republicans" thread, I still had two Republican coins purchased in 2022 to write up (nos. 79 & 80 in my Republican collection). I finally wrote up one of them, an M. Volteius snake biga denarius -- even though I missed my self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline! -- but decided that it doesn't quite merit inclusion among my very favorite Republican coins for the year, and fits better in this thread anyway. (I had been looking for a couple of years for a specimen of the type, and bid unsuccessfully on several superb examples, all of which went for more than $1,000, one of them for well above $2,000. So I ended up buying this example at retail instead, back in August, for less than $300, a fraction of that cost. The obverse is somewhat off-center and both sides show some wear, including on the snakes themselves, but I'm very pleased with it nonetheless.)

Roman Republic, M. [Marcus] Volteius, AR Denarius, 78 BCE (Crawford) or 75 BCE (Harlan). Obv. Head of Liber [see Crawford, Harlan, Yarrow] or young Bacchus [see BMCRR & Sear, both of which make a "Liber or Bacchus" identification] right, wearing ivy wreath / Rev. Ceres standing in biga of snakes right, holding torch in each hand, searching for her daughter Proserpina; behind, control symbol of thyrsus; in exergue, M•VOLTEI•M[•F]. 17 mm., 3.87 g. Crawford 385/3; RSC I Volteia 3 (ill. p. 100); BMCRR I 3160; RBW Collection 1416 (ill. p. 291); Harlan RRM I Ch. 12 pp. 66-68 [Michael Harlan, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (Vol. I) (2012)]; Yarrow pp. 168-169 & ill. p. 170 fig. 4.8 [Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021)]. Purchased 8 Aug 2022 from Lucernae Numismatics, Alcala la Real, Spain.*

image.jpeg.267d99455786e4cae6c55119d3ceeceb.jpeg

* This coin, depicting Liber (or Bacchus) on the obverse and Ceres in a biga of snakes on the reverse, searching for Proserpina -- one of five coins issued by M. Volteius as moneyer during that year -- relates, like the other four Volteius coins, to one of the five principal agonistic festivals which were celebrated annually at Rome. This one relates specifically to the Ludi Cereales, the games of the goddess of grain, held from 12 to 19 April each year. See Harlan RRM I p. 62 (citing Mommsen); see also Yarrow pp. 168-169:

“Crawford suggests [Vol. I p. 402] that the issue is anticipating the moneyer’s campaign for an aedileship and encodes a promise of largitones, or generosity, in his potential staging of the games. Yet, different magistrates oversaw each of these games: the ludi Cereales fell under the purview of the plebeian aediles; the ludi Romani under the curule aediles; and the ludi Apollinares under the praetor urbanes. The moneyer cannot be campaigning for all simultaneously. Instead, we might want to think about this series as a miniature fasti (calendar) or symbolic representation of the religious year.”

Regarding the design of this type, the identification of the obverse head as Bacchus or Liber would ordinarily be immaterial. See Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London, 1990) at p. 33 (entry for “Bacchus”): “For the Romans . . . . [Bacchus] was generally identified with the Italian deity Liber, whose name is probably derived from the same root as the word ‘libation,’ suggesting that in Italy he was an earth or vegetation spirit who could be worshipped by pouring offerings upon the ground. . . . Bacchus appears rarely upon Roman imperial coins (and when he is given a name, he is called Liber). He is shown as a youthful male figure, nude or partly draped, perhaps with a wreath of ivy leaves.” On this type, however, given the reverse design of Ceres searching for her daughter Proserpina (see below), a specific identification of the obverse as Liber is important because of the play on words with “Libera”: see Jones, op. cit. at pp. 167-168 (entry for “Libera”), explaining that Libera “is an alternative name for Proserpina the daughter of Ceres,” noting “the building of a temple to Ceres, Liber and Libera after the city had been saved from famine in the 4th century BC.” See also Harlan RRM I pp. 67-68, stating that the ivy wreathed head of Liber “was intended to recall the dedication of the temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera built at the foot of the Aventine near the Circus Maximus where the games of Ceres were held. The temple was dedicated in 493 on 19 April, which in Republican times was the closing day of the festival.”

The reverse design, depicting Ceres in a biga of snakes holding two torches, evokes “the well-known story of the abduction of Ceres’ daughter Proserpina by Pluto and the world-wide search made by Ceres to recover her,” a myth that “explains the yearly cycle of food production” and was originally an ancient Greek myth “adopted by the Romans when they assimilated the Greek Demeter with their native Ceres.” Id. p. 67. The story is recounted by many ancient authors, in both its Greek and Roman versions. See the quotations collected by @Roman Collectorat https://www.numisforums.com/topic/1193-faustina-friday-–-snake-biga-edition/#comment-20720. Thus, I will limit myself to a quotation from Ovid, Fasti, Book IV, April 12: The Games of Ceres (A.S. Kline verse translation, 2004, at https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367858). This portion recounts the beginning of Ceres’ search, as she leaves her home of Sicily, flying over the waves in a chariot drawn by two yoked serpents, holding two torches in her hands to light the dark:

“Like the bird mourning for her lost Itys.
Alternately she cried: ‘Persephone!’ and ‘My daughter’,
Calling and shouting both the names in turn,
But Persephone heard not Ceres, nor the daughter
Her mother, and both names by turns died away:
If she spied a shepherd or farmer at work,
Her cry was: ‘Has a girl passed this way?’
Now the colours faded, and the darkness hid
Everything. Now the wakeful dogs fell silent.
High Etna stands above vast Typhoeus’ mouth,
Who scorches the earth with his fiery breath:
There the goddess lit twin pine branches as torches:
And since then there are torches handed out at her rites.
There’s a cave, its interior carved from sharp pumice,
A place not to be approached by man or beast:
Reaching it she yoked serpents to her chariot,
And roamed the ocean waves above the spray.”

Harlan suggests that a reenactment of this story was probably a part of the ceremonies of the Ludi Cereales, which (as Ovid mentions in the quotation above) included the passing out of torches to the populace as they entered the Circus Maximus. Harlan RRM I at p. 67.

Finally, the control-symbol behind Ceres on the reverse is unquestionably a thyrsus, despite the unusual spear-like point at the bottom end. Compare with the more common depiction of a thyrsus (with no point at the bottom end) used as a control-symbol on the obverse of my specimen of Crawford 385/4 (the M. Volteius type depicting Cybele in a biga of lions on the reverse), behind the head of Attis or Corybas: 

image.jpeg.7c27be94a1228d85c6cacf6290311b89.jpeg

However, out of the 60+ control-symbols listed for the snake biga type in Crawford (see Table XXXIV at Crawford Vol. I p. 400), the thyrsus is the only possibility for the symbol on my specimen, spear-point notwithstanding. I found at least 17 other examples of the thyrsus control-symbol for this type at CRRO, all with a spear-point at the bottom. Note that the common association of a thyrsus with Bacchus must be a mere coincidence in this case, given that the thyrsus is only one of a great many control-symbols used.

 

I should add my compliments to @happy_collector as well for his two examples of the M. Volteius snake biga (I love the one with the control-symbol of an owl!), and to everyone else who posted with their own varieties of the theme. There are some old threads at Coin Talk with more examples of snake bigas, Roman Republican and otherwise, from M. Volteius and others. See, for example, https://www.cointalk.com/threads/snake-biga-rr-denarius-with-an-owl-control-symbol.388094/ and https://www.cointalk.com/threads/snake-biga.291445/ . But I must say that @jdmKY's wonderful specimen of the C. Vibius C.f. C.n Pansa type (Crawford 449/3b) -- the only other Roman Republican denarius besides Volteius's that depicts Ceres in a snake biga, I believe -- is the only example I've ever seen anyone post anywhere. So I suspect that it must be much more scarce than the M. Volteius type. The design seems almost identical to the Volteius, on both sides (except for the fact that Ceres holds only one torch rather than two), but Crawford does not even note the similarity, and I haven't researched whether anyone else has discussed it. 

Edited by DonnaML
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