900 Years of Rome

[expat]

Continuing my collection of scarce/ not often seen reverses of Antoninus Pius. First, with your forgiveness, a preamble

Often depicted on coins are celebrations of important events and, as this coin alludes to, the legendary founding of Rome. In this case these coins are intrinsically linked by images relating to the 900th year of the founding.
This from Virgil
The Aeneid Book VIII
It was night, and through all the land, deep sleep gripped weary creatures, bird and beast, when Aeneas, the leader, lay down on the river-bank, under the cold arch of the heavens, his heart troubled by war’s sadness, and at last allowed his body to rest.
Old Tiberinus himself, the god of the place, appeared to him, rising from his lovely stream, among the poplar leaves (fine linen cloaked him in a blue-grey mantle, and shadowy reeds hid his hair), Then he spoke, and with his words removed all cares: ‘O seed of the race of gods, who bring our Trojan city back from the enemy, and guard the eternal fortress, long looked-for on Laurentine soil, and in Latin fields, here is your house, and your house’s gods, for sure (do not desist), don’t fear the threat of war, the gods’ swollen anger has died away. And now, lest you think this sleep’s idle fancy, you’ll find a huge sow lying on the shore, under the oak trees, that has farrowed a litter of thirty young, a white sow, lying on the ground, with white piglets round her teats, That place shall be your city, there’s true rest from your labours. By this in a space of thirty years Ascanius will found the city of Alba.

ANTONINO PIO. Æ. As. TIBERIS. 140-143 AD
ANTONINVS AVG. PIVS P.P. Laureate head to the right.
  Reverse: TIBERIS. S.C. In exergue: TR. POT. COS III.
-Tíber reclining to the left and placing his hand on a rudder.

8.95g 25mm. Very scarce.
C-822. RIC. 706 a-S.

 

Antoninus Pius AE As, RIC 733, Cohen 450, BMC 1624
143-144 AD. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III, laureate head right / IMPERATOR II S-C, Sow facing right under helm-oak, suckling four young, another piglet in front. SC in ex.
25mm, 10.09gr Scarce

Post your Rome celebrations or your AP's or anything related. Thanks for reading

[John Conduitt]

The sow under the tree even made it to Celtic coinage. I wondered what the story was with that. She seems to have lost her piglets, though.

Cunobeline Unit, Celtic Trinovantes Tribe, 9-40

Camulodunon (Roman Camulodunum, modern Colchester). Bronze, 14mm, 2.19g. Janiform head; CVNO below. Sow seated right beneath a tree; CAMV on panel below (ABC 2981; S 346; V 2105 ‘Trinovantian W’).

Edited July 5, 2023 by John Conduitt

[expat]

4 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

The sow under the tree even made it to Celtic coinage. I wondered what the story was with that. She seems to have lost her piglets, though.

Cunobeline Unit, Celtic Trinovantes Tribe, 9-40

Camulodunon (Roman Camulodunum, modern Colchester). Bronze, 14mm, 2.19g. Janiform head; CVNO below. Sow seated right beneath a tree; CAMV on panel below (ABC 2981; S 346; V 2105 ‘Trinovantian W’).

Sure seems a bit careless to mislay 20+ of your children. Maybe they are hiding behind the tree

[Dafydd]

Antoninus Pius Æ Dupondius. Rome, AD 140-144. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS I[II], radiate head to right / GENIO [SE]NATVS, Genius of the Senate standing to left, holding branch and sceptre. RIC III 660a; BMC 1336. 9.95g, 29mm, 12h.

Near Very Fine; cleaning marks.

Purchased from Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, September 2009.

[Marsyas Mike]

Nice anniversary coins, @expat  I'm always on the lookout for these, but only one has ever come my way that was affordable, this as with an elephant to celebrate the 900th anniversary celebrations, so they say.  I do have other AP's dated 148-149 A.D. but they are either Felicitas or Aequitas, so they don't really have anything especially anniversary-related to them.  But there's the elephant, which looks as if it spent 900 years or so in the Colosseum's sewer:

Antoninus Pius  Æ As (148-149 A.D.) Rome Mint [ANTO]NINVS AVG PIVS PP TR P XII Laureate head right / MVNIFICENTA AVG, elephant standing right, COS IIII [SC] in exergue. (900th anniversary of Rome) RIC 862a; RCV 4308. (9.62 grams / 25 mm) eBay Jan. 2018  

Edited July 6, 2023 by Marsyas Mike

[expat]

4 minutes ago, Marsyas Mike said:

Nice anniversary coins, @expat  I'm always on the lookout for these, but only one has ever come my way that was affordable, this as with an elephant to celebrate the 900th anniversary celebrations, so they say.  I do have other AP's dated 148-149 A.D. but they are either Felicitas or Aequitas, so they don't really have anything especially anniversary-related to them.  But there's the elephant, which looks as if it spent 900 years or so in the Colosseum's sewer:

Antoninus Pius  Æ As (148-149 A.D.) Rome Mint [ANTO]NINVS AVG PIVS PP TR P XII Laureate head right / MVNIFICENTA AVG, elephant standing right, COS IIII [SC] in exergue. (900th anniversary of Rome) RIC 862a; RCV 4308. (9.62 grams / 25 mm) eBay Jan. 2018  

That type was my previous purchase