The Fabian Strategy

[Sulla80]

There is always a story in a RR denarius...from this one (Crawford RRC 265/1) emerges a thoughtful general from the second Punic War who became known as "The Delayer", a disastrous battle for Rome, a coin type restored by Sulla at the end of his dictatorship, George Washington's battle plan during the American Revolution, and a class on modern warfare strategy? Here are the two RR denarii and multiple people named Q. Fabius Maximus.

Q Fabius Maximus - a statue from Vienna - photo shared under CC by SA 4.0 license via Wikimedia Commons.

The top coin issued in 127 BC the bottom one "restored" by Sulla in 82-80 BC. Apollo a personal connection to Sulla.

The moneyer, nicknamed Eburnus, "Ivory", either struck by lightning or marked at birth by Jupiter, became consul in 116 and censor in 108 BC, ending his political career by sentencing his own son to death. The stories of Rome have no shortage of melodrama, I see value in considering the complex reality beneath these stories....for the survey see my notes here:

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/the-fabian-strategy

References and sources are provided to try to answer: how do we know what we know?

There are 2 other restoration issues from the same years - share your examples or anything else that you find interesting or entertaining.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Sulla80

[Ryro]

Two beautiful coins featuring the flying thunderbolts of plenty!

Here's a Fabian

Q. Marcius, C. Fabius, and L. Roscius

118-117 BC. AR Denarius (18.5mm, 3.90 gm). Helmeted head of Roma right; lock of hair on shoulder, X behind / C•F•L•R•Q•M, Victory, holding wreath, driving quadriga right. Crawford 283/1b; Sydenham 541b; Fabia 13a. 

 

 

Side note: During the same year as your first coin, issued during the life of Gaius Gracchus, also the Metelli were at it showing off MSCs on their bronze and AR coins to remind everyone their families part in taking care of the snuffing it the last embers of the Antigonid dynasty:

M. Caecilius Q.f. Q.n. Metellus, Rome, 127 BC. Æ Semis (22mm, 7.18g, 12h). Laureate head of Saturn r. R/ Prow of galley r.; above, Macedonian shield. Crawford 263/3b; RBW 1067. Good Fine
Ex London ancient coins

M. Caecilius Q. f. Q. n. Metellus. 

AE Quadrans, c. 127 BC. Obv. Head of Hercules right, wearing lion skin; behind, three pellets. Rev. Prow right, inscribed M·METELLVS; above, Macedonian shield and before, three pellets. Below, ROMA. Cr. 263/5b; B. 33. AE. 4.50 g. 18.00 mm. Scarce. Earthen green patina. About VF/VF. Purchased from Artemide July 2022

[Sulla80]

15 minutes ago, Ryro said:

Side note: During the same year as your first coin, issued during the life of Gaius Gracchus, also the Metelli were at it showing off MSCs on their bronze and AR coins to remind everyone their families part in taking care of the snuffing it the last embers of the Antigonid dynasty:

Thanks @Ryro, the Roman Republican nobility did like to sell their family stories on their coins - especially gloating over a good victory.

[Roman Collector]

 

[DonnaML]

On 9/24/2023 at 5:03 PM, Sulla80 said:

The stories of Rome have no shortage of melodrama, I see value in considering the complex reality beneath these stories....for the survey see my notes here: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/the-fabian-strategy.  References and sources are provided to try to answer: how do we know what we know?

 

Thanks for the post and the great coins, @Sulla80. I tried to go to the link to read your notes, but it doesn't work, at least for me!

Here's my own example of the 127 BCE type, issued by the Q. Fabius Maximus who was Consul in 116 BCE. (I haven't researched whether he was a descendant of Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the Fabius “Cunctator” of Second Punic War fame a century earlier.)

Roman Republic, Q. Fabius Maximus, AR Denarius, 127 BC. Obv. Head of Roma right in high relief, wearing winged helmet and triple-drop earring, ROMA downwards behind, Q•MAX (MA ligate) upwards before, mark of value (* = XVI ligate = 16 asses) below chin/ Rev. Cornucopiae with grapes overflowing, superimposed on thunderbolt placed horizontally in background, all surrounded by wreath composed of ear of barley, ear of wheat, and assorted fruits.  Crawford 265/1, BMCRR Vol. I 1157 & Vol. III Pl. xxx no. 1; RSC I [Babelon] Fabia 5 (ill. p. 46); Sear RCV I 141 (ill. p. 100); RBW Collection 1073 (ill. p. 223), Sydenham 478. 17 mm., 3.85g. Purchased from Kirk Davis, Catalogue No.78, Fall 2021. Ex Harlan J. Berk Ltd. Buy or Bid Sale 210, April 1, 2020, Lot 122.*

 

*See Crawford Vol. I at p. 290: “The moneyer is presumably Q. Fabius Maximus, Cos. 116. For the reverse type note the close association in time of the Cerialia (12 April) and the festival of Jupiter Victor and Jupiter Libertas (13 April)” -- explaining the association between Jupiter’s thunderbolt and the abundance of the cornucopia, associated with Ceres among others. “There is also a deity Jupiter Frugifer.” Id. 

At BMCRR Vol. I p. 178 n. 2, Grueber notes that this coin’s reverse type (the cornucopia crossing a thunderbolt) is identical with that on bronze coins of Valencia in Spain, which also have a helmeted head (Roma?) on the obverse. . . . It may be an allusion to the victory gained near that city by Q. Fabius Maximus Aemillianus over Viriathus, B.C. 144, or to the subsequent success of Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus in the same district, B.C. 142.” See this example sold by Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG in October 2018, dated at 136 BCE, with a description stating that the type “may have inspired the republic denarius of Quintus Fabius Maximus,” and that the portrait of Fortuna/Tyche on the obverse “here bears features of the goddess Roma.” 

 

 

(https://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=5309900.)

 In addition, at p. 182-183, Professor Yarrow’s book (Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021)) discusses the resemblance between the reverse designs on this and other denarii and certain coinage issued independently by the Greek colony of Paestum on the Tyrrhenian Sea in Southern Italy, even after it became Roman in 273 BCE -- a coining privilege granted to Paestum for its loyalty against the Carthaginians. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum#Roman_period_and_abandonment. Prof. Yarrow states that a connection between the Roman Republican coinage and the independent coinage of Paestum “is indisputable,” She specifically cites (id.) as one example a Paestum triens (HN Italy 1123) “that combines two reverses that were produced in the same year [127 BCE] in Rome but by different moneyers,” namely the cornucopiae crossing a thunderbolt of this issue (Crawford 265/1), and the Macedonian shield of Crawford 263/1, both issued in 127 BCE. Here is a specimen of that Paestum issue, sold by CNG in 2018. See https://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=5137998:

                                                                                                                         

Note, however, that the resemblance is not exact: unlike Crawford 263/1, there is no elephant at the center of the Paestum triens’s Macedonian shield, and the design of the crossed cornucopiae and thunderbolt is not as close to Crawford 265/1 as is the Valentia coin reproduced above. In any event, the Paestum coin has not been dated more precisely than the later second century BCE, and Prof. Yarrow draws no specific conclusion as to the reason why Paestum decided to issue a coin combining themes used in Rome in a particular year, other than to state that “the Paestum type tell[s] us that coins of a given year could be thought of a ‘belonging together’ and that their imagery could travel together both temporally and geographically.”     

Regarding Fabius Cunctator himself, here once again is the Mudie medal I recently posted drawing a comparison between him and the Duke of Wellington:     

Great Britain, English Army on the Tagus (Lines of Torres Vedras), 1811 (struck 1820). Obv. Duke of Wellington, as a Roman general (Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, ca. 280-203 BCE, known as “Cunctator” [the Delayer]), seated left in front of his tent, studying open scroll on his knee, “meditating on his future operations” [Mudie, infra, p. 83]; his left hand reaches back to grasp edge of shield decorated with thunderbolt, held upright on ground behind him, his helmet lying next to his shield; in exergue, FABIUS CUNCTATOR / Rev. River god personifying the Tagus River in Portugal, reclining before tents of British army (with tent in foreground flying Union Jack) near town of Torres Vedras north of Lisbon, holding long staff  in right hand and resting left arm on urn from which water flows; to left of tents, orange tree represents Portugal under British protection; in exergue in four lines, LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS | THE ENGLISH ARMY | ON THE TAGUS | 1810 . 1811. 41 mm., 40.43 g. By L.M. Petit / E.J. Dubois. Eimer 1016 (p. 145) [Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values (Spink, 2nd ed. 2010)]; BHM I 713 (p. 174) [Laurence Brown, British Historical Medals Vol. I, 1760-1837 (Seaby 1980)]; Bramsen II 1138 (p. 31) [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. II, 1810-1815 (Copenhagen 1907), available at Newman Numismatic Portal]; Eimer Wellington 8 (ill. p. 21) [Christopher Eimer, Medallic Portraits of the Duke of Wellington (Spink 1994)]; Mudie 17 at Ch. XVIII pp. 80-83 (ill. Pl. 5) [James Mudie, An Historical and Critical Account of a Grand Series of National Medals (London 1820)]. Purchased from Noonans Mayfair (formerly Dix Noonan Webb), London, UK, Auction 271, 5 Apr. 2023, Lot 837 (“the Property of a Gentleman”).*

*See BHM I 713 p. 174: “During the winter of 1809 Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) had been fortifying a series of lines around Lisbon on the heights of Torres Vedras. Led by Marsha Masséna, the French troops numbering 80,000 men advanced across the Spanish frontier. Met by stiff resistance from the Portuguese, the French suffered heavy losses and were forced to dig into winter quarters in a wasted countryside before Torres Vedras. Hunger, sickness and the increasing scarcity of supplies eventually forced the French to retreat into Spain freeing Portugal from Napoleon. The legend on the obverse of this medal draws a simile between Wellesely and Quintus Fabuius Maximus Verrucosus who, by his tactics in the Second Punic War, kept Hannibal in check for some time without coming to an engagement." 

See also Mudie Ch. XVII, pp. 80-82, describing in detail Wellington’s scorched earth policy and the “most appalling character” of the French army’s sufferings while they remained before the Allies’ impregnable position. Thus the comparison to “the celebrated Roman general Fabius, who, by protracted delay and avoiding to fight, eventually defeated the greatest general of antiquity – Hannibal; and was therefore called Fabius Cunctator, or Fabius the Delayer.” Id. p. 83. According to Mudie’s rather melodramatic account, Wellington’s plan “in its consequences may be said to have involved the salvation of Europe. It was after Wellington quitted the lines of Torres Vedras, that he commenced his unbroken series of conquests which ceased not till he had planted the flag of England on the soil of imperial France. Had he been compelled to evacuate Portugal, and fly to his ships, who will be bold enough to say, that Europe would have been redeemed from the bondage of Napoleon?” Id. p. 82.

Perhaps ironically, one of Napoleon’s own medals, commemorating his sojourn at Osterode in East Prussia in 1807 following the Battle of Eylau, had previously used a Fabius Cunctator analogy. I suspect that the kind of people who purchased medals in early 19th century Europe were better educated in Roman history than the average collector today, very few of whom, I suspect, would recognize the name. See Bramsen I 631; the engraver of the medal (not mine) was Bertrand Andrieu:

(David Thomason Alexander explains the analogy in his new book, A Napoleonic Medal Primer (2022), at p. 100, “Severe French losses at Preussische-Eylau necessitated a lengthy layover to rest and reinforce Napoleon’s army before resuming the offensive. Fabius the Delayer was chosen to symbolize Napoleon’s elaborate indifference to British feints near the Netherlands; showing no panic reaction, the Emperor remained seemingly unconcerned in East Prussia.”)

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by DonnaML

[Sulla80]

4 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Thanks for the post and the great coins, @Sulla80. I tried to go to the link to read your notes, but it doesn't work, at least for me!

Here's my own example of the 127 BCE type, issued by the Q. Fabius Maximus who was Consul in 116 BCE. (I haven't researched whether he was a descendant of Q. Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, the Fabius “Cunctator” of Second Punic War fame a century earlier.)

Roman Republic, Q. Fabius Maximus, AR Denarius, 127 BC. Obv. Head of Roma right in high relief, wearing winged helmet and triple-drop earring, ROMA downwards behind, Q•MAX (MA ligate) upwards before, mark of value (* = XVI ligate = 16 asses) below chin/ Rev. Cornucopiae with grapes overflowing, superimposed on thunderbolt placed horizontally in background, all surrounded by wreath composed of ear of barley, ear of wheat, and assorted fruits.  Crawford 265/1, BMCRR Vol. I 1157 & Vol. III Pl. xxx no. 1; RSC I [Babelon] Fabia 5 (ill. p. 46); Sear RCV I 141 (ill. p. 100); RBW Collection 1073 (ill. p. 223), Sydenham 478. 17 mm., 3.85g. Purchased from Kirk Davis, Catalogue No.78, Fall 2021. Ex Harlan J. Berk Ltd. Buy or Bid Sale 210, April 1, 2020, Lot 122.*

 

*See Crawford Vol. I at p. 290: “The moneyer is presumably Q. Fabius Maximus, Cos. 116. For the reverse type note the close association in time of the Cerialia (12 April) and the festival of Jupiter Victor and Jupiter Libertas (13 April)” -- explaining the association between Jupiter’s thunderbolt and the abundance of the cornucopia, associated with Ceres among others. “There is also a deity Jupiter Frugifer.” Id. 

At BMCRR Vol. I p. 178 n. 2, Grueber notes that this coin’s reverse type (the cornucopia crossing a thunderbolt) is identical with that on bronze coins of Valencia in Spain, which also have a helmeted head (Roma?) on the obverse. . . . It may be an allusion to the victory gained near that city by Q. Fabius Maximus Aemillianus over Viriathus, B.C. 144, or to the subsequent success of Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus in the same district, B.C. 142.” See this example sold by Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG in October 2018, dated at 136 BCE, with a description stating that the type “may have inspired the republic denarius of Quintus Fabius Maximus,” and that the portrait of Fortuna/Tyche on the obverse “here bears features of the goddess Roma.” 

 

 

(https://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=5309900.)

 In addition, at p. 182-183, Professor Yarrow’s book (Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021)) discusses the resemblance between the reverse designs on this and other denarii and certain coinage issued independently by the Greek colony of Paestum on the Tyrrhenian Sea in Southern Italy, even after it became Roman in 273 BCE -- a coining privilege granted to Paestum for its loyalty against the Carthaginians. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum#Roman_period_and_abandonment. Prof. Yarrow states that a connection between the Roman Republican coinage and the independent coinage of Paestum “is indisputable,” She specifically cites (id.) as one example a Paestum triens (HN Italy 1123) “that combines two reverses that were produced in the same year [127 BCE] in Rome but by different moneyers,” namely the cornucopiae crossing a thunderbolt of this issue (Crawford 265/1), and the Macedonian shield of Crawford 263/1, both issued in 127 BCE. Here is a specimen of that Paestum issue, sold by CNG in 2018. See https://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=5137998:

                                                                                                                         

Note, however, that the resemblance is not exact: unlike Crawford 263/1, there is no elephant at the center of the Paestum triens’s Macedonian shield, and the design of the crossed cornucopiae and thunderbolt is not as close to Crawford 265/1 as is the Valentia coin reproduced above. In any event, the Paestum coin has not been dated more precisely than the later second century BCE, and Prof. Yarrow draws no specific conclusion as to the reason why Paestum decided to issue a coin combining themes used in Rome in a particular year, other than to state that “the Paestum type tell[s] us that coins of a given year could be thought of a ‘belonging together’ and that their imagery could travel together both temporally and geographically.”     

Regarding Fabius Cunctator himself, here once again is the Mudie medal I recently posted drawing a comparison between him and the Duke of Wellington:     

Great Britain, English Army on the Tagus (Lines of Torres Vedras), 1811 (struck 1820). Obv. Duke of Wellington, as a Roman general (Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, ca. 280-203 BCE, known as “Cunctator” [the Delayer]), seated left in front of his tent, studying open scroll on his knee, “meditating on his future operations” [Mudie, infra, p. 83]; his left hand reaches back to grasp edge of shield decorated with thunderbolt, held upright on ground behind him, his helmet lying next to his shield; in exergue, FABIUS CUNCTATOR / Rev. River god personifying the Tagus River in Portugal, reclining before tents of British army (with tent in foreground flying Union Jack) near town of Torres Vedras north of Lisbon, holding long staff  in right hand and resting left arm on urn from which water flows; to left of tents, orange tree represents Portugal under British protection; in exergue in four lines, LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS | THE ENGLISH ARMY | ON THE TAGUS | 1810 . 1811. 41 mm., 40.43 g. By L.M. Petit / E.J. Dubois. Eimer 1016 (p. 145) [Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values (Spink, 2nd ed. 2010)]; BHM I 713 (p. 174) [Laurence Brown, British Historical Medals Vol. I, 1760-1837 (Seaby 1980)]; Bramsen II 1138 (p. 31) [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. II, 1810-1815 (Copenhagen 1907), available at Newman Numismatic Portal]; Eimer Wellington 8 (ill. p. 21) [Christopher Eimer, Medallic Portraits of the Duke of Wellington (Spink 1994)]; Mudie 17 at Ch. XVIII pp. 80-83 (ill. Pl. 5) [James Mudie, An Historical and Critical Account of a Grand Series of National Medals (London 1820)]. Purchased from Noonans Mayfair (formerly Dix Noonan Webb), London, UK, Auction 271, 5 Apr. 2023, Lot 837 (“the Property of a Gentleman”).*

*See BHM I 713 p. 174: “During the winter of 1809 Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) had been fortifying a series of lines around Lisbon on the heights of Torres Vedras. Led by Marsha Masséna, the French troops numbering 80,000 men advanced across the Spanish frontier. Met by stiff resistance from the Portuguese, the French suffered heavy losses and were forced to dig into winter quarters in a wasted countryside before Torres Vedras. Hunger, sickness and the increasing scarcity of supplies eventually forced the French to retreat into Spain freeing Portugal from Napoleon. The legend on the obverse of this medal draws a simile between Wellesely and Quintus Fabuius Maximus Verrucosus who, by his tactics in the Second Punic War, kept Hannibal in check for some time without coming to an engagement." 

See also Mudie Ch. XVII, pp. 80-82, describing in detail Wellington’s scorched earth policy and the “most appalling character” of the French army’s sufferings while they remained before the Allies’ impregnable position. Thus the comparison to “the celebrated Roman general Fabius, who, by protracted delay and avoiding to fight, eventually defeated the greatest general of antiquity – Hannibal; and was therefore called Fabius Cunctator, or Fabius the Delayer.” Id. p. 83. According to Mudie’s rather melodramatic account, Wellington’s plan “in its consequences may be said to have involved the salvation of Europe. It was after Wellington quitted the lines of Torres Vedras, that he commenced his unbroken series of conquests which ceased not till he had planted the flag of England on the soil of imperial France. Had he been compelled to evacuate Portugal, and fly to his ships, who will be bold enough to say, that Europe would have been redeemed from the bondage of Napoleon?” Id. p. 82.

Perhaps ironically, one of Napoleon’s own medals, commemorating his sojourn at Osterode in East Prussia in 1807 following the Battle of Eylau, had previously used a Fabius Cunctator analogy. I suspect that the kind of people who purchased medals in early 19th century Europe were better educated in Roman history than the average collector today, very few of whom, I suspect, would recognize the name. See Bramsen I 631; the engraver of the medal (not mine) was Bertrand Andrieu:

(David Thomason Alexander explains the analogy in his new book, A Napoleonic Medal Primer (2022), at p. 100, “Severe French losses at Preussische-Eylau necessitated a lengthy layover to rest and reinforce Napoleon’s army before resuming the offensive. Fabius the Delayer was chosen to symbolize Napoleon’s elaborate indifference to British feints near the Netherlands; showing no panic reaction, the Emperor remained seemingly unconcerned in East Prussia.”)

 

Thanks @DonnaML for letting me know - I’ve updated the link.  I had seen your excellent write up on CT.  The moneyer was the great grandson of Lucius Aemelius Paulus and great grandson, by adoption of his father, to the Fabius Maximus Verruscosus Cunctator (for whom the Fabian Strategy is named). His adoptive father was Q. Fabius Maximus praetor peregrinus in 181 BC. His adoptive grandfather was Quintus Fabius Q.f. Q.n. Maximus.

[DonnaML]

7 hours ago, Sulla80 said:

Thanks @DonnaML for letting me know - I’ve updated the link.  I had seen your excellent write up on CT.  The moneyer was the great grandson of Lucius Aemelius Paulus and great grandson, by adoption of his father, to the Fabius Maximus Verruscosus Cunctator (for whom the Fabian Strategy is named). His adoptive father was Q. Fabius Maximus praetor peregrinus in 181 BC. His adoptive grandfather was Quintus Fabius Q.f. Q.n. Maximus.

Thank you! I will definitely draw upon your illuminating notes to add to my description of the Q. Fabius Maximus who issued my coin.

Edited September 25, 2023 by DonnaML

[Sulla80]

4 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Thank you! I will definitely draw upon your illuminating notes to add to my description of the Q. Fabius Maximus who issued my coin.

BTW - the medals of Wellington & Napoleon are fantastic and definitely reinforce how much stories from Rome had influence in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[ominus1]

...man, that name Q Ubanis rang a bell in my noggin and i found a note on the table with it on there!..wasn't there a discussion about if it was a person??.. i don't remember exactly but i have a coin minted in that name along with T Manilus and Appius Putcher...my tririga!....(no, not the Lone Rangers horse:P)

 

 

111-110BC, 16mm 3.75gms

[Sulla80]

On 9/25/2023 at 10:56 PM, ominus1 said:

...man, that name Q Ubanis rang a bell in my noggin and i found a note on the table with it on there!..wasn't there a discussion about if it was a person??.. i don't remember exactly but i have a coin minted in that name along with T Manilus and Appius Putcher...my tririga!....(no, not the Lone Rangers horse:P)

111-110BC, 16mm 3.75gms

Hi @ominus1, a nice RR denarius, I like the less usual depiction of Roma on this issue.   As you mention, there are some who hypothesized that Q VR referred to "Quaestores Urbani" (entrusted with custody of public money - see NumisWiki for a longer definition).  Crawford in RRC says, with a paragraph on other coins and sources, "no evidence...contra Th. Momsen" and "the letters Q VR should be regarded as a name, and the whole issue should be regarded as struck by three moneyers".  This coin often shows up with attention on the "triga" or three horse chariot on the reverse.

Appius Claudius Pulcher, T. Manlius Mancius, and Q. Urbinius, 111-110 BC, AR Denarius (18mm, 4.0g, 6h), Rome mint
Obv: Helmeted head of Roma right; triangular device behind
Rev: T MA AP CL Q VR, Victory driving triga right
Ref: Crawford 299/1b

In the absence of new evidence it seems easy to stick with Crawford, but others have been less definitive in their conclusions e.g. David Sear in Roman Coins and Their Values, Millennium Edition:

 

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Sulla80