Post your ARTEMIS coins

[idesofmarch01]

My only coin with Diana has the "action figure" reverse with her drawing an arrow from a quiver:

AUGUSTUS
AV Aureus (7.90 g.)  Lugdunum circa 11 - 10 B.C.  RIC 196
AVGVSTVS - DIVI-f Laureate head right.  Rev. IMP - XII Diana, wearing polos and long drapery, advancing r., holding bow and taking arrow from quiver.  In exergue, SICIL
From the Biaggi collection, ex Gilhofer & Ranschburg and Hess 22 May 1935

[DonnaML]

15 hours ago, shanxi said:

Of course I want to see them !!

Sorry, I didn't notice that! Here are a few Dianas (for the first of which the identification is disputed):

Roman Republic, C. Allius Bala, AR Denarius, 92 BCE, Rome mint. Obv.: Diademed female head (Diana?)* right, wearing necklace; BALA behind, control mark "R" below chin / Rev.: Diana in biga of stags right, holding sceptre and reins in left hand and flaming torch in right, with quiver over shoulder; control-mark (grasshopper) below stags; C•ALLI in exergue; all within laurel wreath. Crawford 336/1b; RSC I Aelia [Allia] 4 (ill.), Sear RCV I 221 (ill.), Sydenham 595, BMCRR 1742-1771 [no control-letter "R"]. 17 mm., 3.88 g.**

 

* Varying identifications of obverse head: Crawford ("female head r., wearing diadem"); RSC I ("female head (Diana?)"); BMCRR (same); Sear RCV I ("female deity").

** Moneyer otherwise unknown. See BMCRR p. 238 n. 2: "This type may refer to the annual festival in honor of Diana held on the Aventine, where her temple stood, and at which torch races occurred. . . . C. Allius Bala was apparently the first moneyer to introduce a symbol as a mint-mark in conjunction with a letter."

Roman Republic, A. Postumius A.f. Sp.n. Albinus (Aulus Postumius Albinus, son of Aulus [mint magistrate ca. 96 BCE], and grandson of Spurius [Consul 110 BCE]), AR Serrate Denarius, 81 BCE. Obv. Draped bust of Diana right, with bow and quiver over shoulder, figure of stag’s head at end of bow (horns to left), bucranium above [off flan] / Rev. Roman priest standing facing on rocky ground (on Aventine Hill), head left, with right arm extended holding aspergillum, sprinkling heifer [Harlan, RRM I*], bull [Crawford & Sear], or ox [RSC] which he is about to sacrifice, a lighted altar between them, A POST - AF - SN • ALBIN [AL in monogram] around. RSC I Postumia 7, Crawford 372/1, Sydenham 745, Sear RCV I 296 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 1 at pp. 1-7, BMCRR 2836. 18.54 mm., 3.85 g.  Ex. Spink & Sons Ltd. (before 2000 because of address on Spink coin tag; probably before 1974 given citation to Sydenham but not Crawford.)

* See Michael Harlan, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012) (“RRM I”) (using this coin-type as the cover illustration for his book). At pp. 3-4, Harlan argues that in the legend which, as Crawford acknowledges, is the basis for the reverse of this coin -- namely, the sacrifice to Diana on the Aventine Hill founding her temple there ca. 500 BCE, establishing Rome as the caput rerum for all of Italy [and symbolizing the victory of Sulla over the rebel Italians in 82 BCE] -- the sacrificed animal was a heifer with wondrous horns, not a bull or an ox.  (Citing Livy, The History of Rome, Book 1, ch. 45 [available at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0145%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D45].) 

Roman Republic, Ti. Claudius Ti.f. Ap.n. Nero [Tiberius Claudius Nero, son of Tiberius and grandson of Appius], AR Serrate Denarius, 78 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust of Diana right with hair in topknot, bow and quiver over shoulder, figure of stag’s head at end of bow (horns to left), S • C [Senatus Consulto] before / Rev. Winged Victory driving galloping biga right, with horses’ heads straining forward, holding wreath in right hand and palm frond and reins in left hand, control number CXXXIIII beneath horses; in exergue, TI•CLAVD•TI•F [VD ligate] / [A]P•N [AP ligate] in two lines. Crawford 383/1, RSC Claudia 5, Sear RCV I 310 (ill.), Sydenham 770, BMCRR 3096-3113 [Control number CXXXIIII not included], Harlan, RRM I Ch. 8, pp. 36-39 [Harlan, Michael, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012)]. 18 mm., 4.01 g., 6 h.*

 

*The moneyer belonged to the patrician Nerones branch of the Claudii, and was the paternal grandfather of the Emperor Tiberius. Harlan, supra at p. 36. See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Claudius_Nero_(grandfather_of_Tiberius_Caesar).  Later on, according to Harlan, he served under Pompey in the pirate wars of 67 BCE, with his area of command the Spanish waters as far as the Pillar of Hercules. This coin was part of a large issue in two series, with control numbers in the first series running from I to CLXV, and in the second series using the letter A coupled with numbers 1 to CLXXXII. It is believed that this issue (like the large issue of Naevius Balbus in the previous year (Crawford 382/1, also showing Victory at the reins of a chariot, albeit a triga) represents money minted for the use of Quintus Caecilius Metullus Pius (the issuer of Crawford 374/1 in 81 BCE, with an elephant reverse) in Sulla’s Spanish war against Sertorius in 79 BCE. Id. Sear agrees; see Sear RCV I at p. 130.  

In 1904, Grueber posited in BMCRR that Diana’s appearance on the obverse of this coin was a reference to the Sabine origin of the gens Claudia, given Diana’s own Sabine origin. Crawford rejected this view, but Harlan agrees with Grueber; see RRM 1 at p. 37. He also notes that the inspiration for Diana’s portrayal on this coin must have been her depiction on the obverse of the coin of Aulus Postumius in 81 BCE (Crawford 372/1, with a reverse showing a heifer about to be sacrificed by a priest to Diana on the Aventine Hill): “the goddess is depicted in the very same style on both coins: her hair is tied in a knot on top of her head and the unmistakable attributes of bow and quiver are over her shoulder making the identity of the goddess certain. Claudius’ coin continues the theme of caput orbis terrarum [Rome as head of the world] so clearly expressed by Postumius. Diana, whose appearance on Roman coinage during the 70s was far more common than any other decade of Republican coinage, was emblematic of the extension of Roman imperium.” Id. 

Roman Republic, C. Postumius, AR Denarius, Rome 74 BCE. Obv. Bust of Diana R. w/ bow and quiver, figure of stag’s head at end of bow (horns to left) / Rev. Hound running R., hunting spear below, “C POSTUMI TA” [TA in monogram] in exergue. RSC I Postumia 9, Crawford 394/1a, Sear RCV I 330, Harlan, RRM I Ch. 18 at pp. 109-112, BMCRR Rome 3238. 18 mm., 3.83 g.

Roman Republic, C. Hosidius C.f. Geta, AR Denarius, 68 BCE. Obv. Draped bust of Diana R., wearing crown and stephane[?], with bow and quiver over shoulder, GETA before, III VIR behind/ Rev. Wild boar of Calydon r., pierced in shoulder by spear and attacked by hound beneath, C. HOSIDI C F in exergue. RSC I Hosidia 1 (ill.), Crawford 407/2, Sear RCV I 346 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 32 at pp. 189-194, BMCRR Rome 3388. 18 mm., 3.91 g.

Roman Republic/Imperatorial Period, P. Accoleius Lariscolus, AR Denarius, Sep-Dec. 43 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust of Diana Nemorensis right, head closely bound with fillet, and hair arranged in close locks above her forehead; behind, P • ACCOLEIVS upwards; before, LARISCOLVS downwards / Rev. Triple cult statue of Diana Nemorensis (Diana-Hecate-Selene) facing, supporting on their hands and shoulders a beam, above which are five cypress trees, the figure on left (Diana) holding bow, that on right (Selene?) holding poppy or lily, with Hecate in the center. Crawford 486/1, RSC I Accoleia 1 (ill. p. 9), BMCRR I 4211, Sear CRI 172 at p. 109 [David Sear, The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators 49-27 BC (1998)], Sear RCV I 484 (ill. p. 161), RBW Collection 1701 (ill. p. 363). 19 mm., 3.32 g., 10 hr. Purchased May 2022; ex Classical Numismatic Group [CNG] Electronic Auction 491, 5 May 2021, Lot 349 (from the Lampasas Collection); ex CNG Electronic Auction 409, 8 Nov. 2017, Lot 535; ex CNG Sale 76/2, 12 Sep. 2007, Lot 3242 (from John A. Seeger Collection).*

 

*See John Melville Jones, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London 1990) (entry for “Diana,” at p. 97) explaining that in Roman religion Diana was not only generally equated with the Greek goddess Artemis as the divine huntress, but “was also equated with Luna (the Greek Selene) and Hecate [the Greek goddess associated with night, magic, necromancy, the underworld, etc.]. A triple Diana, combining these three forms, appears once on Roman coins, on a denarius of P. Accoleius Lariscolus (43 BC) which shows her as she was worshipped at Aricia near Lake Nemi, the home of the mint magistrate’s family. This Diana Nemorensis is portrayed in the form of a triple statue on the reverse of the coin, the head of the goddess being the obverse type (an earlier interpretation of the type as a representation of the Nymphae Querquetulanae is less satisfactory).” (For that earlier interpretation, see RSC I at p. 9, stating that the referenced Nymphae “preside over the green forests and it was to them that the groves of the Lares on Mount Coelius were consecrated.”) 

Crawford follows the Diana Nemorensis interpretation, stating that “the types refer to the Aricine origin of the moneyer.” (Crawford Vol. I p. 497.) However, he rejects the theory of Andreas Alföldi that the type was also connected to the fact that Octavian’s mother Atia, who died during her son’s consulship in 43 BCE, was born in Aricia, stating that Lariscolus’s “appointment as moneyer will have taken place in 44 and hence have owed nothing to Octavian.” (Id.) However, in Sear CRI at p. 107, David Sear argues the contrary in the latter part of his discussion of this type:

 

I identify the figure on the left as Diana holding a bow, and the figure on the right as Selene holding a poppy (or lily), following the description by Jochen1 at Coin Talk, in his thread at https://www.cointalk.com/threads/diana-nemorensis.344409/#post-4859090 . The standard authorities generally identify the object held by the figure on the left as a poppy rather than a bow, and the one held by the figure on the right as a lily rather than a poppy, without specifying which goddess is which. In fact, on my specimen, the flower on the right does seem to resemble a lily more than a poppy. I am not aware of any tradition identifying Luna/Selene with either. Although I believe that lilies do open at night.

Gordian III AR Denarius, 241-242 AD, Rome mint. Obv. Laureate, draped, & cuirassed bust right, IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG / Rev. Diana standing facing, head right, holding flaming long torch right with both hands, DIANA LVCIFERA. RIC IV-3 127, RSC IV 69, Sear RCV III 8673 (ill.). 20 mm., 2.7 g., 6 h.

 

[LONGINUS]

Great coins and post @shanxi !

Fascinating topic and one to which I can relate being a Sagittarius and an occasional recreational archer...

... although, my bow is currently in storage.

Edited July 8, 2022 by LONGINUS

[Sulla80]

5 minutes ago, LONGINUS said:

Great coins and post @shanxi !

Fascinating topic and one to which I can relate being a Sagittarius and an occasional recreational archer...

... although, my bow is currently in storage.)

Great presentation!  (recognizable under any name) 🙂

[dougsmit]

On 7/5/2022 at 4:46 AM, ambr0zie said:

(note - on this coin it is not certain that the reverse depicts Artemis - I personally think it's Hera)

My similar coin is listed as Baalat-Hera (RPC 3577).  I am of the opinion that many coins show local deities which are identified with the big names.  Catalogers have to provide an answer.  Whether that answer matches the intent of the issuer, I am less certain. 

On 7/5/2022 at 4:22 AM, shanxi said:

If one is not enough:

Trajan
Caria, Tabae
AE 24
Obv.: ΑΥ ΚΑ(Ι) ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ΑΡΙ(Ϲ) ΓΕ(Ρ) ΔΑ, laureate head of Trajan right, with drapery on left shoulder
Rev: ΤΑΒΗΝΩΝ, two figures, side by side, of Artemis standing facing, wearing short chiton, drawing arrow from quiver with r. hand, holding bow in l.
AE, 24 mm., 9,28 g
Ref.: RPC III, 2289 (this coin)

Similarly, I have some trouble accepting the idea of two of the same god  side by side and would look for a local deity to be shown with Artemis.  I have no answer for this but how many identical side by side duplicates can you name?  For that matter, at the moment, I can only think of one where the same people are shown twice on a coin but in different poses.  There must be many that now escape my mind (increasingly easy to do these days). 

[shanxi]

A new coin for my Artemis collection:

PAMPHYLIA. Perge. (3rd century BCE). AR Drachm.
Obv: Laureate head of Artemis right, with bow and quiver over shoulder.
Rev: [APT]EMIΔ[OΣ] / ΠEPΓAIAΣ.
Artemis standing left, holding wreath and scepter; to inner right, forepart of stag left, head right.
Colin group 1.3, series 1 (dies V1.1/R1.1); SNG France 332.
AR, 4.02 g, 17.60 mm

[NewStyleKing]

Artemis, (with 2 small torches) and her pal, Demeter, obviously the Eleusinian subtext is obvious in the search for persephone in hades' underworld. Artemis is common in the NewStyle  and Eleusinian symbolism is rife, kernos, torches alone, grain ears, Bakhos, thyrsos..... triptolemos.......its a pity its all a mystery!

Edited December 19, 2022 by NewStyleKing

[kirispupis]

I recently picked up several Artemis depictions.

Troas, Gentinos
4th century BCE
Æ 14mm, 1.94g, 3h
Female head (Artemis?) r.
R/ Bee; palm tree to lower l.
Bellinger 145; SNG München 194-6; SNG Copenhagen 335
Ex London Ancient Coins

 

Lesbos, Chalke
4th century BCE
Æ 8mm, 0.51g, 6h
Head of Artemis r., wearing stephane
R/ Spearhead
SNG von Aulock 8736-7; BMC 1-4; HGC 6, 1282
Ex London Ancient Coins

 

Thessaly, Ekkara
Circa 325-320 BCE
Æ 2.38g, 13mm, 9h
Laureate head of Zeus to left
Artemis standing to left, holding spear; EKKA-PPEI to left and right
Liampi, Ekkarra 31d; BCD Thessaly II 65.2; HGC 4, 1
Ex J. Greiff Collection
Ex Roma

[jdmKY]

Here’s my Diana’s-

L Hostilius Saserna, 48 BC

Accoleius Lariscolus, 42 BC

P Clodius m f Turrinus, 42 BC