Sabina Sunday -- IVNONI REGINAE: To Juno the Queen

[Roman Collector]

Sunday salutations, Sabina swains! Today we'll be talking about Sabina's coins depicting the goddess Juno, the queen of the gods, the sister and wife of Jupiter. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hera. Juno has many guises and epithets: Juno Moneta, Juno Lucina, Juno Caprotina, Juno Sospita, Juno Conservatrix, Juno Victrix, Juno Martialis, and Juno Regina. The epithet Regina means queen and refers to her membership in the Capitoline Triad alongside Jupiter and Minerva.

As queen of the gods, Juno Regina is depicted either enthroned or standing, and invariably holds the hasta pura, the scepter symbolizing her regal authority. In addition, she typically holds a patera and is frequently accompanied by her sacred bird, the peacock. Such is the case on the coins of Sabina bearing the reverse inscription IVNONI REGINAE.

Because Juno subsequently appears on the coinage of sixteen imperial women, this reverse design seems rather humdrum to collectors who are familiar with the coinage of the Roman Principate as a whole, but the design was a true novelty during the reign of Hadrian. Surprisingly, up to the coinage of Sabina, Juno had never been explicitly portrayed on Rome's imperial coinage. Earlier emperors seem to have been hesitant to compare the women in their families too plainly to the Olympian queen. Even the narcissistic and megalomaniacal Domitian was reluctant to depict the goddess herself on coinage issued for his wife, Domitia Longina, and his niece Julia, referring to the goddess only indirectly by depicting a peacock, Juno's sacred bird.

Hadrian had no such qualms and issued several coins for Sabina depicting Juno, thus assimilating her to the divine queen and, by extension, himself to Jupiter. On the coinage issued for Sabina, Juno Regina appears on multiple denominations: aureus, denarius, quinarius, sestertius, dupondius and as. On these coins, Sabina appears with a variety of bust types and obverse inscriptions. The coins are dated by Abdy, the editor of RIC II, Part 3 (second edition) to 133-135 CE. I consider Abdy's scholarship to supersede the work of competent earlier scholars such as Strack and Mattingly in terms of dating.

But enough of this introductory material! 

Here are my Sabinas with the IVNONI REGINAE reverse type:

Sabina, 117-137 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.28 g, 19.4 mm, 6 h.
Rome, 133-135 CE.
Obv: SABINA AVGVSTA HADRIANI AVG P P, diademed and draped bust, left.
Rev: IVNONI REGINAE, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter.
Refs: RIC II, Part 3 (second ed.) 2540; BMCRE 909 note; RSC 37a; RCV --; Strack 370; CRE 56.


Sabina, 117-137 CE.
Roman AR denarius, 3.12 g, 17.9 mm, 7 h.
Rome, 133-135 CE.
Obv: SABINA AVGVSTA, diademed and draped bust, right.
Rev: IVNONI REGINAE, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter.
Refs: RIC II, Part 3 (second ed.) 2550; BMCRE 940-942; RSC 43; RCV 3921; Strack 379; CRE 54.


Sabina, 117-137 CE.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 22.51 g, 31.2 mm, 6 h.
Rome, 133-135 CE.
Obv: SABINA AVGVSTA HADRIANI AVG P P, diademed and draped bust, right.
Rev: IVNONI REGINAE, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter.
Refs: RIC II, Part 3 (second ed.) 2554; BMCRE 1869; Cohen 38; RCV 3934; UCR 500; Strack 86.

On a sidenote, if you're interested in how Sabina's ornatrix styled her hair, you'll enjoy this video by hairstyle historian Janet Stephens, who refers to this coiffure type as Sabina's "Juno" hairstyle.

 

I'm sure you have coins of Sabina or of Juno Regina. Let's see them!! As always, feel free to post comments, coins, or anything you feel is relevant. 

 

Edited May 19 by Roman Collector
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[kirispupis]

Very interesting writeup. As a mostly Greek collector, I wasn't aware of this.

Here's my only Sabina example.

Sabina
3.43g, 17mm 133-135 CE
Head of Sabina right "SABINA AVGVSTA"
Juno veiled standing left, holding a patera and scepter "IVNONI REGINAE"
RSC 43

[Alegandron]

Nary a Sabina-Juno, but a Venus.

 

RI Sabina 117-137 Denarius 3.18g Venus standing right holding an apple RSC73

[LONGINUS]

 

Great post, coins, and video, @Roman Collector —I have one Sabina denarius with a Concordia reverse and was

very happy to find one featuring such a charming portrait.

Not Sabina’s traditional style — a paparazzi chiseler must've stolen an image of her before she was ready.

😉

 

 

[Marsyas Mike]

Liking the whole idea of Sabina Sunday @Roman Collector.  Nice job as always.  My very small collection of Sabinas does have a IVNONI REGINAE type, an as/dupondius.  Because of this post I decided to clean up the attribution, and found I had some difficulty with the two basic types - diademed (stephane) with and without the corn-wreath.  The British Museum example cites the corn wreath type, but does not describe the corn wreath, compounding my confusion.  Mine is so worn, I was kind of guessing (see notes below):

Sabina Æ As/Dupondius (133-135 A.D.) Rome Mint [SABINA AV]GVSTA HAD[RIANI AVG P P],  diademed, draped bust right / IVNON[I REGINAE] S-C, Juno standing left holding patera and sceptre RIC II Part 3 (2^nd ed.) Had. 2557 (old RIC II Hadrian 1038a). (9.55 grams / 26 x 25 mm) eBay Dec. 2018 Lot @ $2.05

Note:  Two types, per OCRE; as this (probably) lacks corn wreath, it is RIC 2557 (probably):

RIC II Pt. 3 Hadrian 2555: "wreathed with possible corn wreath, wearing stephane with hair in queue" (BMCRE 1894 cites RIC 2555 but does NOT mention the corn wreath)

 RIC II Pt. 3 Hadrian 2557: "diademed, wearing stephane with hair in queue"

 

[Roman Collector]

47 minutes ago, Marsyas Mike said:

Liking the whole idea of Sabina Sunday @Roman Collector.  Nice job as always.  My very small collection of Sabinas does have a IVNONI REGINAE type, an as/dupondius.  Because of this post I decided to clean up the attribution, and found I had some difficulty with the two basic types - diademed (stephane) with and without the corn-wreath.  The British Museum example cites the corn wreath type, but does not describe the corn wreath, compounding my confusion.  Mine is so worn, I was kind of guessing (see notes below):

Sabina Æ As/Dupondius (133-135 A.D.) Rome Mint [SABINA AV]GVSTA HAD[RIANI AVG P P],  diademed, draped bust right / IVNON[I REGINAE] S-C, Juno standing left holding patera and sceptre RIC II Part 3 (2^nd ed.) Had. 2557 (old RIC II Hadrian 1038a). (9.55 grams / 26 x 25 mm) eBay Dec. 2018 Lot @ $2.05

Note:  Two types, per OCRE; as this (probably) lacks corn wreath, it is RIC 2557 (probably):

RIC II Pt. 3 Hadrian 2555: "wreathed with possible corn wreath, wearing stephane with hair in queue" (BMCRE 1894 cites RIC 2555 but does NOT mention the corn wreath)

 RIC II Pt. 3 Hadrian 2557: "diademed, wearing stephane with hair in queue"

 

Thank you for your kind words and for your interest, @Marsyas Mike. This one shows the corn wreath pretty well.

[Curtisimo]

Nice post @Roman Collector.

Here is my relevant (possibly fouree?) Juno denarius.

[Marsyas Mike]

9 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

Thank you for your kind words and for your interest, @Marsyas Mike. This one shows the corn wreath pretty well.

When I was looking up info on mine, I saw several that had definite corn wreaths, but a lot that seemed ambiguous to me (mostly because of wear).  Here's the British Museum example - corn wreath not mentioned, but RIC number being the corn-wreath type (if OCRE is correct, which is not a given!) - the thin line under the diadem might be corn.  Or is it margarine? 😀:

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-9003

[Sulla80]

Thanks,
@Roman Collector, interesting to learn that Sabina was the first to be paired with Juno!  I don't have a Sabina/Juno to share - here's my Sabina with Concordia. 

 

Edited May 21 by Sulla80

[MrMonkeySwag96]

Sabina is missing from my Nerva-Antonine dynasty collection, however I do have a Faustina II denarius with a Juno Reginae reverse:

AR Denarius 18mm. 3.10g. Rome Mint 156-175 A.D. Draped bust r., wearing stephane. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA Juno, veiled, seated l. on low seat, holding patera and sceptre, peacock at feet. IVNONI REGINAE RIC III 698; RSC II 145

Edited May 22 by MrMonkeySwag96