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21 Oct, 10 tweets, 6 min read
Ancient Coin of the Day: I’ve been remiss in coin threads this week, so let’s get back to it with this base-silver tetradrachm from Alexandria, ca. AD 66-67, one of a series celebrating Nero.

#ACOTD #Nero #Games

Image: RPC 5300/5. Link - rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5300
This is a great example of Julio-Claudian provincial coinage, part of a series of five base-silver tetradrachms that were issued by Alexandria to celebrate Nero's victories on the 'festival circuit' of Greek games.
The Legend that was universal to the series was ΝΕΡΩ ΚΛΑΥ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒ ΓΕΡ ΑΥ - 'Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus' - with the Legend on the Reverse being specific to each set of games, in this case ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝ ΙΣΘΜΙΟΣ – ‘Isthmian Poseidon’.
Other coins in the series commemorated Nero at the Nemean Games (dedicated to Zeus) and the Olympian Games, as on the example below with its Reverse showing ΔΙΟΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΟΥ – ‘Olympian Zeus’.

Image: RPC 5927/2. Link – rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5297
The Obverse of this issue also shows the LΙΓ issue mark, noting that it was produced in ‘Year 13’ of Nero’s reign.
Issues also commemorated the games of Pythian and Actian Apollo. Not all of these games were usually held in the same year, with Nero forcing them to hold the Olympics out of sequence (Philostratos, ‘Apollonius’ 5.7.2).

Image: RPC 5302/4. Link – rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5302
Striking on all of these issues is the portrait of Nero adorned with a radiate crown, which was typically a marker of divinity, as noted by Lucan (Civil War, 7.458), thus making its appearance here on a living emperor noteworthy.
This could link with an inscription from Athens (Smallwood 145 = IG II/III 3278 = Sherk 78B), which hails Nero as “Imperator Nero Caesar Augustus, new Apollo”, which would suggest that Nero sought to emphasise his connection with this deity.
This connection is also seen on Nero’s coinage from Rome, with Apollo as a lyre-player featuring on the Reverse of this copper-alloy as, ca. AD 62-68.

Image: RIC Nero 79; British Museum (1921,0612.5). Link - numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.1(…
For more on this connection, see:

Champlin, Edward. “Nero, Apollo, and the Poets.” Phoenix, vol. 57, no. 3/4, Classical Association of Canada, 2003, pp. 276–83

doi.org/10.2307/3648517

#ACOTD #Nero #Games

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More from @DocCrom

21 Oct
#LatinForTheDay – 21 October

“Eripitur nobis iam pridem cara puella:
et tu me lacrimas fundere, amice, vetas?
nullae sunt inimicitiae nisi amoris acerbae:
ipsum me iugula, lenior hostis ero.
possum ego in alterius positam spectare lacerto?...
"...nec mea dicetur, quae modo dicta meast?
omnia vertuntur: certe vertuntur amores:
vinceris a victis, haec in amore rotast.
magni saepe duces, magni cecidere tyranni,
et Thebae steterunt altaque Troia fuit....
"munera quanta dedi vel qualia carmina feci!
illa tamen numquam ferrea dixit ‘amo.’”

Propertius 2.8.1-12
Read 7 tweets
20 Oct
#LatinForTheDay – 20 October

“O me felicem! nox o mihi candida! et o tu
lectule deliciis facte beate meis!
quam multa apposita narrâmus verba lucerna,
quantaque sublato lumine rixa fuit!
nam modo nudatis mecumst luctata papillis,
interdum tunica duxit operta moram...
"illa meos somno lapsos patefecit ocellos
ore suo et dixit ‘sicine, lente, iaces?’
quam vario amplexu mutâmus bracchia! quantum
oscula sunt labris nostra morata tuis!”

Propertius 2.15.1-10
‘Damn me, I’m blessed! What a night! And you,
My bed, became a shrine to the delights of love!
How many sweet nothings we whispered in the lamplight;
What a kerfuffle when the light burned low!
Sometimes my love’s bare breasts pressed against my chest,...
Read 5 tweets
19 Oct
#EpigraphyTuesday - A cracking piece today, with the bronze tablets preserving elements of Claudius' speech to the Senate in AD 48 on admitting Gauls to the Senate.

Image: Lugdunum Museum (AD012); ILS 212. Link - lugdunum.grandlyon.com/fr/Oeuvre/1209… Image
Discovered in 1528, the bronze panels record Claudius' response to a request from the leading citizens of Gallia Comata that they should be allowed to hold public office in Rome.
Claudius' attempts to convince the Senate of the sense of this proposal include historical examples of 'foreigners' who had brought great benefit to Rome, including the early kings Numa Pompilius and Tarquinius Priscus. Image
Read 6 tweets
18 Oct
#LatinForTheDay – 18 October

“Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi
finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios
temptaris numeros. ut melius, quidquid erit, pati,
seu pluris hiemes seu tribuit Iuppiter ultimam,
quae nunc oppositis debilitat pumicibus mare...
"...Tyrrhenum! sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
spem longam reseces. dum loquimur, fugerit invida
aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.”

Horace Odes 1.11
'Do not ask what fate the gods have given to us,
To you and me - It's not right that we know, Leuconoe.
Don't go meddling with Babylonian horoscopes.
How much better to endure it, whatever IT might be:
Whether Jupiter has granted us more winters,...
Read 6 tweets
7 Sep
Another quick #EpigraphyTuesday thread with this funerary inscription for the daughter of Blescius Diovicus. #Roman

Image: Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, Cambridge (D 1970.11). Link - collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/468494
The inscription was discovered prior to 1601 in Risingham, the site of the Roman fort of Habitancum, on Dere Street - which ran from York to Corbridge.
Text:

"D(is) M(anibus)
Blescius
Diovicus
filiae
suae
vixsit
an(n)um
I et die(s) XXI"
Read 6 tweets
7 Sep
A quick #EpigraphyTuesday thread to get my day going, with this dedicatory statue group of Dionysus from the Mithraeum in London: ca. 4th Century AD. #Roman

Image: Museum of London (18496). Link - collections.museumoflondon.org.uk/online/object/…
The group shows Dionysus accompanied by typical members of his retinue: Silenus upon his ass; a Satyr; a Maenad holding a 'cista'; and a panther.
But as this is and epigraphy thread, what really interests us is the brief inscription on the base:

"hominibus bagis bitam"

'(Give) life to wandering men'
Read 5 tweets

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