DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0032
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
is first mentioned in connexion with a battle against
the Aurunci in the year 345, when L. Purius Camillus
invoked her aid. The temple which he vowed to her
was bnilt and dedicated on the Capitol in 344.1
It is generally supposed that the connexion of
the mint with the temple of Juno Moneta on the
Capitol dates only from the third century.2 But the
evidence to this effect is inadequate. Whether we
accept or reject the ingenious theory which explains
the Latin word moneta as a corruption of the Punic
machanath (“ camp ”), a legend inscribed on one
of the most important currencies circulating in the
Western Mediterranean in the fourth century,3 is of
no importance for our present purpose. There can
be little doubt that moneta gave rather than owed its
name to the goddess. Moneta is the personification
of money; and if the idea she embodies was of
Carthaginian origin, we can understand why she
became identified with Juno.4 We may take it,
therefore, that the Roman mint was from the first
1 Liv. vii. 28.
2 Marquardt, Romische Staatsverw., ii. p. 11. Suidas, s.v. Mov^ra,
says that the Romans, being short of money in the war against
Pyrrhus, obtained it by following the counsel of Moneta, the
“Adviser,” in gratitude to whom they vowed to establish their mint
in the temple of the goddess. This story is partly due to the false
etymology from monere.
3 Hill, Coms of Ancient Sicily, pp. 143 if.
4 Vergil, Aen. i. 671: lunonia hospitia. The Carthaginian goddess
is really Astarte.
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is first mentioned in connexion with a battle against
the Aurunci in the year 345, when L. Purius Camillus
invoked her aid. The temple which he vowed to her
was bnilt and dedicated on the Capitol in 344.1
It is generally supposed that the connexion of
the mint with the temple of Juno Moneta on the
Capitol dates only from the third century.2 But the
evidence to this effect is inadequate. Whether we
accept or reject the ingenious theory which explains
the Latin word moneta as a corruption of the Punic
machanath (“ camp ”), a legend inscribed on one
of the most important currencies circulating in the
Western Mediterranean in the fourth century,3 is of
no importance for our present purpose. There can
be little doubt that moneta gave rather than owed its
name to the goddess. Moneta is the personification
of money; and if the idea she embodies was of
Carthaginian origin, we can understand why she
became identified with Juno.4 We may take it,
therefore, that the Roman mint was from the first
1 Liv. vii. 28.
2 Marquardt, Romische Staatsverw., ii. p. 11. Suidas, s.v. Mov^ra,
says that the Romans, being short of money in the war against
Pyrrhus, obtained it by following the counsel of Moneta, the
“Adviser,” in gratitude to whom they vowed to establish their mint
in the temple of the goddess. This story is partly due to the false
etymology from monere.
3 Hill, Coms of Ancient Sicily, pp. 143 if.
4 Vergil, Aen. i. 671: lunonia hospitia. The Carthaginian goddess
is really Astarte.
8