DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0129
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
The types chosen by the Abies are also significant.
Thus Italia—not the country, but the city of Corfinium,
which was thus named during the war as destined to
be the new capital—is represented, either by a
laureate female head, or by a helmeted head copied
directly from the Roma on Roman denarii. The
much-desired defeat of Rome by the Allies is sym-
bolized by the Italic bull goring the Roman wolf.
The alliance with Mithradates is alluded to by the
type of two warriors joining hands. One of them
wears a diadem, while the prow of a ship—indicating
the fleet with which Mithradates was to descend upon
Italy—is seen beside them ; on the obverse of this
coin, the helmeted bust of Italia is crowned by
Victory with a wreath.1
The scene of the warriors taking an oath over the
body of a pig has been explained as an allusion to the
treaty of the Caudine Forks. It is more probable
that it represents merely the oath taken by the Allies
to be faithful to each other against Rome. A similar
ceremony (with only two warriors) is shown, as we
1 Cavedoni and Lenormant {La Monn. dans VAntiquite, ii., pp. 296 f)
consider that this piece was struck by the remnant of the revolted
Allies to celebrate the disembarkation of Marius on his return from
Africa, when the democratic party in Rome had made common cause
with the Aides. The type would appear to have been copied by Sulla
to celebrate his disembarkation at Brundusium in 83 b.c. after
conquering Mithradates ; but one would like to be sure of the authen-
ticity of the Sullan coin, which was published in the eighteenth century,
and of which no specimen is now known to exist.
87
The types chosen by the Abies are also significant.
Thus Italia—not the country, but the city of Corfinium,
which was thus named during the war as destined to
be the new capital—is represented, either by a
laureate female head, or by a helmeted head copied
directly from the Roma on Roman denarii. The
much-desired defeat of Rome by the Allies is sym-
bolized by the Italic bull goring the Roman wolf.
The alliance with Mithradates is alluded to by the
type of two warriors joining hands. One of them
wears a diadem, while the prow of a ship—indicating
the fleet with which Mithradates was to descend upon
Italy—is seen beside them ; on the obverse of this
coin, the helmeted bust of Italia is crowned by
Victory with a wreath.1
The scene of the warriors taking an oath over the
body of a pig has been explained as an allusion to the
treaty of the Caudine Forks. It is more probable
that it represents merely the oath taken by the Allies
to be faithful to each other against Rome. A similar
ceremony (with only two warriors) is shown, as we
1 Cavedoni and Lenormant {La Monn. dans VAntiquite, ii., pp. 296 f)
consider that this piece was struck by the remnant of the revolted
Allies to celebrate the disembarkation of Marius on his return from
Africa, when the democratic party in Rome had made common cause
with the Aides. The type would appear to have been copied by Sulla
to celebrate his disembarkation at Brundusium in 83 b.c. after
conquering Mithradates ; but one would like to be sure of the authen-
ticity of the Sullan coin, which was published in the eighteenth century,
and of which no specimen is now known to exist.
87