DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0197
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
consulship of C. Furnius and C. Silanus,1 /.<?., in
17 b.c., the year preceding the issue of the coins of
Mescinius. The letters XV S F- on No. 94 are pro-
bably to be taken as referring to Augustus, xvvir
sacris faciundis, rather than to the whole college of
xvviri. They were, as a matter of fact, for this special
occasion at least twenty-one in number, and their
names are preserved.2 Augustus, in the Monumentuni
Ancyranum, mentions Agrippa as his colleague.
Agrippa, nevertheless, was not one of the five magistri
of the college, whose names are preserved elsewhere.3
Before the games began, the quindecimviri, seated
on platforms, distributed to the people purificatories
for fumigation. These were known as purgamenta or
suffimenta, and their distribution is illustrated on the
reverse of No. 93, with the inscription Augustus')
suf^fimenta') plppido dedit). The purification was
effected by the burning of torches with sulphur and
bitumen; only after this had been done were the
people fit to partake in the festival.
Other features of the festival are alluded to on
other coins of Augustus. Thus, on aurei and denarii
of M. Sanquinius, dating from 12 b.c., there is repre-
sented the herald who proclaimed the festival; he
wears a helmet decorated with two long plumes, and
1 Mon. Ano. ch. xxii. Mommsen, Res gest., pp. 91 f.
2 Eph. Epigr. viii. pp. 240 ff.
3 Fasti Capitolini, C. I. L. i. p. 442.
149
consulship of C. Furnius and C. Silanus,1 /.<?., in
17 b.c., the year preceding the issue of the coins of
Mescinius. The letters XV S F- on No. 94 are pro-
bably to be taken as referring to Augustus, xvvir
sacris faciundis, rather than to the whole college of
xvviri. They were, as a matter of fact, for this special
occasion at least twenty-one in number, and their
names are preserved.2 Augustus, in the Monumentuni
Ancyranum, mentions Agrippa as his colleague.
Agrippa, nevertheless, was not one of the five magistri
of the college, whose names are preserved elsewhere.3
Before the games began, the quindecimviri, seated
on platforms, distributed to the people purificatories
for fumigation. These were known as purgamenta or
suffimenta, and their distribution is illustrated on the
reverse of No. 93, with the inscription Augustus')
suf^fimenta') plppido dedit). The purification was
effected by the burning of torches with sulphur and
bitumen; only after this had been done were the
people fit to partake in the festival.
Other features of the festival are alluded to on
other coins of Augustus. Thus, on aurei and denarii
of M. Sanquinius, dating from 12 b.c., there is repre-
sented the herald who proclaimed the festival; he
wears a helmet decorated with two long plumes, and
1 Mon. Ano. ch. xxii. Mommsen, Res gest., pp. 91 f.
2 Eph. Epigr. viii. pp. 240 ff.
3 Fasti Capitolini, C. I. L. i. p. 442.
149