THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETYNEW YORK

2013

Second Series, continuing The American Numismatic Society Museum Notes

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NUMISMATICS

25

© 2013 The American Numismatic Society

ISSN: 1053-8356ISBN 10: 0-89722-324-1

ISBN 13: 978-0-89722-324-9

Printed in China

Contents

Editorial Committee v

Jonathan Kagan. Epidamnus, Anactorium, and Potidaea: Corinthian-style Pegasi at the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War 1

Metodi Manov and Vasil Damyanov. The First Mint of Cavarus, the Last King of the Celtic Kingdom in Thrace 11

Noah Kaye. The Silver Tetradrachms of Prousias II of Bithynia 21

Daniel Wolf. A Metrological Survey of Ptolemaic Bronze Coins 49

Evgeni I. Paunov. A Roman Countermark on a Bronze Coin of Rhoemetalces I, King of Thrace 117

Catharine C. Lorber. The Iconographic Program of the Year 3 Coinage of Herod the Great 127

D. Alex Walthall. A Hoard Containing Late Republican Denarii from Morgantina (Sicily) 171

Gilles Bransbourg. Fides et Pecunia Numerata, Part II: The Currencies of the Roman Republic 179

David Woods. Carisius, Acisculus, and the Riddle of the Sphinx 243

Daniel Hoyer. Calculating the Use-Wear Rates of Roman Coins Using Regression Analysis: A Case Study of Bronze Sestertii from Imperial Gaul 259

Nathan T. Elkins. A Note on Late Roman Art: The Provincial Origins of Camp Gate and Baldachin Iconography on the Late Imperial Coinage 283

Matthew Knox Averett. The Annual Medals of Pope Urban VIII Barberini 303

Allison Caplan. “Cada uno en su bolsa llevar lo que cien indios no llevarían”: Mexica Resistance and the Shape of Currency in New Spain, 1542–1552 333

American Journal of Numismatics

John W. AdamsBoston, Massachusetts

Jere L. BacharachUniversity of Washington

Gilles BransbourgAmerican Numismatic Society

Andrew BurnettBritish Museum

Evridiki GeorganteliHarvard University

Kenneth W. HarlTulane University

Paul T. KeyserIBM T. J. Watson Research Center

John M. KleebergNew York, New York

John H. KrollOxford, England

Eric P. NewmanSt. Louis, Missouri

Ira RezakStony Brook, New York

Stephen K. ScherNew York, New York

Stuart D. SearsWestport, Massachusetts

Peter van AlfenAmerican Numismatic Society

Bernhard WeisserMünzkabinettStaatliche Museen zu Berlin

Editorial Committee

Andrew R. Meadows Editor

Oliver D. Hoover Managing Editor

1

AJN Second Series 25 (2013) pp. 000–ooo© 2013 The American Numismatic Society

A Hoard Containing Late Republican Denarii from Morgantina (Sicily)

Plate ooo D. Alex Walthall*

This brief note offers a detailed account of a hoard containing Late Republican denarii that was recovered in 1959, during controlled excavations at the ar-chaeological site of Morgantina (Sicily). Although this hoard has received pri-or mention by members of the American Excavations at Morgantina (Sjöqvist 1960: 130; Morgantina Studies II: 175), there has been no full account either of its contents or of its archaeological context. This note is the first of several forthcoming numismatic supplements, which are intended to give more ex-tensive treatment to the coin hoards recovered by the American Excavations at Morgantina between 1955 and the present.

Archaeological ContextOn June 4, 1959, excavators working in the lower agora at Morgantina recovered a small hoard, containing one bronze and nine silver coins. The precise location of the discovery is given in the notebook and trench plans kept by the supervisor, Carl Erik Östenberg, who indicates that the coins were found immediately to the east of the so-called East Granary (referred to in the notebooks only as “Com-plex 61”), at the north end of a narrow passage that ran between the building and the rocky escarpment of the East Hill (Figs. 1 and 2, below). The coins were found loose, without a container, but all within a few centimeters of one another.

* Department of Classics, 311 Susan Campbell Hall [SC] 1267, University of Oregon,Eugene, OR 97403-1267 (dwalthal@uoregon.edu).

2 D. Alex Walthall

Östenberg suggests the coins may have been originally deposited in a leather purse or wooden container, noting that a thin strip of bronze, discovered alongside the coins, may have served as the container’s clasp or seal.1 Two coins (cat. nos. 1–2) were recovered from the sieve used to sift the soil collected from around the coins found in situ (cat. nos. 3–10). In his field notes, Östenberg confidently assigned both coins to the hoard and so they are both included here.2

The hoard was buried next to a building constructed around the middle of the third century bce to serve as a civic granary (Sjöqvist 1960: 129–131; Stillwell 1961: 277–278; Deussen 1994: 231–235). This monumental warehouse appears to have fallen into disuse by ca. 200 bce. In the second half of the second century bce, kilns were installed in the northernmost room (marked “F” on plan) and the adjacent rooms (rooms C–E) were converted into a potter’s workshop (Cuomo

1 The thin strip of bronze (inv. 59-1854) is triangular in section and slightly curved at one end. It measures 6.2 cm in length and 0.5 to 1.0 cm in width.

2 The small bronze coin of Massalia (cat. no. 1; inv. 59-1844) was omitted from the hoard as it appeared in Morgantina Studies II (175: no. 45). However, given Östenberg’s confidence in its association with the other nine coins, I accept its inclusion and leave open the question of its relationship to the hoard for future debate. The second coin found in the sieve (cat. no. 2; inv. 59–1843), a quinarius of M. Porcius Cato, was included in the hoard from its initial publication (see infra).

Figure 1. Plan of the agora at Morgantina with the northern suite of the East Granaryillustrated in Figure 2 indicated.

A Hoard Containing Late Republican Denarii from Morgantina 3

di Caprio 1992: 11–16). Based on his analysis of the ceramics produced in this workshop, Shelley Stone (1981: 52–53; 1987, 89–91; 2013: Context IIC) places its period of activity from c. 130/120 bce to c. 75/50 bce. In the narrow alleyway where the hoard was recovered, excavators also found a great concentration of broken ceramics and wasters of the shapes and fabrics produced in the adjacent pottery. The alley appears to have served as a convenient dump for the pottery down into the first century bce. Although the hoard was evidently deposited after the pottery had ceased to operate, the passage behind the building remained accessible and provided an ideal location in which to conceal the hoard.

Contents3 1. AE 13 mm, 1.71 g, 7h. Massalia, c. 150–c. 50 bce.4 Feugère and Py (2011).

3 In his brief summary of the hoard, Sjöqvist (1960: 130) mentions that: “The latest coins in the hoard are a rare issue of Juba II (pl. 28, fig. 21 a–b) from the years 48–46 B.C. and a quinarius of M. Porcius Cato of about 45 B.C.” Clearly, the coin in the hoard, an earlier qui-narius of M. Cato dating to 89 bce, has been confused with a later (47–46 bce, RRC 462/2) quinarius of M. Cato Pro. Pr., which restores the same types as the earlier issue. The only real difference between the types is the presence on RRC 462/2 of the abbreviation PRO.PR beneath the head of Liber on the obverse. Although the coin in the hoard is generally quite worn, the area beneath the head is clear, so the absence of PRO.PR is certain. Thus, this coin becomes the earliest in the hoard, rather than the latest. The editors of Morgantina Studies II (175, no. 45) caught this mistake and assigned the coin to the correct M. Cato.

4 Since the publication of Morgantina Studies II, the bronze coinage of Massalia has been the subject of several studies including, most notably, Brenot (1990), Depeyrot (1999), Py (2006), Barrandon and Picard (2007), and Feugère and Py (2011). The poor condition of the coin from the hoard has made identifying the particular issue a difficult task. There is also the distinct possibility that the coin was struck by a “pseudo-mint” and is not, in

Figure 2. Detail of northern rooms of the East Granary with the location of the hoard indicated.

4 D. Alex Walthall

Head of Apollo r. / Bull butting r.; ΜΑΣΣΑ, above. Inv. 59-1844.5

2. AR Quinarius of M. Porcius Cato. 13 mm, 2.05 g, 2h. Rome, 89 bce.6 RRC 343/2a. Head of Liber r.; [M.] C(AT ligate) [O] / Victory seated r.; [VIC](TR ligate)I[X]. Inv. 59-1843.

3. AR Denarius of L. Rubrius Dossenus. 17 mm, 3.39 g, 9h. Rome, 87 bce. RRC 348/2. Head of Juno r., sceptre over shoulder, behind, [DOS] / Triumphal quadriga r., in exergue, [L.RVBRI]. Inv. 59-1839.

4. AR Denarius serratus of L. Procilius. 19 mm, 3.58 g, 12h. Rome, 80 bce. RRC 379/2. Head of Juno Sospita r., behind S.C. / Juno Sospita in biga r.; in exergue, L.PROCILI.F. Inv. 59-1836.

5. AR Denarius of M. Volteius M.f. 17 mm, 3.57 g, 6h. Rome, 78 bce. RRC 385/1. Head of Jupiter r. / Capitoline temple, in exergue M. VOLTEI.M.F. Inv. 59-1838.

6. AR Denarius of Cn. Plancius. 17 mm, 3.65 g, 3h. Rome, 55 bce. RRC 432/1. Female head r.; CN. [PLANCIVS]–AED.CVR.S.C. / Goat standing r.; at left, bow and quiver. Inv. 59-1841.

7. AR Denarius of T. Carisius. 19 mm, 3.51 g, 3h. Rome, 46 bce. RRC 464/4. Bust of Victory r. / Victory in biga r., in exergue, T. CARISI. Inv. 59-1842.

8. AR Denarius of T. Carisius. 16 mm, 3.82 g, 11h. Rome, 46 bce. RRC 464/5. Bust of Victory r., behind S.C. / Victory in quadriga r., in exergue, [T.] CARIS[I]. Inv. 59-1840.

fact, a Massaliot coin after all. The pseudo-mint and pseudo-Massaliot coinage has been the subject of fruitful collaboration by Clive Stannard and Suzanne Frey-Kupper; see, for instance, Stannard and Frey-Kupper (2008), Frey-Kupper and Stannard (2010), and Stannard (Forthcoming).

5 The inventory number used by the American Excavations at Morgantina is given for each coin listed in the catalog.

6 All dates and mint assignments for Roman denarii follow Crawford (1974); cited as RRC.

A Hoard Containing Late Republican Denarii from Morgantina 5

9. AR Denarius of C. Considius Paetus. 19 mm, 3.16 g, 12h. Rome, 46 bce. RRC 465/2b. Head of Apollo r.; at left, A / Incuse impression of obverse (brockage). Inv. 59-1835.

10. AR Denarius of Juba I of Numidia. 17 mm, 3.66 g, 1h. Numidia, 48–46 bce. Alexandropoulos (2000, 401, n. 29 var.). Head of Juba I, r., REX IVBA / Octastyle temple with central dot, Neo-Punic legend at sides. Inv. 59-1837.

Date of DepositionJudging from the latest coins in the hoard, a date several years after 46 bce is to be expected for its final deposition. The visible wear on the denarii of T. Carisius (cat. nos. 7–8) would suggest that these coins were in circulation for some time before finding their way into the ground. According to Stone (1987: 92; 2013: Context IIC), the pottery in the former granary ceased to operate sometime in the quarter century between 75 and 50 bce. If correct, the hoard’s association with on-going commercial activity in that location is tenuous. A more compelling scenario may be that the coins were buried in the lead-up to a violent episode that befell the city in the late first century bce, an event which left behind traces of widespread destruction and abandonment in the archaeological record. Stone (2002: 142–144) has convincingly argued that the numerous late first-century destruction contexts documented at Morgantina should be associated with Octavian’s punitive campaigns against the Sicilian cities that had been formerly allied with Sextus Pompey. Stone assigns this violent destruction at Morgantina to the year 35 bce, mustering a wealth of numismatic, archaeological, and historical evidence to support his position. If correct, we may accept the year 35 bce as a reasonable terminus ante quem for the final deposition of this hoard.

AcknowledgementsI would like to especially thank Rick Witschonke for encouraging me to re-exam-ine this group of coins and for offering valuable advice, numismatic and otherwise, along the way. Many thanks also to my colleagues at the American Excavations at Morgantina, who commented upon a draft of this text, as well as to Alan Stahl, Clive Stannard, and Giacomo Pardini for much appreciated numismatic counsel. Dott.ssa Beatrice Basile helped to facilitate my examination of the coins held at the Museo Archeologico Regionale “Paolo Orsi” in Syracuse and Dott.ssa Angela Maria Manenti offered invaluable assistance. Finally, I would like to like to express my gratitude to the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University for their ongoing commitment to the American Excavations at Morgantina.

6 D. Alex Walthall

AbbreviationsRRC = Crawford, M. H. 1974. Roman republican coinage. London: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press.Morgantina Studies II = Buttrey, T. V., K. T. Erim, R. R. Holloway, and T. D. Groves.

1989. Morgantina Studies, Volume II: The coins. Princeton: Princeton Univer-sity Press.

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Stannard, C. Forthcoming. Are Ebusan and pseudo-Ebusan coin at Pompeii a sign of intensive contacts with the Island of Ebusus? In Actas de la Reunión cientí-fica, Ebusus y Pompeya. Testimonios montages de una relación (Roma, 12–13 Novembre 2010, Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, CSIC), edited by A. Arévalo González, D. Bernal Casasola and D. Cottica.

Stannard, C., and S. Frey-Kupper. 2008. “Pseudomints” and Small Change in Italy and Sicily in the Late Republic. AJN 20: 351–404.

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Stone, S. C. 1987. Presigillata from Morgantina. AJA 91: 85–103. ______. 2002. Sextus Pompeius, Octavianus and Sicily. In Sextus Pompeius, edited

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______. 2013. Morgantina Studies, Volume VI: The Hellenistic and Roman fineware. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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