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THE TWELVE CAESAES (JULIUS TO DOMITIAN) ILLUSTRATED BY READINGS OF 217 OF THEIR COINS AND MEDALS

Twelve Caesars – CLAUDIUS COINS

[Of the twelve Caesars who exercised imperial authority at Rome from B.C. 47 to a.d. 96, Claudius, a.d. 41-54, is the fifth. The four who precede him, under this title, were: Julius Caesar, b.c. 47-44; Augustus, b.c. 31-a.d. 14; Tiberius, 14-37, and Caligula, 37-41. The seven who succeed him: Nero, 54-68; Galba, 68-69; Otho, 69; Vitellius, 69; Vespasian, 69- 79; Titus, 79-81, and Domitian, 81-96.1

Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, fifth of the Caesars, Emperor of Rome a.d. 41 to 54, was horn at Lyons, in Gaul, August 1, B.C. 10. The reigning emperor was Augustus. His father was Nero Claudius Drusus (vulgo Drusus Senior), the first Germanicus; and the celebrated Germanicus, of German fame, was his brother. His mother was the beautiful and illustrious Antonia, niece of Augustus. It is pleasant to recall the fact that the unsullied fidelity of Drusus to his marriage bed was a theme of popular admiration and applause even in that most profligate age. But the father died while the son was yet in infancy.

The constitution of Claudius being feeble, he exhibited a weakness of intellect which, throughout all his life, showed itself in an extraordinary deficiency in judgment, tact and presence of mind. This led to his childhood being neglected. He was despised and intimidated by his nearest relatives, and left to the care of pedagogues who treated him harshly. His own mother stigmatized him as a portentum hominis (a human monster), and declared there was something in his nature wanting to the true make-up of a man. It follows that he failed in his undertaking from the lack of judgment, and made himself ridiculous in the eyes of others. He was excluded from the society of his family, and confined to that of slaves and women. Augustus and Tiberius always treated him with contempt. Caligula, his nephew, raised him to the consulship, indeed, but allowed him no part in public affairs. Yet Claudius grew up to a manhood of uncommon industry, diligence and research.

During the long period previous to his accession to the purple (for he was fifty-one years of age when crowned), he devoted the larger part of his time to literary pursuits. Living in obscurity, and taking no part in the administration of government, his opportunities to collect the political and historical facts of the day were improved in the composition of a set of annals from the death of Caesar, to which Tacitus and other Roman historians are supposed to have been indebted for much that makes their works valuable. In this labor, Livy, the historian, encouraged him. Suestonius describes his literary work as ” a composition more awkward than elegant.”

He also composed histories of various countries. Claudius was four times married (some historians say three). His first wife was Plautia Urgulanilla, by whom he had a son and a daughter. Divorcing her for cause, he married Aelia Petina. This union being soon severed by divorce, he married the notorious Messalina, ” an exemplar of female profligacy.” Upon her death for crime, a.d. 48, he chose his own niece, Agrippina, mother of Nero, and the worst of the four. Following the death of Caligula, a.d. 41, there was an interregnum of two days, when Claudius was made Emperor by joint consent of the Senate and the army. His first acts were far-seeing and humane, evincing the same kind and amiable disposition which he had exhibited through so many years of private life; and all through his reign of thirteen years, when left to act upon his own impulses, Claudius seemed a kind, good and honest man. During his reign, as we shall see from his coins, he was particularly fond of architectural enterprises.

He built the famous Claudian aqueduct, and the port of Ostia, and drained Lake Fucinus. Various wars were conducted in Britain, Germany, Syria and Mauretania by his generals. He made a short visit to Britain, a.d. 43, and constituted that island into a Roman province. For this he obtained the surname ” Britannicus,” and enjoyed upon his return to Rome a magnificent triumph. During his reign an attempt was made to celebrate the Ludos Seculares, or Centennials of Rome, of which we have spoken under Augustus and Domitian. It was unsuccessful. His death was the result of poiBon, administered in a dish of mushrooms by his wife, Agrippina, who had already secured the promise of the succession to her son, Nero. Seeing some indications in the fickle mind of Claudius that he might withdraw from that promise and nominate his own son, Britannicus, she put the Emperor to death. It is needless to say the death of the son was not long delayed.

This unhappy lad. son of Claudius and Messalina, was born a.d. 42, during the second consulship of his father. When the title of Britannicus was bestowed by the Senate upon the Emperor, it was shared by the young prince as his proper and distinguishing appellation. He was cherished as the heir-apparent to the throne until the disgraceful termination of his mother’s career. Upon the Emperor’s marriage to the ambitious and unscrupulous Agrippina, her eon, Nero, by a former marriage, was adopted heir, to the exclusion of Britannicus. Upon Nero’s accession to the purple the poor lad, then twelve years of age, was poisoned. The first draught failed of success, when a second, mixed with wine, was presented him at a banquet where, in accordance with the usage of the times, the children of the imperial family, together with other noble youths, were seated at a table apart from the other guests. Scarcely had the cup touched his lips when he fell back dead.

He was buried the same night amidst a terrific rain-storm. The Emperor, as already hinted, enjoys the infamy of having had for wives two of the worst women named in history, Messalina and Agrippina. As each of these appears, in her turn, upon his coinB, they belong equally to our history. Messalina Valeria, his third wife, was married to him before his accession to the throne. The historians, Tacitus, Pliny, and Dion Cassius, and the satirist, Juvenal, agree in making her the exemplar of female profligacy. That as a wife she was faithless, cannot be doubted. She was implacable when her fears were aroused, or her passions or avarice were to be gratified. The Emperor was her instrument and dupe. The most illustrious families of Rome were polluted by her favor, or sacrificed to her cupidity or hate; and the absence of virtue was not concealed by a lingering sense of shame, or even by a specious veil of decorum. Julia, daughter of Germanicus, and Julia, daughter of Drusus, were among her victims.

The only refuge from her love or hate was the surrender of an estate or province, an office or a purse, to herself or her satellites. Claudius himself appeared to be, of all men, the only person ignorant of her perfidy. In his British triumph she followed his chariot in a carpentum. She received from the Senate the title of Augusta, and the right of precedence {jus consensus) at all assemblies. Her insanity at last took such a form that Claudius was compelled by his fears to issue her death-warrant, and she perished, a.d. 48, in helpless agony, by the tribune’s hand, in the gardens of Lucullus, leaving two children—Britannicus, of whom we speak above, and Octavia, who afterward married Nero, and was murdered by his order. The name, titles and statues of Messalina were removed from the palace and the public buildings of Rome by a decree of the Senate. Of Agrippina, fourth and last wife of the imbecile Claudius, our report is not more favorable.

Could these wretches who harried the human race, like wolves among sheep — could they ever have thought that the people around them were gathering up and committing to record, from day to day, the facts of their guilt, and that in due time all would appear in public history! Is not this what the poet laureate calls “The fierce light that beats upon a throne?” Agrippina, styled the younger, as distinguished from her mother of the same name, was the daughter of the noble Germanicus, born about a.d. 15, in the camp of the Legions commanded by her father. Thus, like her brother Caligula, the first sounds that saluted her ears were those of military life. A.D. 28 she married Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who died in 40. By him her infamous son Nero was born.

Her next husband was C. Passienus, who died some years afterward by poison, administered probably by herself. By this time she was notorious for her scandalous conduct — for her most perfidious intrigues and unbounded ambition. When her brother Caligula became Emperor, he banished her for cause, a.d. 39, to the island of Pontia, in company with her si6ter Drusilla. Upon the accession of her uncle, Claudius, to the throne, a.d. 41, they were released, although Messalina, the empress, was her mortal enemy. A.D. 48, upon the execution of Messalina, she was married to Claudius, the union being legalized by a decree of the Senate, by which the marriage of a man with his brother’s daughter was declared valid. This law was abrogated three centuries later by Constantine the Great and his son Constans.

By her influence over the Emperor, his son Britannicus was displaced from the succession in favor of her son Nero, and Octavia, daughter of Claudius, was married to that prince, then sixteen years of age. Having accomplished so much of her plan, she now resolved to give the quietus to her husband, and to govern the Empire through her influence with her son. This waB done, a.d. 54, at Sinuessa, a watering-place to which Claudius had retired for the improvement of his health. It is disgusting to relate the details of her subsequent career. Suffice that petty feminine intrigues came at last to be her ruin, and that, having escaped a plot for drowning her, a band of men was sent to her villa, who surprised her in her bedroom, and she was slain by the hand of a centurion.

It is reported that Nero visited the house immediately after, and expressed his admiration of the beauty of her features and form! She left commentaries upon her history and that of her family. The numerous references to camps upon the coins of Claudius, and upon Roman coinage generally, call for a description of Roman castramentation. The old Roman plan of never resting except in an intrenched camp, and the fact that every able-bodied Roman was conscripted to several years of military life, make this a theme of much numismatic interest. Although so much ib said, upon coins, of VIRTVS (courage, bravery, gallantry), yet it is not to be supposed that all were fascinated with this sort of life. We may imagine more than one saying, ” Let others have the reward of valor; but for my part I am content to hear the old soldiers around the festive board reciting their campaigns and drawing the plans of their battles on the board with wine.”

The representation of the storming of a camp is seen upon a coin of C. Numonius Vala, a cotemporary of the poet Horace. The representation of camps upon coins is more frequent in the days of Constantine than at the period of the twelve Caesars. The Romans never passed the night upon a march without fortifying their resting place. They never gave battle, except from sheer necessity, without having previously fortified a camp to which they might retreat; and when we estimate the number of marches and battles engaged in by the legions in all parts of the Empire, for so many centuries, it presents the striking calculation that the field-work engineering thus performed would have constructed every railroad now in the ancient Empire. The military discipline of the Romans was so scaled that the soldier obeyed the centurion, the centurion the tribune, the tribune the lieutenant-general, the lieutenant-general the consul. Therefore when the army was upon the march, the engineers went before, under suitable guard, to choose and mark out a proper place for the camp.

A tribunus militum made the selection with due attention to the nature of the surrounding country. The engineers immediately set to work to stake out the form, and as the Maniples came up, every one proceeded to its own quarters, and set to work there. As each Roman soldier was equally skillful with spade as with sword, with ax as with spear, the work went on with incredible speed and accurate joining of parts. The form of the camp, when the ground permitted, was square. It was surrounded by a broad ditch, upon the inner edge of which was a rampart protected by stakes. Four openings were left for gates, one on each side.

That next the enemy (if in a hostile country) was the Porta praetoria; opposite to that (in the rear) the Porta decumana. Those on the sides were Porta principalis dextra, and Porta principalis sinistra. Entrances to these gates were fortified with excessive care and skill. An area exactly proportioned to the forces having been thus marked out and fortified, the first place provided for was the General’s quarters, called the praetorium. On one side of that were the quarters of the Lieutenant-Generals; on the other that of the Questor. The camp was primarily divided into two halves, and immediately within the rampart was a vacant space about two hundred feet broad, to protect the troops from missiles thrown over the fortifications. In the neighborhood of an enemy, sentinels (procubitores) circumambulated the entire camp, exchanging the watchword and keeping strictest vigil. To desert the post or to sleep on the post was death without appeal. That portion of the camp seen upon coins is the Praetorian Gate, which, when the camp was a standing one, was usually built up and ornamented as an imposing structure.

WHAT THE COINS TEACH CONCERNING CLAUDIUS

Of twenty-four coin, gold and bronze, of the Emperor Claudius, from the illustrations on the fourth page. [The student will observe in these Readings:

First, that the size of a Coin does not always agree with the size of the picture.

Second, that the metal is distinguished by an abbreviation,—AV (aurum) standing for gold; AR (argentum) for silver; AE (aes) for copper, bronze or brass, words indiscriminately used in Numismatics.

Third, that there are few punctuation points on Coins, though sometimes introduced by engravers to facilitate Readings.

Fourth, that we do not reproduce the old forms of Greek letters here, but substitute modern type; and,

Fifth, that these Readings are prepared for the use of Learners as well as experts.]

No. 1, AE. To preserve symmetry, the two faces of this coin are separated on the sheet. Obverse. The laureate head of Claudius to the right. Inscription (abbreviated): Tl CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG PM TRP IMP; (supplied) — Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus; Pontifex Maximus; Tribunitia Potestate; Imperator,—” Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus; High Priest; exercising the Tribunitian Power; Emperor. Reverse. A Civic Crown. Legend (abbreviated): EX SC OB CTVES SERVATOS ; (supplied) — Ex Senatus Consulto ob Cives Servatos,— ‘ For preserving the lives of Citizens; by Decree of the Senate.” In some coins of this class there is a countermark in front of the face, with the letters P R O B, for Populi Romani Oblatio,—” An oblation of the Roman people.” This coin was struck the year of his accession, a.d. 41. Claudius had revoked the law of lese-majeste, recalled exiles, reduced taxes, restored estates, etc., and so was accounted worthy the Civic Wreath.

No. 2, AE. This coin was struck under the reign of Nero, but inserted here as referring to events proper to the time of Claudius. Obverse. The Port of Ostium at the mouth of the Tiber, as constructed by Claudius, but dedicated by Nero. The form, as seen in the engraving, is circular. At the entrance, as if Conditor of the Port, and in the background of the engraving, is a statue of Claudius, paludated, standing upon a square base under the word Augusti(“of the Augustus “). The right hand of the statue is extended, the left supported by a long staff. This statue was a mark to mariners by day. By night a light was affixed to the right hand to serve as a pharos. The sides are archways for the flow of water into and out of the port. There are also temples in the inclosing rim for the worship of marine deities. A colossal statue of Neptune recumbent is in the foreground, his left arm upon a dolphin. (In some of these coins his right arm rests on the broad part of a rudder.) The port contains four sailing and three rowing galleys. Beneath the recumbent figure is the Inscription (abbreviated): S POR OST C; (supplied) — Portus Ostii; Senatus Consnlto,—” The Port of Ostium; by Decree of the Senate.” The numismatist Vaillant suggests that the recumbent figure may be that of Portumnus (Portunus), a tutelary god of harbors, roadsteads and navigation, identified with the Greek Palaemou. Reverse. In our engravings (taken from Vaillant’s Selectiora Numismata of 1695), the Reverse is as given here, viz., an Annona coin with Ceres seated to the right holding her torch in right hand. Before her, as if addressing her, stands the goddess of Abundance with the cornucopia, her unvarying symbol, on the right arm. An altar is between them. This coin represents the diligence of Nero in procuring corn for the people. The words, Ceres Annona Angusti are read, ” Ceres the Corn-deity of Augustus.” But according to Hobler’s Records of Roman History, the Obverse of our Coin No. 2 is the laureate head of Nero to the right, with Inscription, “Nero Claudius CaeBar Augustus Germanicus; High Priest; exercising Tribunitian Power; Emperor; Father of the Country.” As we have never seen this coin we cannot decide between conflicting authorities. But few coins exhibit such a variety, yet not crowded, upon a Reverse as this of Ostium. Both as a matter of history and art it will bear critical investigation. The old port of Ostium was constructed by Ancus Marcius, about B.C. 626. He made it a place of importance, and the shipping port of Rome. When the Romans began to be better known as a naval power, a fleet of war-galleys was maintained there. Julius Caesar undertook the enlargement and repair of the port, but Claudius gave himself to the work with great heartiness, and completed it at a cost so enormous that the architect refused to make proposals for it, declaring that it would ruin him. ” So,” says the old historian, ” Claudius, nothing deterred, put his 60ul into the work (rem in animum suum induxit) and completed it in a manner worthy the magnanimity and power of Rome.” Ostium, now styled Ostia, is eighteen miles from Rome, and still much frequented as a watering place. In Hobler’s Roman Coins there are drawings and elaborate descriptions of the port.

No. 3, AV. An elegant gold coin. Obverse. Laureate head of Claudius to the right. Inscription (supplied): Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; Pontifex Maximus; Tribunitia Potestate. For translation see No. 1. Reverse. The image of Victory to the right, inscribing glorious deeds upon a shield. Right foot rests upon a globe. Legend: Victoria August(i) —”The Victory of the Augustus” (more strictly, “the Victory which is the tutelary of the Emperor.”) This coin refers to the success of Claudius (a.d. 4.3) in Britain, for which he triumphed with such great honors. The goddess rests her foot upon the globe as if a new world had been acquired for Roman supremacy. For Britain, divided from all the world, seemed to the Romans a new earth.

No. 4, AE. A Greek Imperial. The style of lettering is extremely curious. We know nothing like it, except the shekels and their aliquots, struck by the Jews when they first acquired the right to coin money, B.C. 140. Obverse. Laureate head of Claudius to the right. Poor art. Inscription (abbreviated): TI KAAYAIOY KAIZAP02 IB—”Of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus, the 12th year.” This sets the date a.d. 52. Reverse. Head of Agrippina to the left. Legend (abbreviated): ArPinniNAN 2EBA5THN IOYAIAN—” The Empress Julia Agrippina.” This was the fourth and last wife of Tiberius, whose hand was among those that gave him his death. The mother of Nero, it is not unpleasant to recall the fact that, she was eventually slain by his order. There ib a countermark before the neck of this portrait a monogram, read BA K for BA2IAEY2 KAAYAI02—” Claudius the King.”

No. 5, AE. Reverse. Two legionary standards, one of them that of seventh Legion, the other not legible, but probably the eleventh. Each of the eagles, with extended wings, rests one foot upon a cippus. Claudius gave great favors to the soldiers of the seventh (” Urban “) and the eleventh (” Claudian ” ) Legions. He described them to the Senate as Faithful and Pious, in memory of which circumstance this coin was struck. A series of articles by the present writer, published in The Army and Navy Journal, 1876, ” The Legions of Rome as illustrated by coins of the period,” is the medium of more extended information under this head.

No. 6, AE. Reverse. Three military ensigns. The central one, on which the eagle with expanded wings stands on thunderbolts, is legionary. The property of the twenty-second (” Primigenia “), which was formed by Augustus, in Egypt, and styled Pious and Faithful. COL A A PATR is read, Colonia Augusta Aroa Patrensis—”The Colona Augusta Aroa Patrens.” This was in Achaia, where the twenty-second Legion, when disbanded by Augustus, had been colonized. For favors received from the Emperor Claudius they struck this coin.

No. 7, AE. Obverse. Unlaureate head of Clandius to the left. Inscription (supplied): Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Reverse. The three children of Claudius, the central figure looking to the left, the other two looking inward. Below them a double coruncopiae overflowing with fruits and foliage. Above, the word LIBERIS (dative plural of Liberi)—”To the (three) children.” Beneath, the initials COL A A P —”Colonia Augusta Aroa Patrens,”—for which see No. C, struck at the same place. The three children here figured are Drusus and Claudia, son and daughter by his first wile, Plautia, and Octavia by his third wife, Messalina. The latter was married to Nero, divorced and put to death by his order.

No. 8, AE Re-terse. The figures of Julius Caesar and Augustus standing on a suggestum to the left. On each side the platform is a square block, as if designed for two other figures. The position is graceful. Their legs are crossed and they stretch the right hand forward as if addressing an assembly. On the suggestum the words DIVVS AVG (nstuB) —” The deified Augustus.” Legend (supplied): Colonia Augusta Julia Philippi. Philippi, a city of Macedon, named from Philip the father of Alexander the Great. Its greatest fame in Roman history was connected with the defeat of the forces of Brutus, which occurred there B.C. 43. The Roman colony at Philippi, in gratitude to Claudius for his liberality, struck this coin in his honor, placing upon the Obverse those two of his predecessors who had been equally generous.

No. 9, AE. Reverse. A figure of Neptune to the left in his shelly chariot, drawn by tritons, one of which is sounding a blast to the winds and waves, with a conch. The trident of the marine deity iB prominent. This type Patin styles ” uncommon and very celebrated.”

No 10, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. Victory marching to the right, with palm branch in both hands, hut no wreath. Legend: MYfiN02 2YNATKIAA APOKEflN (for Antiocheon) — Myonis Synarchia Antiochensium,—”The College of the Antiochans.” The image of Victory expresses the general glorification over the campaign of Claudius in Britain, and the mint-master of Antioch hastens to offer his tribute in the lesB perishable form of coins.

No. 11, AK. A Greek Imperial, to be studied in connection with No. 20. Reverse. A hippopotamus to the right, under the word AYTOKPA (toris) —” Of the Emperor.” This coin was struck at the colony of Caesarea, in Mauritania, established by the Emperor Claudius. In the Millennial of Rome, a.d. 248, the Emperor Philip the Arabian, held a celebration of the one-thousandth year of Rome, with immense pomp, games, gladiatorial contests and the exhibition of wild beasts. Of the latter the collection was worthy the extent and enterprise of the Empire in its palmiest days. There were paraded through the streets of Rome on that occasion no less than 32 elephants, 10 elks, 10 hyenas, 30 leopards, 1 hippopotamus, 1 rhinoceros, 10 ostriches, 20 wild asses, 10 cameleopards, and a host of wild beasts less rare. The coins of the period contain specimens of the greater part of these.

No. 12, AE. A Greek Imperial, to be studied in connection with No. 13. Reverse. A wreath of laurel, within which KOlNfiN KYIIPlfiN — “The Community (Partnership, Fellowship) of the Cyprians.” This partnership between neighboring municipalities was common, even for several centuries after this period. How far it extended, what friendly ties it secured between people otherwise inimical, may be seen in cyclopedias, under this head. The present specimen was struck by some of the free cities named, in acknowledgment of favors received from the Emperor Claudius.

No. 13, AE. A Greek Imperial, to be studied in connection with the last. Reverse. In the center, KYUPinN —”Of the Cyprians.” Inscription: E1II KOMINIOY nPOKAOY AN0YIIATO2 — ” Under Cominius Proclus, the Proconsul of the Cyprians.” The reader will observe some disorder in the lettering — perhaps the fault of the artist.

No. 14, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. Six fertile heads of wheat, tied at the stalks. Greek letters, L B, for Lukabantos 2, “of the second year ” of the reign of Claudius, viz. a.d. 42. This emblem suggests Ceres and her abounding supplies of grain. In the coins of Sicily, styled, ” the native home of Ceres,” on account of its productiveness, the emblem abounds. The coin before us was struck, like the last two, in Cyprus, a fertile island.

No. 15, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. Head of one of the wives of Claudius, under the guise of Ceres, to the right. The words BEA 2EBA2TH are read, ” the Goddess Augusta,” (or the deified Empress), an expression which in those days meaDt as little as the words “Most Gracious,” applied to modem rulers. The bust is modestly draped.

No. 16, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. A temple front of six columns. Inscription mutilated: “- os Anthupatos” for “Lucius Mindius Balbus, Proconsul of the Nicaeans.” Over the entrance the word NIKAIEQN —”Of the Nicaeans.” Nicaea, a celebrated city in Bithyuia, where this monument was struck, appears frequently upon coins.

No. 17, AE. A Greek Imperial. This and the two succeeding coins may be studied together. Reverse. The personification of the river Nile to the right. The face aged, bearded; bust draped. Beneath is a double cornucopiae, from one of which emerges an infant. The word AYTOKPA(tori) is read, “to the Emperor.” The symbolism of this coin is very curious and inviting. That the people of Egypt should wish the Imperial family to be prolific in children could not be more neatly turned than this.

No. 18, AE. Reverse. The head of Isis, the goddess of Egypt, to the right. Bust draped. On the forehead an elephant’s head, a common type on coins of the African provinces. The Greek word is read as in No. 17.

No. 19, AE. Reverse. An eagle standing upon fulmina, to the right. The Greek word is read as in No. 17. The letters below, AIT. are Lukabantos 13, ” of the 13th year ” of the reign of Claudius, viz. a.d. 43. Upon much the larger part of the bronze coinage of Egypt the date is given in this easy manner, a method so far superior to that pursued in most of the mints of the Empire that it is strange the Senate did not appreciate it.

No. 20, AE. Reverse. Joined hands. The Greek word is read as in No. 17.

No. 21, AE. Reverse. The head of Messalina to the right. Hair elaborately braided; bust draped. Inscription: Valeria Messalina Augusta.

No. 22, AE. A Greek Imperial. The Obverse has the laureate head of Claudius to the right, with Inscription: Tiberius Claudius Germanicus Augustus. Reverse. The hcadB of Claudius and his wife Agrippina turned to each other. The reader will imagine the last look of this precious queen when she handed her husband the poisoned draught which ended his life. Legend (Anglici): ” Claudius Augustus; Agrippina Augusta.”

No. 23, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. The head of Agrippina to the right. Bust draped; hair elegantly adorned with two spicae (wheat heads). The Greek word “Agrippina” explains itself. This woman so coveted the possession of power that she said, ” Let me die, but let me rule.”

No. 24, AE. A Greek Imperial. Obverse. Agrippina in the habit of Ceres, to the right. Hair ornately arranged; bust draped. Out of her bosom spring two wheat-ears, and between them a poppy-head. These indicate fruitfulness, and gratitude to God. Inscription (Anglice): Augusta Agrippa. Reverse. This is one of the finest groups of our series. The figure is that of ” the goddess of the chase.” Diana, drawiug forth an arrow from the quiver. In her left hand the bow is vibrating. Upon her head is the crescent-moon. At her feet is a stag, and a nymph is holding the head of another stag. Legend (abbreviated): Em 2EPOTHNIOY KAIIITfiN02 KAI IOYAIA2 2EOYHPA2 AKMflNEDN —”Under Serotenius Capito, and Julia Severa, of the people of Acmonia.” This is a city in Phrygia. “

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