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

Twelve Caesars – DOMITIAN COINS

[Of the twelve Caesars who exercised imperial authority at Rome from B.C. 47 to a.d. 96, Domitian, a.d. 81-96, was the last. The eleven who preceded him under this title were: Julius Caesar, b.c. 47-44; Augustus, b.c. 31-a.d. 14, Tiberius, 14-37; Caligula, 37-11; Claudius, 41-54; Neho, 54-68; Galba, 6S-69; Otho, 69; Vitellius, 09; Vespasian, 69-79; and Titus, 79-81.]

Titus Flavius Domitianus Augustus, twelfth and last of the Caesars, Emperor of Rome a.d. 81 to 96, was born at Rome, October 24, a.d. 52. The reigning Emperor was Claudius. His father was Vespasian, tenth of the Roman Emperors; his brother Titus was his immediate predecessor upon the throne; his mother, Flavia Domitilla, was a lady of good family and worthy behavior. Like his brother Titus, Domitian had a taste for poetry, and spent much time in composing, and reading his productions to others. Pliny and Quintilian nattered him by placing his verses in the front rank of masters; and he proved his fondness for literature by establishing the five-years’ contest in honor of Jupiter Capitolinus, one feature of which was a Musical Contest. He also instituted a pension for distinguished rhetoricians.

Yet he was addicted to excessive licentiousness, seen in the seduction of Roman matrons, and the crowd of mistresses among whom he lived. After the fall of Vitellius, December 18, a.d. 69, Domitian was proclaimed Caesar, and obtained the city-praetorship, with consular power. As his father did not arrive at Rome until January, a.d. 70, Domitian undertook, with Mucianus, to administer the government of Italy until his arrival, but so badly, that he pretended to his father that he had been insane. Prom that time forward Vespasian shut him out as much as possible from public affairs. At the great Judaean triumph, Domitian followed his father and brother, riding a white war-steed, as Augustus had followed Julius upon a similar occasion a century before. Upon his father’s death, June 24, 79, Domitian publicly declared that he had been deprived by Titus of his share in the government by a forgery in his father’s will, for that it had been the wish of the latter that the two brothers should reign jointly.

The death of Titus, September, a.d. 81, after a brief reign of two years, excited popular suspicion againBt Domitian, and some writers plainly assert that he murdered his brother. Nevertheless he was proclaimed Emperor by the soldiers, and wore the purple for fifteen years with little opposition. In the first period of his reign he manifested an equal mixture of vices and virtues. He kept a strict superintendence over the governors of the provinces; enacted various useful laws; endeavored to correct the frivolous and licentious conduct of the higher classes,—corrupted, we may conjecture, by his own pernicious example,— and showed great liberality and moderation upon many occasions. But this was only for a ruse. Later, he became one of the most cruel tyrants that had disgraced the throne. ” His very virtues,” says a historian, “were turned to vices,” and his name is indissolubly linked with those of Tiberius, Caligula and Nero. A.D. 84 he undertook an expedition against the Chatti, and drove back those barbarians to their own country. Returning to Rome, he celebrated a triumph, and assumed the name of Germanicus, so popular with his predecessors.

Wars were also carried on during his reign with the Dacians, Macromanni and Quadi. Various outbreaks and insurrections occurred, frequent in all the history of the Roman Empire. From a.d. 90 the mind of Domitian seems to have been even more beclouded. He baniBhed all philosophers from Rome, and the most distinguished men of the time, especially among the Senators, bled for their excellence. He tried to win the military and populace by donations of money, and the exhibition of the circus and amphitheatre, in which he himself took great delight. In the year 88 he celebrated the Secular Games, corresponding to the modern idea of Centennials. We touched upon these under heads of Augustus and Claudius. In our coins of Domitian several will be found struck in commemoration of these.

Records concerning the Saeculares are scanty. Historians, even, differ as to the frequency with which such important celebrations were kept up. The following data are perhaps as reliable as any: The first Saeculares were held B.C. 508 or 505. The second Saeculares were held B.C. 448 or 345. The third Saeculares were held B.c, 235. The fourth Saeculares were held b.o. 148 or 145. The fifth Saeculares were held b.c 17, by Augustus. The sixth Saeculares were held a.d. 47, by Claudius. The seventh Saeculares were held a.d. 86, by Domitian. The eighth Saeculares were held a.d. 204, by Septimus Severus. The ninth (and last) Saeculares were held a.d. 248, by Philip. ” After a war of forty years,” sayB Gibbon, “undertaken by the most stupid (Claudius), maintained by the most dissolute (Nero), and terminated by the most timid of all the Emperors (Domitian), the far greater part of Britain submitted to the Roman yoke.” The death of Domitian was a fit ending to such a life.

A conspiracy was formed against him in his own palace, his wife, Domitia, being concerned in it, and he was assassinated in his bedchamber, September 18, 96, with seven wounds, being forty-four years of age. We shall vainly look upon the coins of this imperial villain for evidences of his depravity. The head of the church, of the army, perpetual censor, having the tribnnitian and proconsulate powers for life,—there was no dariug in a mint-master to tell the world that the prince was a monster of villainy. On the contrary, we read upon the coins only the better hopes and aspirations of the nation. The attributions of the Ephesian Diana upon the monuments of Domitian cannot fail to remind us that it was under the edict of Domitian that the old bishop of Ephesus, and the other six Christian churches of Asia Minor (St. John the Evangelist), was’ banished to the island of Patmos. Who shall say that the weird shapes of this image of Diana and other deities, of which that region was full, do not enter (but under a higher and nobler meaning) into the strange Imagery of the Apocalypse! Writers claim that Diana was an original Italian divinity, identified by the Romans with the Greek Artemis, by which name she is styled in Acts xix, 35 (Greek version). As early as b.c. 550, Servius Tullius dedicated a temple 1o her on the Aventine.

She was the protectress of slaves; and the day of that temple’s dedication was afterward celebrated annually by slaves, and styled dies servorum (” slaves’ day”). She was said to dwell in groves, and in the neighborhood of wells. She was goddess of the Moon, as her twin brother, Apollo, was of the Sun; so that sudden deaths from sun-stroke and dementia from moonstroke were ascribed to them. At Ephesus, she was identified with the goddess of nature, whose symbolical figure, as in many of the coins we are studying, was hung about with the heads of animals, and presented a multitude of breasts, denoting the fecundity of nature. Upon coins struck at Rome she is usually represented as a healthy, strong, active maiden, handsome, but with no gentleness of expression. She wears the Cretan hunting-shoes Uudmmides), and has her garment tucked up for speed. On her back she bears a quiver, and in her hand a bow or hunting-spear. Her Greek name, Artemis, refers to her pepetual virginity. Her chief joy was to speed, like a Dorian maid, over the hills, followed by a train of nymphs, in pursuit of flying game. It is pleasant to imagine a father, who has sold his package of fodder in the nearest town, and received payment in a new coinage, with the attributions of Diana on the obverse, upon his arrival home calling his children together, and giving them for their evening lesson the whole story of Diana with that earnestness which faith in the goddess and in her legends, and in her divine power, could impart!

The music of the Romans, as illustrated upon the coins of Domitian, was made both by stringed and wind instrum 3nts. In the army they used only the latter. The tuba was a straight brass instrument, like our trumpet; the cornu was bent almost round; the buccina, much like the horn; the lituus (clarion), bent a little at the end, like the lituus of the augur. Of these, the tuba was used for signals to the infantry; the lituus for the cavalry. In civil celebrations, domestic festivals and the like, the double pipe, as in the coins just cited, and the cithara, or lyre, were employed; but we know very little of the quality of music made by such a combination. Judging it by the music of the Orientals at the present day, which is probably changed but little from the earliest, it consisted of a few notes played in octaves upon different instruments, and with little regard to time or any sound rule of musical science. The image of Minerva, finely drawn upon the denarius of Domitian, demands a few remarks concerning that warlike goddess, so great a favorite with Romans. To pay the legionaries their “penny a day” in coins presenting their own chosen deity was as good as doubling the stipend. Homer’s theory of Minerva (or Pallas-Athene) is finely expressed upon the coin. She was one of the great Roman divinities—the thinking, calculating and inventive power personified.

Those who desired to excel in any art or craft implored her aid. She guided men through the dangers of war, where victory is gained by cunning, prudence, courage and perseverance. Hence she is represented with shield, helmet, coat of mail, etc., and the booty made in war was frequently dedicated to her. Her annual festival lasted five days—from the 19th to the 23d of March; for the number live was sacred to Minerva. Another festival was celebrated in June. She had several temples at Rome, one on the Capitoline, one on the Aventine Hills. As she was a perpetual virgin, her sacrifices consisted of calves that had not borne the yoke or felt the goad. Her festivals were styled Minervalia, She was the inventor of the pipe, made first from the bone of a stag. Her favorite plant was the olive, of which she was the author; the animals consecrated to her were the owl and the serpent. Minerva is represented with a serious, thoughtful countenance; her eyes large and steady, like the owl’s; her hair in ringlets, loose, flying over her shoulders. She wears a long tunic or mautle, and bears the aegis on her breast or on her arm, with the head of the Corgon in the center, yhe waB also the goddess of memory.

Her attributions upon the early coins of Attica were the owl, the moon and the olive-branch. Her nicknames in Greek were three: by the farmers she was styled ox-yoker; by the citizens, worker; by the soldiers, front-fighter. At the close of this sketch it will not be amiss to indulge our imagination and call up a scene, say of the time of Nerva (a.d. 96-98), when our first twelve Caesars were dead, and the most searching criticism upon their lives was safe. The scene is that of a pedagogus (schoolmaster) surrounded by his pupils. He is teaching history, the only history worth teaching, the history of the Roman nation. He is teaching it by objects, viz., coins. From a handful of these elear-tongued monuments he expatiates upon the generalship of Julius Caesar; the statesmanship of Augustus; the bigotry of Tiberius; the profligacy of Caligula; the cruelty of Claudius; the ephemeral but evil reigns of Galba, Otho and Vilellius; the excellent rule of Vespasian ; the short but glorious career of Titus; the unmatched and crowning infamy of Domitian. What subjects! What aids in teaching! Nothing germane to the history, the religion, the progress of the Roman nation was wanting to the old pedagogue, skilled to interpret the coins!

WHAT THE COINS TEACH CONCERNING DOMITIAN

Of eighteen coins, silver and bronze, of the Emperor Domitian, 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 as well for the use of Learners as experts.]

No. 1, AE. A medallion. The two faces are separated to give a better appearance to the page. Obverse. The laureate head of Domitian to the right. Features strong and commanding; artistic execution the very best; beardless; shoulders undraped. Inscription (abbreviated): IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XV CENS PERP PP; (resolved) — Imperator Caesar Domitianus; Augustus; Germanicus; Consul 15; Censor Perpetuus; Pater Patriae,— “The Emperor Caesar Domitian ; Augustus; Germanicus; Consul the fifteenth time; Perpetual Censor; Father of the Country.” Reverse. Jove, King of Heaven, seated, to the left, naked to the hips; his feet upon a swppedaneiis (low block or support for the feet; foot-rest); his left hand is supported by the hasta pura; his right holds up a Victorlola, winged and with a crown. Legend: IOVI VICTORI—” To Jupiter the Victor.” The appearance of Jove upon the Roman money had nothing to shock the reverence of a people whose religious ideas were so strangely made up. Indeed when we see the Italian painters at the present day introducing representations of God the Father, and the divine Nazarene in their works, the offense on the part of heathen-artists appears venial.

No. 2, AR. Obverse. Laureate head of Domitian to the right. Features as in No. 1; beardless; bust not draped. Inscription (supplied): “Domitian Augustus Germanicus.” Reverse. A hexastyle (six-columned) Temple; order of architecture, Corinthian; approached by six steps; full front. There are three standing figures in front representing Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. Legend: IMP CAESAR, for “The Emperor Caesar.” This is the Temple which Titus erected to Vespasian, after his father’s apotheosis, and in which the remains of the good old prince were deposited. Titus himself was deified by command of his brother, Domitian, and he has stationed himself as a god with the others. For he writes in one epistle: ” Our lord and god commands it so to be done!

No. 3, AR. Obverse. The laureate head of Domitian to the right. Hair thick and curly; beardless; bust unclothed. Inscription (supplied): Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus Pontifex Maximus Tribunitia Potestate 14—” The High Priest; exereising the Tribunitian Power the fourteenth time.” Reverse. The figure of Minerva Jaculatrix standing, to the right, upon the prow of a vessel. On her left arm a circular shield; her right hand raised as if to cast a dart; at. her feet an urn. Legend (abbreviated): IMP XXII COS XVII CENS P P P; (supplied)—Imperator 22; Consul 17; Censor Perpetuus; Pater Patriae—”Imperator for the twenty-second time; Consul for the seventeenth time; Perpetual Censor; Father of the Country.”

No. 4, AE. This may be studied in connection with the four following. The five were struck to commemorate the Lvdos Saeculares, or secular games,— one of the Centennials of Rome of which mention is made under Augustus and Claudius. The Obverse of each contains the head and titles of Domitian. The legend upon the Reverse is the same throughout the five. Reverse. The Emperor, togated, stands on the right of the field looking to the left. Before him is an ornamented square altar, on which fire is burning. He holds in his right hand the patera, from which he is pouring an oblation upon the altar. Two musicians, one playing on the double pipes, a third upon the lyre, are making loud acclaim. A goat, prepared for sacrifice, is on the right of the scene, having an attendant upon one side and a dog upon the other. There is no Victimarius, or sacrificer. Legend, see No. 5.

No. 5, AE. Reverse. The Emperor, stolated, on the right of the field, looking to the left; before him a round altar, on which fire is burning. He holds in his right hand the patera, from which he is pouring an oblation upon the altar; two musicians play before him on harp and double pipe; an ox to the left, his head held down by an attendant, and the Victimarius (sacred butcher) is aiming the covp-de-grace with a heavy mallet upon the forehead. Legend (abbreviated): COS XIIII LVD SAEC FEC — Consnl 14: Ludos Saeculares Fecit—”Being Consul for the fourteenth time he accomplished the Secular Games”; S. C— Senatus Consulto—” By Decree of the Senate.” This fourteenth Consulate, wc know, began New Year’s day, a.d. 88, and this sets the year in which the Centennial was observed.

No. 6, AE. Reverse. The grouping as the last, save that the altar is larger and more ornamented. There are three musicians, two playing the double pipe, the third, seated in the foreground, the lyre. Legend as in No. 5. There is neither victim no Victimarius.

No. 7, AE. Reverse. Much the same as the last. The altar is smaller and not ornate; there are two musicians with the double pipe and lyre; no victim or Victimarius. Legend, the same as No. 6.

No. 8, AE. Reverse. Much the same as the last. The altar is large and is ornamented. Legend, the same as No. 7. In the background of each of these Secular Coins (Nummi Saeculares) is a Temple. Each presents a shade of difference, but that in No. 6 offers a more elaborate front than the others. The fact that the poet Horace wrote the Secular Hymn {Carmen Saeoilare), has given more interest to the celebration of b.c. 17, under Augustus, than to any prior or subsequent proceeding of the sort. The city then had stood 737 years from its foundation. Heralds (feciales) were sent out to invite all people to a festival “which they never had seen and never could sec again.” Torches, barley, beans and fumigating stuffs were freely distributed to all the people. The jurist Ateius Capito was made ” chairman of the Committee of Arrangements.” Three summer days and nights were given to worship and festivity, when the hymn of Horace wound up the great occasion.

No. 9, AE. Obverse is common to Nos. 9 and 13. ‘ – Reverse. An elegant collection of Roman arms fastened to the pole of a vexillnm, surmounted by a laurel wreath. S. C..— Senatugi Consul to — ” By Decree of the Senate.”

No. 10, AE. ” “. : ‘.’ Reverse. A collection of standards. In the’ center the legionary eagle, with extended wings, standing oh fulmina (thunderbolts); on each side of the eagle a vexillum; below, the letters XXII refer to the 22d Legion, whose soldiers had formed the Colony Patrons, in Achaia, under Augustus, a century before. Legend (abbreviated): COL A A PATE; (supplied)— Colonia Augusta Aroc (Vcl Aroa) Patrcnsis—”The Colony Augusta Aroa at Patrons, Achaia. 1 ‘ “The22d Legion,” says the historian, “first enlisted by Augustus lu Egypt, was led to Patras, or Patrons, in Achaia, and colonized there.”

No. 11, AE. This may be studied in connection with No. 12, having the same Obverse. Reverse. Two youths to the left standing upon a suggestura, on which is seen the words DIWS AVG(ustus)— “The deified Augustus.” Each has his right hand raised and legs crossed; left hand rests on hip. Legend: “Colonia Augusta Philippi.” Domitian founded numerous colonies during his fifteen years’ reign, to which he showed great favors, acknowledged by their recipients in. compliments like this. The two youths represent Titus and Domitian.

No. 12, AE. For Obverse, see No. 11. Reverse. A Colony-symbol, viz., a Colonist driving a yoke of oxen to the right; they arc not yoked or fastened to the plow. Legend (abraded): COL IVL — Colonia Julia—”The Julian Colony.” Sec No. 8 in the coin-sheet of Claudius for cut and description of this coin.

No. 13, AE. For Obverse, see No. 0. Reverse. Domitian triumphing in a quadriga (four-horse chariot) to the right. In his right hand, which also holds the reins, he bears a legionary eagle; in his left, a helmet upon a spear. The action of the horses is superb, and gives evidence of the highest style of art. S. C—Senatus Consulto—” By Decree of the Senate.” We have described the occasion for which the Emperor claimed this public triumph.

No. 14, AE. A Greek Imperial. Reverse. A Canopus to the right; upon his head a lotus-kwiat. The Lotus, like wheat-cars, is the type of abundance, and found as well upon coins of Sicily and Mauretania as Egypt. Its head is similar to that of the paper-plant, from which the kwiat springs. In the mysteries of the Egyptians-it frequently appears and is seen upon a great number of their coins. Canopus was a god of Egypt, named from CANE, referring to the measuring-rod of the Nile. In another sheet we have given the ancient story of the origin of this creature, whose body in a basket, and hideous face, excite the wonder of the beholder. It involved the inquiry, Which was more powerful, fire or water?—the corresponding objects of worship of Chaldea and Egypt.

No. 15. AE. A Greek Imperial. Obverse. The heads of Domitian and his wife, Domitia, facing each other. His head is laureate; hers is wrought by the art of the hairdresser, in marvelous faBhion. Her bust is neatly draped; his face is beardless and bust undraped. Inscription (abbreviated): AOMITIANOS K.U2 2EB TEPMANIK02 AOMITIA 2EBA2TH —” Domitian Caesar Augustus Germanicus; Domitia Augusta.” Reverse. The figure of Hercules to the left. In his right hand an urceola; in his left, his club and lion-skin. Legend (abraded): Em AIM02TPATOY 2TPATHrOY – – – 2MYP—”By Dimostrates, Praefect of the people of Smyrna.” This is the lady whose hand aesisted in closing the career of her wretched husband. The coin was struck at Smyrna, where Hercules was a favored object of worship. The exploits of Hercules form a charming series of types upon Greek and Roman Coins.

This son of Jupiter and Alcmena being promised, as the reward of a faithful life, a place among the gods, resolved to bear with fortitude whatever the gods and men should impose upon him. His exploits arc known as “the twelve labors of Hercules.” The first, the destruction of the Nemean lion with his massive and knotty club, is that which is most frequently illustrated upon coins; where either the club alone is given, or, as in the present specimen, the figure itself. He carried the dead lion to Mycenae, and ever after clothed himself in the skin. His second labor was to destroy the Lernaean hydra, a frequent coin illustration; the third, to bring alive a stag incredible for its swiftness and golden horns; the fourth, to kill the Erymanthian boar; the fifth, to cleanse the Augean stables. In many of his exploits the club and lion’s skin play a part. The frequency with which Hercules enters into the mythology of the ancients is seen in this passage from the poet Nonnius: “He is the same god whom different nations adore under a multitude of different names — Belus, on the banks of the Euphrates ; Amman, in Libya ; Apis, at Memphis ; Saturn, in Arabia; Jupiter,in Assyria; Serapis, in Egypt; Helios, among the Babylonians; Apollo^ at Delphi; Esculapius, throughout Greece.” The Orphic Hymn calls’ Hercules “the god who produced time, whose forms vary, the father of all things, and destroyer of all.” His head is represented as old, heavily bearded and covered with the lion’s scalp. His limbs ore figured as extraordinarily large; his constitution is robust; his body full of vigor. Some of the numismatic titles applied to this demi-god arc: To the Roman Hercules (Herculi Romano); To the health-giving god Hercules (Herculi Deo Salutari); To Hercules of Augustus; To Hercules, Pounder of Rome (ncrc. Horn. Cond.); To Hercules the Victor; To Hercules the Conservator of Augustus, etc.

No. 16, AE. A Greek Imperial. Obverse. The head of Domitia to the right. Bust modestly draped; hair wonderfully wrought. Inscription: “Domitia Augusta.” Reverse. Diana of the Ephesiaus. Her body marked with numerous breasts, which gave her the appellation of Polymamma (the many breasted). Legend: OMONOIA AN0YKAI2ENIIAITOY 2MYP E*E — “The Covenant between the Ephesians and Smyrneans.” This coin was struck under joint authority of these two cities, neighbors within twenty-five miles, having much in common, and united for a long time by the strongest covenant (Omonoia).

No. 17, AE. A medallion. The two faces are separated on the sheet to give symmetry to the page. Obverse. The laureate head of Domitian to the right. Beardless; bust undraped. In the point of the bust is a countermark, a theatrical mask. Inscription: Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus Consul 11; Censor Perpetuus; Pater Patriae —”The Emperor Caesar Domitian Augustus Germanicus; Consul for the eleventh time; Perpetual Censor.” This eleventh Consulship sets the date of the coin as a.d. 85. Reverse. A trophy of arms captured in the successful campaigns which gave Domitian his favorite appellation of Germanicus. Upon a strong post or the trunk of a tree the shields, etc., are fastened; on the right a man is leaning upon a shield; on the left a woman with face covered sits on a pile of shields. Legend: GERMANIA CAPTA—” Germany subdued.” S. C. in the exergue is for Senatus ConBulto—”By Decree of the Senate.”

No. 18, AE. This coin may be studied in connection with Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Obverse. Laureate head of Domitian to the right. Inscription (sup” plied): Imperator Caesar Domitianus Augustus Germanicus Pontifex Maximus Tribunitia Potestatc 8; Censor Perpetuus; Pater Patriae— “The Emperor Caesar,” etc. Reverse. The robed figure of the Emperor to the right, seated on a low tribunal (suggestum) supported by four balls. From two large vases in front he is dispensing donations to two men; upon the platform below him are the words FRVG(es) AVG(usti)—”The food-offerings of the Augustus.” In the rear is a tetrastyle temple. Legend (Anglice): “Consul the fourteenth time; the Secular Games of the People.” S. C. in the exergue — Senatus Consulto —” By Decree of the Senate.” This fourteenth consulate settles the date at a.d. 88.

Besides the seventeen coins figured upon the fourth page of this sheet we bring to our illustrations the testimony of a number of silver and bronze specimens. The French writers claim that Domitian imitated the example of his father and brother in striking a conquest-coin of Judaea, whose type is a Jewess seated on the ground, a soldier standing, and a Roman trophy near by. The legend is IVDAEA CAPTA SC, which we have described in the coins of Vespasian. (See Madden’s Jewish Coinage, p. 197.) Among the existing denarii of Domitian, which are very numerous,— for this class of coins was under the Emperor’s direct control, and he could multiply them to any extent he chose,— we instance the following: 1. Type, Salius (Sains), the personification of health, prosperity and the public welfare among the Romans.

A temple to Salus stood on one of the points of the Mount Quirinalis in Rome. In the coin she is depictured gradient to the left; her head helmeted; in her right hand the lictor’s wand (bacilhtm) with its thick kDOts; in her left, a shield, in which is the head of Pallas, worshiped by Domitian above the other deities. Legend: “Consul the fourteenth time; he celebrated the Secular Games.” 2. Type, an infant sitting on a globe, surrounded with seven stars. Legend: Divus Caesar, Imperatoris Domitiani Filius — “The deified Caesar, son of the Emperor Domitian.” This affecting monument of parental grief was struck in honor of the son of the Emperor, who died at the age of eight or nine years. His name is not given upon coins. He was the first child deified (Divvs Caesar). Great importance was attached at the time both to his birth and death. The seven stars are those of Arctos or Ursa Major, which were considered an emblem of eternity.” 3. Type, the head of Domitia, the Empress. When she gave him a son he honored her with the title of Augusta (Empress). 4. Type, a shield under which are two wheat-stalks crossed. This is the votive shield which Domitian vowed on account of the war carried on by Titus against the Jews, and when the war was ended hung up in the temple of Jupiter Capitoline.

CONTENTS