Reading books

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

Twelve Caesars – OTHO COINS

[Of the twelve Caesars who exercised imperial authority at Home from B.C. 47 to a.d. 96, Otho, a.d. 69, was the eighth. The seven who preceded him under this title were: Julius Caesar, e.o. -17-44; Augustus, e.c. 31-a.d. 14; Tiberius, 14-37; Caligula, 37-41 ; Claudius, 41-54; Nero, 54-68; and Galea, 68-69. The four who succeeded him, Vitellius, 69; Vespasian, 69-79; Titus, 79-81, and Domi.tian, 81-96.]

Marcus Sulvius Otho, eighth of the Caesars, Emperor of Rome from January 15 to April 15, a.d. 69, was born at Ferentum, Etruria, April 28. a.d. 32. The reigning Emperor was Tiberius. His father was Lucius Otho, who held high trusts under the Emperor Tiberius, whom he resembled so closely that it was suspected he was his illegitimate son. He was Consul, a.d. 33, then Pro-Consul, etc. The mother of Otho was Albia Teretina, connected with many distinguished Roman families. The subject of this sketch, an Emperor of only three months’ continuance, was a man of moderate stature, ill-made in the legs and effeminate in appearance. The description of him by Patin (vol. eclxxxviii, p. 99, Harris’ 1 Cat.) is exhaustive. In ambitionibus nihil omisit.

Homo nimiae elegantiae et mollitudinis, corporis studiosus, nam vulso corpore galericulo caplti propter raritatem capillorum adaptato et annexo ut nemo dignosceret; faciem quoque radere et pane madido linere consuevit a prima lanugine ne barbatus unquam esset. (” There was nothing wanting to his efforts. He was a man of excessive taste and softness, and careful of his person. For to his bald head, on account of the scarcity of hair, a periwig was fitted and fastened so well that nobody could detect it. He was also accustomed to scrape his face and to line it out with moist bread from the first down upon his chin; for he never had a beard.”) It would be difficult to find even in a modern Court Journal, more attention to. silly trivialities than this writer (Suetonius) has given here.

The deposition and self-murder of Nero left the world’s Empire without a head. How many ambitious men conceived a hope of assuming it we shall never know. Four, however, are in the current of our coin-sketches, of whom Otho is the second. The man had been one of the companions of Nero in his debaucheries, till he was sent, about a.d. 58, as governor of Lusitania, a trust which he administered with credit during the last ten years of Nero’s life. When Galba received the acclamation of Tmperator from the Spanish legions and set out for Rome, Otho attached himself to that aspirant, hoping to be adopted as his coadjutor and successor. From the great age of Galba, he knew the crown would soon be vacant, and fancied himself secure in the favor of the veteran soldier.

But Galba was familiar with the baseness of Otho’s character, and desiring a more worthy partner and heir, selected L. Piso, a noble young Roman, and on the 10th of January, a.d. 69, designated him as the future Emperor. This sealed his fate. Otho at once organized a conspiracy which broke forth within six days. Galba was murdered and his bloody head brought to Otho, who had already been proclaimed Emperor by the Praetorian Guards. An astrologer had told him that one day he would rule the Roman world. His private affairs were in a ruinous condition. He was ready to promise everything to the troops, and stoop to anything that would secure for him “That glittering gaud, the Imperial Crown of Rome.” Upon the same evening the Senate took the oath of fidelity to the new ruler. Sabinus, brother of Vespasian, was made praefeetus vrbi. Otho offered a sacrifice in the capitol, but enjoyed no favorable omens. The new Emperor devoted himself to the administration of public affairs, and gave hopes to the people that he would turn out better than had been predicted. He was acknowledged Emperor by the governors of Mauritania, Carthage, and the rest of Africa. The legions in Dalmatia, Pannonia and Maesia took the oath of fidelity to him. He was recognized by Egypt, by Mucianus in Syria, by Vespasian in Palestine, by Gallia, Narbonensis, Aquitania and Spain. It speaks well for the condition of Roman roads and the rapidity of the posts that news could be received from such distant points in so brief a period.

But the deity, Nemesis, did not slumber. The man who had mounted the throne by the murder of his predecessor and friend was not destined to long life. He had a formidable opposition in the six veteran legions stationed in Germany on the Rhine, where Vitellius had been sent to take command by Galba himself in the month of December preceding. On the 3d of January, a.d. 69, Vitellius was proclaimed Imperator by his soldiers, and the gage of battle thrown into the arena. Everything favored him. His legions were so ardent as to desire to march to Rome even in midwinter. Two large armies were hurried forward. The Provinces began to declare for Vitellius. Otho at once wrote Vitellius offering to give him all he could desire, even to a share of the throne, but his rival declined all terms of compromise, preferring the arbitrament of the sword. About the 14th of March, therefore, Otho moved at the head of his troops to meet the enemy. He had three excellent and experienced generals under him. He was master of the sea on the northwestern coast of Italy. Otho marched on foot at the head of his men in a plain military equipment.

The hostile armies met on the Po, and the forces of Otho were totally defeated with the loss of forty thousand men. Then the two armies came to terms and accepted Vitellius as their Emperor. Otho still had large forces, but determined to make no further resistance; after settling his affairs, with the utmost coolness and deliberation he stabbed himself. His life had been dissolute and he died in despair. April 15, a.d. 69. when he was in his thirty-seventh year. His sepulcher was made at Brixellum, and Plutarch, who saw it as late as a.d. 80. says it simply contained his name without an epitaph.

There are but few bronze coins of Otho; and this illustrates a fact in Roman coinage to which we again make allusion, viz.. that the striking of gold and silver mouey was the province of the Emperor alone, while those in the third metal were controlled by decrees of the Senate. And as, during the brief government of Otho, he was never fully at accord with the Senate, the coinage was mostly ‘-Imperial.” that is, composed only of the precious metals. The ascription of Pontifex Maximus seems to have been a source of peculiar pride to Otho. In other places we have shown the immense power and immunity attached to this office. It was the chief ecclesiastical authority, that of the Pontifex Maximus, and made the union of church and state complete in the person of the Augustus.

This condition, it is suggested by Mr. Hobler. agrees with that of Melchizedek. who is called, in Genesis xiv, 18, ” King and Priest.” The consecration to the office of Pontifex Maximus was performed with extraordinary pomp and ceremony, as it exalted the individual to be the sovereign judge and director of all public and private obligations of worship. All priests and sacrifices were henceforward under his inspection. The Vestal Virgins stood within his selection and control. The charge of composing the ritualB of worship, appointing religious ceremonies, feasts and institutions, and digesting the public annals of the year, was equally under his care. He was astronomer of the State and regulator of the y,ear, for it was bis duty to see that the festivals appointed for certain days were celebrated in their respective times. Julius Caesar preferred this office to all others, as his coins will show.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church claims the ancient title, and, mutatis mutandis, enjoys the immunities of this office. Among the Mormons, who style themselves “Latter-day Saints,” the Pontifex Maximus, at this writing, ib Brigham Young, and the ecclesiastical prerogative has lost nothing in him. The figure of Fortuna (Good-luck) upon coins is represented sometimes with a rudder, because she is the deity who steers the affairs of life at her will; sometimes with a ball to represent the varying unsteadiness of fortune. To this the poet Burns refers, in his memorable lines. “Though I to foreign lands must hie, Pursuing fortune’s stiddery fta’.” Fortuna sometimes appears with the horn of Aiualthea, as a symbol of her plentiful gifts. This was the goat that suckled Jupiter. She was translated to the skies, along with her two kids whom she had put aside to accommodate the infant deity, and as a reward for her kindness was made into stars, on the arm of the constellation Auriga.

If any doubt the legend, the stars twinkle there nightly to rebuke his incredulity! The child Jove, having accidentally broken off one of the horns of the goat, made it into a drinking cup and ordained that it should ever be full to overflowing with whatever its possessor might wish. Thus it becomes a proper emblem in the hands of Fortuna. At Smyrna the statue of this deity was seen having upon her head a ball sustained by one hand, in the other the horn of Amalthea. The number of coins struck under the auspices of Otho, large as it was considering his brief government of three months, would have been increased tenfold in another term of the same length, as the preparations of the first quarter were large with the engravers. The place where the temple of Juno Moneta and the mint stood was formerly the site of the mansion of Marcus Manlius, who was cast from the Tarpeian rock, b.c. 381. The mere stamping of the coin constitute the least part of the work. The time and space consumed are in the melting, refining and alloying of bullion, casting it into ingots of size suitable for the drawing into plates, annealing, cutting, assorting, weighing, counting, etc.

After every process is complete and the rolled slips are ready for cutting out the planchets (coin-blanks or flans), only one half the area can be utilized, the other half going back into the melting pot in the form of clippings. Among the more pleasing and cheer-inspiring devices impressed upon the coins of the period was that of Hope (Spes). In the popular anxieties that moved every heart, in the frequent changes of rulers and the horrid ” wars hateful to mothers,” a mintage of coins, say a hundred thousand or two, with the well known attributions of Spes,— a sprightly young maiden tripping lightly and looking straight forward— could not fail to awaken the hope expressed in the legend. In her left hand she holds up her robes that in her message to sorrowing hearts she may not be impeded. In her right hand she has a kwiat-bud, beautiful expression of Hope. So well-known was this figure upon coins that we sometimes find it without an accompanying legend. There was a temple in Rome dedicated to Spes, afterward burnt by lightning. Upon a coin of Hadrian we have SPES P R, —” The Hope of the Roman People.” Commenting upon the popular effect produced by impressing such emblems upon money of the nation, we add that in all times the human heart is affected by the same passions, chilled by the same griefs, warmed with the same joy, struck substantially by the same hopes and fears. This fact is as necessary to be kept in the mind of a numismatist as a scholar of any other class. The Roman government knew as well how to move the patriotism, awaken the vengeance, and inspire the hopes of its people by a coin as Napoleon the Great by a bulletin.

WHAT THE COINS TEACH CONCERNING OTHO

Of five coins, silver and bronze, of the Emperor Otho, 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 Greek Imperial. Obverse. The unlaureate head of Otho to the right; beardless; bust undraped; hair thick and bushy, confessing its artificial character. Inscription: 2A OSHNOS KAIZ 2EBA2TOY. If the SA stands for Sulvius this may read, “Of Sulvius Otho Caesar Augustus.” Reverse. A mountain; above it the word KAI5APEA2. The mixture of Greek and Latin letters in these words is barbarous, and leaves the meaning uncertain. Below is the mutilated word ET. – – – for ETOY2— ” Of the year,” the numeral 1 being understood. Mountains are common devices upon coins, but what particular eminence is indicated is not clear; whether Acrorinthus, Argaeus, Aventinus, Casius, Dyndimus, Eryx, Gerizim, Ida, Libanus, Olympus, Paneus, Rhodope, Sipylus, Taurus, or Vesuvius, all of which are found upon coins.

No. 2, AR. Obverse. The unlaureate head of Otho to the right; hair curiously arranged in front, proving the Roman wig-makers no experts in this art; beardless; bust undraped. Inscription (abbreviated): IMP M OTHO CAESAR AVG TRP; (supplied) —Marcus Otho Caesar Augustus Tribunitia Potestate —” Wielding the Tribunitian Power.” Reverse. Victory moving to the right, with her customary attributions, viz., a palm-branch in left hand and laurel wreath in right. Legend: VICTORIA OTHONIS—” The Victory of Otho” (or, ” The goddess Victory tutelar of Otho “). This refers to the victory won by the. soldiers of Otho over Vitellius. The historian Suetonius writes, “he obtained three trifling victories,” though he was afterward overwhelmed in one.

No. 3, AE. Obverse. Laureate head of Otho to the right; beardless; bust not draped. Inscription (mutilated): IMP M OTO CA “the Emperor Marcus Otho Caesar,” etc. Reverse. A laurel crown inclosing simply the letterB S. C, for SenatuB Consulto —” By Decree of the Senate.” Patin, the celebrated numismatist of the seventeenth century, says of this coin: “I wonder at the oversight (mendum) of the mint-master (monetarius) who left out the letter H in the name of Otho. But this ought not to throw suspicion upon the antiquity of the coin, since no internal evidence is wanting in it.”

No. 4, AR. Obverse. The unlaureate head of Otho to the right; hair presents the peculiarly crisp appearance in Nos. 1 and 2, due to his wearing a periwig; beardless; bust undraped. Inscription: “The Emperor Otho Caesar Augustus; exercising Tribunitian Power.” Reverse. An Eques galloping to the right, his pallium flying in the wind behind him; with a spear vibrating in his right hand, he is striking at some object in front. The group is artistically conceived. Legend (abbreviated): PONT MAX; (supplied)—Pontifex Maximus—” The High Priest.” This coin was struck to record the story of the expedition made by Otho against Vitellius. It is Otho himself who is depictured rushing as if against the enemy with a vibrating spear, for so are expeditions noted down in the coins of the Caesars. But this particular expedition, says Tacitus, was wretchedly and too hastily entered upon. In another coin of this class, with the same legend, is a stolated female standing, with wheat-ears in her right hand; in her left, a cornucopia. Another has an Annona scene, pointing out the diligence of Otho in procuring corn for the people of Rome. The same historian writes: “He made money out of the hunger and poverty of the common people by selling provisions.”

Another coin of this class has the same stolated figure, with a pair of scales in the right hand, and a cornucopia in the left. This figure is Justice. The scales in her right hand imply that Bhe weighs all things by the standard of truth. The cornucopia in her left teaches that through her is the abundance of all things. Otho chastised his soldiers on account of their sedition at Rome, which punishment they cheerfully accepted. Two other coins of this class present still further variations. In one is the stolated woman holding out a branch of olive in her right hand. Here she represents Peace. In the other coin she has the patera in her right hand, in her left the spear. In coins of Hadrian (a.d. 117-138), Justice is represented by these attributions; and in coins of Gordianus Pius (a.d. 238-244), Military Concord.

The patera, from which sacred things were poured out to the deities, implies that while Justice flourishes and Concord remains unshaken, an abundance of all things is yielded to men. Another coin of Otho has for a Legend, Pax Orbis Terrarum,—”The Peace of the Universal Empire.” Otho, in spite of his forcing civil war upon Vitellius, sought to perform his office in the interests of peace. When no other external war was troubling the people, after repressing the Sarmaticans, he struck this coin expressing unbroken peace. Why he did not close the Temple of Janus, as Nero did a few years before, does not appear. Perhaps he did. In the coin last mentioned, Peace stands looking to the left, with a long caducaeus on her left arm; in her right hand an olive branch. Another coin of largest size, a Greek Imperial, is described with “the Emperor Marcus Otho Caesar Augustus ” upon the obverse, and “of the year One ” on the reverse, with an Eagle, on extended wings, bearing a wreath in its beak.

The royal bird stands on a branch of laurel. This was struck at Antioch, in Syria, as the branch of laurel denotes. For the laurel (says that reliable numismatist, Vaillant) was sacred to Apollo, tutelar deity of Antioch. And in the great contests of a.d. 68-69 Syria adhered to Otho, following the lead of their ruler Mucianus. In many cities of Syria the Eagle was the symbol of Empire, and the laurel the emblem of Antioch. There are no genuine coins of Otho in First Bronze, so far as yet discovered, although some forgeries are reported extant. Those struck at Antioch are Second Bronze, and the remainder are aurei and denarii, all coined at Rome. Mr. Hobler suggests that the ancient Province of Lusitania, Portugal, would be a good field of research for coins of Otho, as he was Governor there for some three years, and colonial coins may have been struck there. When he heard of the death of Nero, he melted down all his gold and silver plate, converted it into coin, and went with his whole fortune to the aid of Galba.

The questions arise, Whose dies did he use in thus increasing the coinage? Were they Nero’s or Galba’s? How did he get possession of official dies at all? Many queries of this class remain to excite a steady interest in numismatic res.

No. 5, AE. A Greek Imperial. Obverse. Laureate head of Otho to the right; beardless; bust undraped. Reverse. The figure styled Canopus, an Egyptian emblem of plenty, to the right. In front, the letters LA, for AYKABANT02 I —” Of the year One” of Otho’s reign, viz. a.d. 69. The brief and troubled reign of Otho explains the parcity of his coins. Two hundred years ago it was denied by some numismatists that any coins of this Prince were extant. But Patin, whose researches into all classes of monumental evidences of the period were systematic and thorough, and whose investigations, particularly in the science of coins, appear to excel those of other men, gives indubitable evidence to the contrary. He points out coins of Otho in all the great Numismatic collections of that period — in the extraordinary museum of Queen Christina, of Sweden, formed at Rome; in the cabinet of Leopold, Prince Medici; in that of Francis, Gottfried (“a royal thesaurus, and a man by whose words antiquarians are accustomed to swear!”); in the large gathering of the great Duke of Etruria; in that of Seguin, almost the father of numismatical science, and others.

So clear was the proof collected by the enthusiastic Dr. Patin, that since his day the controversy under this head has not been renewed. Doubtless other debates concerning coin-history now in progress will be closed by discoveries that are making under the cant name of “finds.” Very common on the coins struck in Egypt is that singular shape of the human head placed on a kind of pitcher. This deified pitcher is said to refer to a contest between some Persian and Egyptian priests as to which of their deities had superiority. The Egyptians declared that [a single vase, sacred to Serapis, would extinguish the whole power of the Persian deity of fire. The experiment was tried, and the wily Egyptian boring holes in the side of the vase and stopping them with wax, afterward filled the vessel with water, which, gushing through the holes as the wax melted, extinguished the Persian deity. Hence the vase was deified !

The title of Pontifex Maximus, ” High Priest.” is often seen upon the imperial coins. The abbreviations are, P M, PONTIF MAX, P MAX; sometimes only PONT, or PONTIF, etc., the word Maximus being understood. The existence of some four hundred religious temples at Rome devoted to the various gods of the Pantheon, demanded very numerous corps of priests (Sacerdotes). The priests of each temple or deity were usually collected into corporations (collegia), many of which were instituted very early in the history of the nation. These were the Luperci, Curiones, Haruspices; priests assigned to particular gods (flamines), as the Vestal Virgins, the Salii, Augurs, Feciales, etc. During the republic the person in charge of these numerous bodies was called Bex Sacrorum. The first rank of priests was the Pontifices, of which Numa himself (B.C. 700) was Pontifex Maximus, High Priest, or Supreme Pontiff. All the others, even the Vestal Virgins, were under control of the P. M. He had the superintendence of all religious matters, the arrangement of the calendar, the regulation of the festivals, and of the sacred rights connected with them.

It was as P. M. that Julius Caesar reformed the calendar by adding ninety days to the year, and thus correcting the immense error into which chronologists were falling. And it is worthy of note that the Pope, Gregory XIII, who made the next reformation in the calendar, a.d, 1582, did it in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus. The Pontifex Maximus could not be cited before any tribunal, and held his office for life. His dress was a robe bordered with purple (roba praetexta) ; a woolen cap of a conical shape (tutulus vel galerus) with a tasBel (apex) on the top, a small rod wrapped around with wool. He lived in public buildings on the Sacra Via. Now we understand why the Emperors desiderated this office to which were attached so many prerogatives.

Augustus first undertook it as Emperor, and his successors followed his example until Gratian (a.d. 367) abrogated the office itself. With the control of all the colleges of priests of every name and rite as Pontifex Maximus; with the whole popular representation vested in him as TR P; with the great immunities and privileges attached to him as Consul; with the prerogatives of Censor; with the authority as IMP, which admitted of no appeal, it is not to be wondered at that even such infamous wretches as Tiberius, Caligula and Domitian could sit safely upon their thrones, subject to no chances save those of domestic cabals. Gibbon says the Pontiffs were chosen among the most illustrious of the Senators, and the office of Supreme Pontiff (Pontifex Maximus) was constantly exercised by the Emperors themselves. They knew and valued the advantages of religion, as it is connected with civil government. They encouraged the public festivals which humanize the manners of the people.

They managed the art of divination as a convenient instrument of policy, and they respected, as the firmest bond of society, the useful persuasion that either in this or in a future life, the crime of perjury is most assuredly punished by the avenging gods. This scarcity of coins of Otho is not alone due to the brevity of his reign. Others after him, whose government was limited to periods equally brief, were honored by such an outpouring of money from all the mints, metropolitan and provincial,— such a deluge of bronze coinage that there is no difficulty in making up cabinets rich and full. Neither does the fact that so many contestants sought the throne during the period, explain the parcity of Otho’s coinage. The true reason strikes in a monetary law of the Empire, that while the Emperor controlled the mintage in gold and silver, no bronze coinage could lawfully be struck without an orderfrom the Senate; and as Otho was never on good terms with that body in all his brief career, the supply of “the people’s money,” the cheap money in bronze, was cut short. We shall see that as soon as Vespasian sat himself squarely on the throne of the Empire, this class of coinage became abundant.

We have space here for an account of the organization of that vast manufactory of coins, the Mint of the Romau Empire. At the capital city of each province there was an Argentaria, or local mint, with the offices, treasure, machinery, guards and appliances as at Rome, but on a smaller scale. These received their dies, or at least the obverses, directly from Rome; the dies for the reverses were often of domestic manufacture. This explains what all coin-students have noticed, that often the style of art seen in the latter is inferior to that in the former. They called the officers of the mint the Monetaria Duumviri, or moneyers. This include, in a general sense, all classes of workmen employed in and about the mint. So numerous were these that, in an insurrection which occurred in the Central Mint at Rome, during the reign of Aurelian (a.d. 270-275), it cost the lives of seven thousand soldiers to repress it. The coin-emblems of the mint are the Dea-e Pecuniae usually seen, three on a coin, standing, heads to the left, with overflowing cornucopiae on left arm, a pair of scales in righ’t hand, and (sometimes) a heap of ore at the foot of each. The number three represents the three standard metals used in the mint, viz., gold, silver and copper, of which the compound metal bronze was made. Ou the coins of Julius Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius, we find the names of the moneyers designated.

This office of Master of the Mint was continued to a late period, but disappears from the coins. At Rome he is called Magistrates of the three moneyers. His business was to procure gold, silver and copper of improved material and just weight, of which money shall be cut and stamped. As the name denotes, there were always three at a time, but how selected, when changed, what rewards and honors were rendered, etc., we are not informed. At first the coins of gold and silver were as pure as the art of the assayer could devise. Lacking the improved processes of modern times, his skill is yet seen in the high condition of his gold and silver, 940-1000ths pure. The first money made at Rome was under Serrius Tullius, about B.C. 573. This was bronze; many of the pieces being so large as to weigh . 4,000 grains=9 oz. nearly.

Three hundred and four years later, Fabius Pictor coined the first silver; sixty-tree years later (viz. 206), the first gold was coined by that people. Previous to those periods, Greek coins were used by the Romans. The term Moneta (money) originated in the fact that the coinage waB done in the temple of Juno Moneta (Juno the Admonisher). The method of stamping was primitive enough. One of the dies was fixed firmly, face upward, in a wooden block. The other die was attached to a hand-punch. The planchet (or button), at a soft heat, was laid square upon the fixed die. The other was held firmly upon the planchet, and a sinewy slave with sledge-hammer beat strong and repeated blows upon the hand-punch, until the impression was made.

The contrast between this and the American mint in full blast is not merely in the quantity of the work, but also the quality; for whereas a million coins may be turned out in a modern mint with no appreciable difference in the depth of impression and sharpness of the work, in an ancient mint no two coins have the same finish; very few have good impressions; with the majority the punch has slipped from its place, or being a little canted over, one edge of the coin is more deeply impressed than the other. As to relative values of metals, Julius Caesar, as the head of the mint, exchanged gold for silver at nine for one. A little later the ratio was twelve for one. In the time of Constantine the Great, about a.d. 325. fourteen for one. In modern times, since the destruction of the Asiatic mines, the proportion is fourteen and seventeen to one.

The engravings occupying the lower half of the coin-sheet of Otho are:

1. A sepulchral monument of the Romans.

2. The Moles Hadriani at Rome.

3. The Columna Rostrata Duilii.

4. Various patterns of headdresses of Roman ladies.

5. The arrangement of s Roman Legion in order of battle.

6. The formation of the Roman forces styled a Testudo.

7. Roman chariot races. These serve to explain mumismatic references throughout this series.

The Rostra-column named in the last paragraph was erected b.c. 336, iu honor of a victory achieved by C. Maenius over the Antiates. The modern word rostrum, applied to the platform from which a public speaker addresses his audience, is derived from it. The victorious Maenius, surnamed Antiaticus, attached the brazen beaks {rostra) of the captured ships to the forum from which popular harangues were made, and a pillar was erected (Oolumna Maenia) in his honor, as is denoted in our engraving. We have coins of this C. Maenius but spelled Maianius, by which name the old numismatist Patin has distinguished the Gens (Maiania Gens). The Moles Hadnani (“Hadrian’s Sepulcher”) was erected by that monarch about a.d. 125. It exceeded in size and solidity all regal tombs in Rome. It stood at the foot of the Vatican Mount, near the Tiber. It was encased in marble, and elevated by numerous stories. Previous to this reign, the bodies of emperors were usually deposited in the sepulcher built by Augustus about a.d. 10, in the Campus Martins.

Next – VITELLIUS

CONTENTS