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THE
JO U R N L
ROM N
VOLUI\
STUDIES
I
XIV
PUBLISHED
BY
THE
SOCIETY
FOR
THE
PRO-
MOTION
OF
ROMAN
STUDIES
AT
THE
OFFICE
OF THE
SOCIETY
50o
BEDFORD
SQUARE
W.C.i.
LONDON
1924
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BRITANIN4 ON
ROMAN
COINS
OF
THE
SECOND CENTURY A.D.
By JOCELYN TOYNBEE,
NI.A.
Lecturer in
Classics, University College, Reading.
(Pla
te
xxiv.)
The
history of art in the Roman period is the history of the
interplay of two opposite
tendencies.
On the one hand
there is the
Roman taste
for
realism
and
accurate representation,
combining
with
the
Italian love of
naturalism; on the other,
the fostering of
the
Greek
tradition
of idealism
in art
both
by
the
Greek
artists
who
worked
at Rome and
by
the Greek enthusiasts among
their Roman
employers. After
the culmination of
Roman historical
art under
the Flavians
and
Trajan,
the second century, as
is well known,
was
marked by a great
reaction in favour of things
Hellenic,
and it is with
one small part of the Greek revival under Hadrian and the Antonines,
when
Greek
art
blossomed afresh
for the
last
time during the
history
of the ancient world,
that
I
propose
to deal
in
this
paper.
Of
all
departments
of
art
it
is
the
personification
of
countries
and
cities which illustrates most clearly
the
triumph of Greek
traditions at
this
time.
It
has
already
been
shown1
that
the
idea
of
representing
a
locality by
an allegorical figure was
a familiar
one
throughout the
history of Greek art and
flourished
especially in the
Hellenistic
age.
When
we
reach the Roman period,
we find that
the
idea
was no
less
popular,
but that it
is
possible to distinguish
two
contrasting principles upon which the artists who produced the
personifications
worked,
corresponding exactly
with the two opposing
tendencies
which
characterise
the art of the Roman
age as a whole.
The
'
Roman
'
method
was
to
personify a country
in
the guise
of
an
actual inhabitant realistically portrayed
2;
numerous
examples
of
this
principle
are provided
by coin-types, statues and
other
monu-
ments
continuously from Republican
days to the
death of Trajan.
But
in
Greek
art
the
traditional method
of personifying a city
or
country
was
to
represent it,
not by the figure
of an
actual
inhabitant,
but
by
an
abstraction,
an
'
ideal
'
female figure,
intended to symbolise
by her attitude, dress and attributes the essential significance of
I
P.
Gardner,
).Hi.S.
ix, I888,
p.
47
ff.
2
e.g.
the famous so-called
'
Thusnelda
'
in the
Loggia dei
Lanzi
at Florence, most probably
a
personification of
Germania (Strong, Roman
Sculpture, pl. lxviii); Armnenia
ersonified as
a
male
Armenian
captive on coins
of Augustus
with the
legend CAESAR
DIVI
F. ARMENIA CAPTA
(Mattingly,
Coins
of
the
Romian
Empite
in
the British
Museum,
vol.
Ix,
pl.
24)
Ctc.
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'BRITANNIA'
ON ROMAN
COINS
OF SECOND
CENTURY
A.D.
143
that for which she
stood. This principle, to the
complete
exclusion of the ' Roman' principle, with which it had previously
co-existed, underlies the great array of
'geographical' personifica-
tions
which forms one of the most typical
features of Hadrianic
art, and
of which the
famous series of coin-types struck
by
Hadrian in I34-5 A.D. as
a record of his journeys through
the
provincesaffordsby far the finest examples
that have come down
to
us; and this, as I hope to
show, was the
principle on which were
produced the types of
the particularpersonificationwith
which
we
arehere concerned, he
HadrianicBritannia and, with one excep-
tion, her
Antonine successors.
I. HADRIAN.
Of the
twenty-five
countries or cities
represented
n
Hadrian's
great coin-series
ixteen
belong to the southernor easternareasof
the
Mediterranean
world,
and
had alreadyplayed a
part
in
the history of
ancient civilisation before the Roman
Empire and
Roman
Imperial
coinage had come
into existence. In
all
such cases
the
Hadrianic
artist, when
creating
the
type
of
his
personification,
found
himself
heir
to
a
store of
traditional
acts
and ideas,
often of
actualprototypes
from earlierart. But in the taskof personifyingBritanniathe coin-
designer was faced
with the problem
of
embodying
in
allegorical
form a
country situated
on
the north-western
extremity
of
the
Empire,
into
which
the
traditions
of
Mediterranean
civilisation
had
only just begun to
penetrate,
and
of
which
the Hellenic
world
had
taken
no
cognisance. By
instinct
and
training
Greek
artists
working
at
Rome
were
accustomed o turn to Greek
models
for
their
inspiration,
but
in
this case the nature
of
the
subject
demanded
originality.
It
is
the
manner
in
which
the creator
of
the
Hadrianic Britannia
has succeeded
in
combining
faithfulness to
Greek
artistic traditions
with an effective expressionof contemporaryevents of the first
importance
n
Roman
politics that
forms one of
the
chief
points
of
interest in the
type.
Of
the
history
of Britain
under
Hadrian
only vague
and
meagre
recordsare to be found
in
the ancient writers.
Spartianus
mentions
troubles in
the
island at the
beginning
of
the
reign,
1
and dismisses
the
Emperor's
activities
in
the
province-the building
of
the Wall
and the
important
work of
pacification
and
organisation-in
two
brief notices,
2
while a short allusion
s made
by
Fronto to
the losses
sustained
by
the
Roman
troops
at the
hands of
the rebellious
Britons
about the time of Hadrian'saccession. Poor indeedand inadequate
1
Vita 5,
2.
'
Britanni teneri sub Romana ditione
non poterant.'
2
ibid.
ii,
2,
'
Britanniam
petit, in qua multa
correxit murumque per octoginta
milia passuum
primus duxit, qui barbaros
Romanosque divideret'
I2,
I.
'
Compositis in
Britannia
rebus
transgressus
in
Galliam
. . .'
3
The Correspondence
f Marcus
Cornelius
Fronto,
Loeb. edit. vol. 2, p. 22.
'Quid? avo vestro
Hadriano imperium obtinente quantum militum
ab Britannis caesum.'
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144 'BRITANNIA'
ON ROMAN COINS
OF
SECOND CENTURY A.D.
must these literary records appear in the presence
of the enduring
monument of imperial frontier defence left by Hadrian in our
country, and it is to the coins that we must turn for evidence cor-
roborating the fact to which the Wall bears witness,
namely that the
visit
of the
Emperor
to
Britain
in
I2I
A.D. and
the events which
led
up to it, were of peculiar importance and created
an impression
at Rome of which the ancient writers do not give the least suggestion.
The Britannia
is
indeed unique as being the only
'
province
'
type
of which there were two
issues
; one belongs to the main series of
I34-I35 A.D.,
and the
other,
the
coins of which correspond
n
style
and legends with those of II9 A.D.,1 iS contemporary with affairs
in Britain immediately preceding the imperial visit. Another
'geographical' type of an earlier date than the series proper, the
Restitutori
Orbis
Terrarum,
was
issued
by
Hadrian at the end of I20
A.D.
or early
in
I2I
as a programme of the journeys throughout the
length and breadth
of
the Empire,
which
he
had in view.2 So in
1I9 A.D. coins were
struck with the
type
of
the personified Britain,
as having the distinction
of
being
the
first province to which the
Emperor gave
close attention.
British
politics
must soon indeed
have claimed both
his
own personal interest and the interest of the
Roman government
and
of
the
capital
in
general,
if historians are
right in connecting the allusions made by Spartianus and Fronto
to disturbances
in
the island
on
Hadrian's
accession
with a serious
military disaster
in
which the Ninth Legion was
cut to
pieces.4
The
type may
thus
commemorate the
inauguration
in
I
19 A.D.,
as a
result
of this
defeat,
of
the
new frontier
policy,
the
building
of the
Wall,
the
importance
of
which not
only
caused Hadrian
two
years
later
to cross
to Britain
and
watch the
progress
of the work
himself,
but
also claimed
immediate
recognition
on
the
coin-types
of the current
year.
The
early
Britannia coins have
then,
in
common
with the
coins
of the
Restitutori Orbis Terrarum
type,
the interest
of
being
the
forerunners,
struck
before Hadrian set
out
upon
his
first tour,
of
the
great
Hadrianic
series
of
'
geographical
'
personifications.
After
the appearance
of
these two
types
the mint was
inactive,
as far as
coins
of
this class
are
concerned, throughout
the whole
period
of the
Emperor's
travels until
the issue of the I
34-5
series as a
retrospect
of
what had
been
accomplished.
Then
the Britannia
type appears
once more
in its
place among
the
types
of the
other provinces
and
cities
of
the
Empire,
with
the
normal
legends
and
portrait style
1
Mr.
Mattingly
of the
British Museum
has now
established the following chronological sequence
for the
earliest group
of
'
cos. iii
'
coins,
namely
those
on which the Emperor
is given
the title
of
Pontifex
Maximus:-
PONT. MAX. on
rev:
I
I9
A.D.
P.
M.
,
obv: Izo-early
121
A.D.
P.
M.
,
rev: 121-122
A.D.
Our Britannia
type,
which in its
earlier
issue
bears
the legend PONT. MAX. on the reverse, thus belongs
to the year
119
A.D.
2
Cohen, Les
monnaies
de l'empire romain2,
ii,
p.
213,
no.
1285
i1.
(1
Obv.: IMP CAESAR
TRAIANVS
HADRIANVS
AVG.
Rev.:
BRITANNIA (exergue) PONT.
MAX. TR.
POT.
COS.
III.
S.C.
Cohen p.
cit.2ii, p.
12I,
no.
197
1 2
(Plate xxiv, r).
4
G.
Macdonald,
Roman
Wall
in
Scotland, p. 6.
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'BRITANNIA ON
ROMAN COINS OF
SECOND CENTURY A.D. 145
of the year.
1
The Restitutori
Orbis Terrarum type was not re-issued,
but it is possible to imagine that these two early types together
met with a success and popularity which may
have contributed
towards the formation
of Hadrian's scheme for using the reverse-
designs of a great coin
series as a medium for propaganda, for
disseminating that idea
of the Empire which it had been the chief
purpose of his journeys
to
foster, the conception
of a great fellow-
ship united by a common Graeco-Roman civilisation.
Apart
from
the
difference
in
the obverse
portrait, a certain
inferiority
in
the style
of the reverse design is to
be noticed in the
Restitutori Orbis Terrarum
coins as compared with the coins of
134-5
A.D.
Perhaps the fact that the type of the personified Britain
was designed during the same period (II9-I22 A.D.),
apparently by
an
artist
less skilful
than
the coin-designers of the latter part of
Hadrian's
principate,
and was, by reason
of
its popularity,
used over
again without alteration
in
the issue of the
great
series, may account
for a certain obvious
defect
in
the
Britannia
figure. It is by
no
means easy to decide whether Britannia is intended
to be in a seated
or
in
a standing posture,
and
Cohen, indeed, has
gone so far as to
distinguish two varieties
of
the
type, one seated and the other
standing. But between
the
various
specimens
of the type there
is
no difference marked enough to warrant any such distinction; and
although
it is difficult to
describe
Britannia as
seated,
since in
no
case is there the slightest
indication of what
she is
seated on, it
is
still more difficult to see
how she could keep her balance were she
standing. It seems more
reasonable
to interpret
her consistently as
a
seated figure, supported
by
some
object
which has not been allowed
to appear
in
the
design,
and
to
attribute
this
somewhat
serious
omission
to
lack of
skill
or
judgment
on the
part
of
the
artist.
Though somewhat
inferior
in
certain
points
of
execution,
the
Restitutori Orbis
Terrarum
type
is
no less
Greek
in
method
and
con-
ception than the types of
I34-I35,
and the same is true of the
Britannia of
I
I9.
This first
issue
of
Britannia coins is
very probably,
as
we
have
seen,
to be
associated
with a
military
disaster
followed
by
an
important development
in
the
history
of the
military occupa-
tion
of the
province.
Yet it
is
not
as
the
conquered
barbarian of
the
'
Roman
'
type, merely recording
the immediate
military
consequences
of
a
British
rising,
but as
an
essentially
'
ideal
'
figure,
embodying,
in
the
traditional Greek
manner,
a more universal
aspect
of
the
country,
that Britain is
personified
on Hadrian's coins. The
type
has
indeed been described as that of ' Britain
subdued.'2
But
the
attitude
with the elbow
resting
on the
right
knee and the
right
hand
supporting
the head is not one of
dejection.
Britannia does
1
I
Obv.HADRIANVS
AVG. COS.
111. P.P.
Rev.BRITANNIA
(or BRITTANNIA) S.C.
Cohen, op. cit.2 ii, p.
IZI,
nos. 194-196,
198, 199.
,El
2.
G.
Macdonald, p. Cit.
pl.
i, A.
2.
Haverfield,
RomanOccupation
of Britain, fig.
4, z (Plate
xxiv, Z).
2
G.
Macdonald,
op.
cit.
p.
7.
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I46
'BRITANNIA'
ON ROMAN COINS OF
SECOND CENTURY
A.D.
not
look
down,
but straight
out
before
her; the figure
suggests,
not sorrow, but vigilance. 1 She is Britannia Graeco-Romanised
rather
than
Britannia
capta, an
outpost of
the Roman
Empire,
armed,
as
is
the
case with
the
personifications
of other
frontier
provinces,
because
she
is
taking
her share
in the defence
of
the
Empire's
boundaries.
We
might
almost
describe
the
type
as
symbolic
of the watch
on the
Great Wall,
the
construction
of
which
was
now
being planned,
if not already begun,
'
qui
barbaros
Romanosque
divideret.'
Britannia
is
characterised
by
native
dress and
arms.
She wears
a short tunic,
braccae,
short
boots
and an
ample
cloak
ornamented
round the bottom with a fringe,2 fastened on the right shoulder,
covering
the
breast,
left shoulder
and upper
arm and
hanging
down
behlind,
while
it
is
brought
round
again
in front
across
the knees.
She
holds
in her
left
hand a
spear,
sometimes
reversed,3
and at
her
left side,
resting
on the ground,
is a
large
shield,
on which
her left
hiand rests,
with
a
decorated rim and a
great
spike in
the centre.
4
The rocks
on which
her
right
foot
is
placed
are, perhaps,
intended
to
suggest the
bleak
and
rugged character
of the
scenery
of northern
Britain.
5
In
one
detail
the Britannia differs quite
markedly
from
the other personifications
of the
Hadrianic series, that
is
in
the treat-
ment of the hair. Britannia's hair is not worn with a fillet in a roll
round
the
head and
knotted
behind,
the usual Greek coiffure,
which
occurs even
in
the
case of the figures
personifying
such outlying
provinces
as
Dacia,
Thracia
and
Noricum,
but it
is
turned
back
from the
face
in thick,
waving
locks, somewhat
resembling
the
hair
of
one of
the Provinces
from the
Hadrianeum.6
Possibly
the
difference
of
treatment
may
be
accounted
for
by
supposing
that
a
less
skilled hand
found
the
hair easier
to indicate
by
this
method
when
dealing
with
a full-face instead
of a
profile
;
or it
may
be
a
deliberate
touch
of
realism on
the
part
of
the
artist,
who
in
designing
a
tvpe
as a
contemporary,
rather
-than as a
retrospective,
record
of events
in Britain in
i19,
might
more
naturally
tend
to
suggest
the
physical
characteristics
of
the
people
on
whom
attention
was
at
the
moment
focussed.
I
Mr.
Mattingly
has
pointed
out to
me that
Britannia's
attitude
bears
a distinct
resemblance
to
that
of
Securitas.
2
Cf.
the
cloak with
a
fringed
border worn by
the
captive
woman
on the so-called
'
Trophy
of
Marius'
(Biesikowski,
De simulacris
barbararum
gentium
apud
Romanos,
p. 39,
fig. I9).
3
Never a sceptre, as Cohen sometimes describes it.
4
This remarkable
type
of shield,
for
which
I can
find
no parallel,
seems
to have been peculiarly
British,
though
neither
Caesar nor
Tacitus
nor any
other
of
our ancient
authorities
mention
it.
The
popular
notion
that the
British chariot
wheels
were
equipped
with
spikes
or
scythes
appears
to rest
on
very doubtful
authority
(Daremberg
et
Saglio,
s.v.
Essedum,
p. 8I5,
and
Dechelette
Manuel
d'arche-
ologie,
i i i I 83).
5
Mr. Mattingly
has made
the
interesting
suggestion
that
these
are not
rocks
but the
actual
Wall
itself.
The regularity
with
which they
are
arranged
certainly
favours
the idea that
they
represent courses of stone, but at the same time it
should
be
noticed that
in
Hadrian's
Dacia
type,
where
there
is no
question
of a wall, the
rocks
on
which
the
province
is seated are
even
more sym-
metrical.
6
Biefikowski
op.
cit.
p.
79,
fig. 75;
Lucas,
jabr-
buch
des
kaiserlichen
deutschen
archdologischen
Instituts,
Band
xv, .1900,
fig. 13.
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'BRITANNIA'
ON ROMAN COINS OF SECOND CENTURY A.D.
I47
The
military
side of Hadrian'sactivity
in Britain
is also com-
memorated by coins of the ' Exercitus ' type with the legend
EXERC.
BRITAN.
or
EXERC. BRITANNICVS. 1 Of the fact that there
was another
side to
the Emperor's
work in the province
we should,had we
only
the
literary
records
to
rely upon,
be entirely without
evidence;
but
here
again
the coin-typessupplement
our
knowledge. The
type
Adventui
Aug. Britanniae
struck
in
I34-5
A.D. gives
us a different
conception
of the personified Britain.2
Britannia
stands in
the
usual
attitude
of the provinceon an
'
adventus coin,
looking to
the
left
towards
the
Emperor
who greets her from
the other side of
an
altar,
and
holding
a
patera
n her
right
hand.
Not a trace
of anything
militaryis to be found in this figure. She wears the regular Greek
dress,
the
long
chiton
reaching
o the
feet
and
the himation
draped
in the usual way,
hanging
down the back
and brought round
in
front
across
the lower
part
of the
body
with one corner thrown
over
the left
arm.
The upper
edge
of the garment is apparently
drawn
over the head
to
form
a hood
or veil. Obviously
t is the civil
area
of
Britain
that
is here
personified.
Britannia
is welcoming
Hadrian
as the
patron
of her civil life,
whose interests the Emperor,
while
chiefly,
no
doubt,
concerned with the
strengthening
of
the
militaryfrontier,
did
not
ignore nor neglect.
The evidenceafforded
by this AdventuiAug. Britanniaecoin-type for the prosperityof the
civilian
population
of
Britain
during
the
Hadrianic
age
and
its
gratitude
for
the
imperial
favour
has
been
confirmed
by
recent
excavations
on
the site of the Roman
city
of
Viroconium Wroxeter).
Here
in
I30
A.D.
the tribal
community (civitas)
of the Cornovii
erected
a
large public
building
and
set
up
over the entrance
an
inscription
recording
ts
dedication
to the
reigning
Emperor.3
After
the first
few decades
of the
Roman
occupation
Viroconium
ceased
to be
a
militarystation
and
settled down
to
a
peaceful
existence as
a
Romano-British ountry
town,
4
and
the new Wroxeter
nscription
is
unique
as being at present the only inscription of Hadrianicdate
from
the
civil
area
of Britain. Its
importance
for our
purpose
lies
in
the fact
that,
with the
'
adventus
coin,
it shows us
Britain
in the
north-west
oining
with
the
provinces
of
the
south
and east
in
bearing
witness
to
Hadrian as
the
promoter
of
that
peaceful,
prosperous
city-life
which the citizens
of the Roman
Empire
had
inherited
from
the
Hellenistic
world.
II. THE ANTONINES.
In the Antonine
period
we meet
again
with that contrast
between
the Greek and Roman points of view in art which the uniformly
1
Cohen,
op.
cit.2 ii,
p.
I53, nos.
555,
556.
Mac-
donald,
op
cit.
pl.
i,
A.
x;
Haverfield,
op.
cit.
fig.
4,
1.
2 |
Obv.
IIADRIANVS
AVG. COS.
III
P.
P
.
Rev. ADVENTVI
AVG.
BRITANNIAE
S.C.
Cohen, op.
cit.
2ii
p.
0og,
no. zS. .1EI Plate
XXIV,
).
3
Birmingham
Post,
Tuesday, July
15,
1924,
p.
7;
Antiquaries
Journal, October, 1924
. rear's
Work,
1923-4,
p.
8z;
Classical Review,
vol.
xxxviii,
Nov.-Dec.,
1924~
p.
146.
4l-Iaverfield,
Victoria
County
History of
Shrop-
shire, i,
pp.
216,
244, 245.
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I48
'BRITANNIA
O.N
ROMAN COINS OF SECOND CENTURY
A.D.
Greek character of Hadrianic work had for the
time being obliterated.
On the one hand the Hellenic renaissance of the Hadrianic age still
exercised a powerful influence; we find work
of Antonine artists
which preserves, both in method and
in
idea, the
traditions of Greek
art. On the other hand
there is distinct evidence
of a tendency,
which
began to show itself during the reign
of Hadrian's successor,
to break away from the
Greek tradition, to subordinate the 'ideal'
in favour of the more definitely Roman preference
for the actual and
the real. As far as the personification of countries
and cities is
concerned, the Hellenic
element is, as would
be expected, still
predominant. The coin-series
issued by Antoninus Pius in the first
year of his principate, to commemorate the offer of the aurum
coronarium,bears so close
a resemblance to Hadrian's series of I 34-5
that it seems not unlikely that both series were
the product of the
same school. Apart from
this series of I39 the personifications of
only
two
countries
are to be found
on
the coins
of Pius, Italia and
Britannia.
The
Italia type,' issued
first
in
I39
and
again
in
I40-3,
exhibits all the
characteristics of Hadrianic
art,
and
is identical on
the coins of both dates.
Of the coins with the personified Britain as
their reverse design
there were also
two
issues,
but
here the
types
are
not identical. Whereas
the
types
of
the
earlier issue are essentially
Greek
in
character,
those of the
later
issue
do,
to
some
extent,
illustrate
the
'
Roman
'
tendency
in
Antonine
art, a
tendency
which is also
illustrated by certain
features
of
another
series of
monuments
of
Pius'
reign which
belong
to this
particular
class
of
personifications,
the Provinces
from the Hadrianeum.
The Britannia coins
of Pius'
first
issue
date from the
Emperor's
third
consulship, I40-3
A.D., and show
three varieties
of
type.
One
of these2
is,
as
regards
the attitude and attributes
of
the
figure,
clearly
reminiscent
of
Hadrian's Britannia.
The
province
is
seated
to the left, again without any indication of what she is sitting on,3
her right
foot
resting
on
a
rock. She
holds a
spear
in
her
right hand,
while
her left rests
upon
a
large shield,
on
which
is an
ornamental
pattern radiating
from a
great spike
in the centre.
In
certain
points,
indeed,
there
is
divergence
from
the
Hadrianic
type.
Pius' Britannia
does
not
support
her head
with her left
hand,
but
grasps
in
the
latter
her
spear;
her
face
is
shown,
not
in
full,
but
in
profile;
she
wears
a
long chiton,
and
her
himation,
which
is fastened
by
a
clasp
in
front,
has no
fringed
border.
Also,
this Britannia
is
unique
among
all
other
personifications
of the
province
in the fact that she
wears, apparently, a helmet.4 But the influence of the Hadrianic
I
Cohen,
op.
cit.
2ii,
pp. 314-315,
nos. 463-472.
2
Obv.
ANTONINVS AVG.
PIVS. P.P.
TR. P. COS
III.
Rev.
BRITAN
(in
field)
IMPERATOR
I
S.C.
(circumference).
,Cohen,
op. Cit.
2ii,
p.
28i,
no.
11
5.
I"' (Plate
xxIv,
4).
3
Here, however,
it is just possible
to suppose
that the
seat
is
concealed behind
the
shield, whereas
the design on Hadrian's coin
does not admit of
this supposition.
4
The British Museum
does not possess
a
specimen
of
this
coin, and
the
bronze cast
in the
Ashmolean
Museum
is taken from a
poorly preserved specimen,
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'BRITANNIA ON
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I49
type, not
only upon the composition
of the
design, but also upon the
whole idea of the figure, is perfectly obvious. Pius' type displays
the same
attitude of vigilance,
the same conception of Britain, not
as the home
of a conquered
people, but
as a unit of the Empire in
her capacity
as a frontier
province, an outpost
of Roman civilisation
in the north-west.
The same idea underlies
the other
two types of
this issue which, while
showing
greater divergence in
detail from the
Hadrianic Britannia,
reproduce its spirit
with no
less fidelity. Of
these
one,1
of which the British
Museum possesses
a fairly
good
specimen,
is not
mentioned by Cohen.
It shows Britannia
'
ruling
the waves,' for the
globe on which
she is seated to the
left, in a some-
what precarious manner, floats upon the sea, an obvious allusion to
the fact that Britain
is an island. She
wears short boots, braccae,
a short chiton and a cloak fastened
on the right shoulder.
Her left
elbow
rests upon
a round shield with an
ornamental rim, and
she
holds
in
her left
hand a spear
and in her right a legionary
standard.
2
The face
is seen in profile and
the hair
is worn in a roll round
the
head and fastened
into a knot
behind. The significance
of the globe
is by no
means clear.
A globe is the attribute
held in the left
hand
by
Hadrian's Orbis Terrarum3
and by Trajan's
Italia, 4while
a
large
globe
forms the throne of Pius'
fine seated
Italia.
In
the case
of
both these personifications the appropriateness of the attribute is
too
obvious to require comment.
But it
is
not easy
to
see
why
Britannia should
be given this symbol
of sovereignty.
The only
other
monument on which
a globe is
in
any way
associated with
Britain
is the reverse of a
coin of Pius of the same
period,
showing
a
winged Victory
standing
to the
left on a
globe
with the
legend
BRITAN across the field.
6
Figures
of Victory on
a
globe
are,
of
course,
common,
7
but
in this
instance
it is
just
conceivable that if the coins
with
the
Victory
were
struck
before
those with
the
Britannia,
the
globe
on
which
Victory
is
poised
may
have
suggested
to the
designer
of
the
Britannia
type
the idea of
seating
her
upon
one. Or
possibly
the
globe may
refer to
the remote situation of
Britain-'
et
penitus
toto
divisos orbe
Britannos.'
8
But
these are
mere
conjectures,
and
beyond conjecture
it
does not seem
possible
to
go.
Not
a
and
is
therefore not very reliable
as
evidence for
details.
But
after
examining the latter, I am
inclined to decide
in favour of Britannia being here
represented with a helmet. Possibly the
combina-
tion of long chiton
and himation indicates an
attempt to assimilate
the Britannia to
the
Roma
type. It is not
possible
to come to any definite
conclusion about the treatment of the hair of this
Britannia
from the Ashmolean
cast.
I(
Obv.
ANTONINVS
AVG.
PIVS
P.P. TR.P. COS III.
Rev.
MPERATOR 1I
(circumference)
BRITAN
(exergue)
s.c. (Plate
xxiv,
j).
2
I cannot discover anything to account for the
use of the legionary standard in
this
and
in
the third
type of
Pius
140-143
Britannia issue. In all
Hadrianic types and
in
all
the
other types
of Pius
where a standard is an attribute of a personified
province it is the vexillum
which is represented.
The introduction
of
the legionary standard
in
these
two types
seems
to have
been
an
experiment
which
was tried and then abandoned,
for the vexillum
reappears in the Britannia type
of
Pius'
155
issue.
"
Cohen, op. cit.
2
ii, p. 213, no.
i285.
Cohen,
op. cit.5
ii,
p.
37, no. 179, pp.
51-52,.
nos.
326,
327-
6
Cohen, Op.
cit.5
ii, pp.
314-315,
nos. 463-472.
6
Cohen, op. cit.5 ii, p. z8i, no. 113.
7
e.g. Roscher, Lexic(n, Band
iii, p. 335, Abb.14-
Daremberg et Saglio, figs. 7466
and
7467.
8
Vergil, Ecl. i, 66.
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I50
BRITANNIA ON
ROMAN COINS
OF SECOND CENTURY A.D.
vestige
of
the idea
of
Britannia Capta is to be traced either in this
type or in the remaining type of
I40-3.
In the latter1 Britannia
is seated to the left on a rock, not, as Cohen describes her,
'
dans
l'attitude de la tristesse,'
2
but in a posture indicating serenity and
vigilance. She looks straight out in front of her, her left arm resting
on the rim of a large oval shield with an ornamental border and
central spike, supported on a helmet. Her coiffure, dress
and
attributes are identical with those of the type with the globe-neatly
dressed hair, short chiton, cloak, braccae and boots, with the spear in
the left hand3 and the legionary standard in the right.
The occasion for the first issue of Britannia types by Pius can be
easilydetermined. From about
I39-I44A.D.
the Roman governor of
Britain was Lollius Urbicus,
4
under whose auspices, so Pius'
biographer, Julius Capitolinus, tells us, the Britons were defeated,
and a turf wall-the wall between the Forth and Clyde-was
erected
in the north of the island.5 The acclamation of Pius as Imperator
for the
second time has been connected with Lollius' victories, and,
as
this
acclamation
is
known from epigraphic evidence to have taken
place
at
the
end of
I42
or
beginning of
I43,6
we may venture
to fix
the date
of
the Britannia types which bear the legend
IMPERATOR II
with more
precision than Cohen has done, assigning them to
the
early part of the year
I43.
But it was, doubtless, to commemorate
not
so
much
the victories
I
as the new line of frontier defence that
the
Antonine artists created the three types of the vigilant Britannia.
In so
doing, they adopted the very device used by the Hadrianic
coin-designer
for
symbolising the watch
on
Hadrian's Wall, and,
while
they
introduced
new details and new variations, they adhered through-
out
to the
same underlying principle of personifying the country,
in accordance with Greek tradition, in its
'
ideal
'
and
'
universal'
aspects.
8
1
Obv.ANTONINVS AVC. PIVS. P.P.
TR.P.
COS III.
Rev.
BRITANNIA
(exergue)
IMPERATOR
II
(cir-
cumference) s.c.
Cohen,
op.
Cit.2
ii,
p.
282,
no. I
9.
{
bv.
Same legend.
Rev. B3RITANNIA S.C.
Cohen, Op. cit.2
ii, p.
28I,
no.
II6; G. Macdonald,
op.
cit.
pl. ii,
I
(Plate xxiv, 6).
2
Cohen makes this
remark
only in connexion
with
his
no. I
I6,
but
presumably
he
intended it
also
to apply
to his no.
I
I9,
the
types
of
both coins
being
identical. Jatta (Le rappresentanze figutrate delle
provincie romane, p.
I5),
following Cohen,
makes
the
mistake of
placing
this
coin
under
the
heading
'T'ipo della provincia capta.'
3
In the British Museum specimen the spear and
the
spike
on the
shield
are
practically obliterated.
It is, however, just possible to distinguish their
traces.
4
D. Atkinson, The Governors of Britain fromn
Claudius o Diocletian,
.R.S.
xii,
I922,
p.
66.
5
luli Capitolini Antoninus Pius
5,
4.
'
Britannos
per Lollium Urbicum
vicit legatum alio muro
cespiticio summotis barbaris ducto.
6
G. Macdonald, op. cit. p. 8.
7
It must have been
for this purpose that the
coins with Victory and the legend BRITAN
were
struck, cf.
supra
p.
149,
note 6, and G. Macdonald
op. cit. Plate i, A 3; Haverfield,
op.
cit. fig. 4,
3.
It is natural to suppose
that
these
were issued
imme-
diately
after
the
successes of Lollius and
probably
before the Britannia types.
8
I suggest the following chronology for
the
cos.
iiI Britannia types.
The activities of Lollius
occasioned three experiments
in
'
Britannias
'
early in 143 A.D.-(i) Britannia
in
quasi-seated
attitude with helmet (?), long chiton and spear=
Cohen
i i
5;
(ii) Britannia seated on globe *
(iii)
Britannia seated to
1. on rock=Cohen II9.
All
these coins have
the
legend
IMPERATOR II.
(i),
from
its close resemblance to
the Hadrianic type, I should
place first in date-(iii) would certainly seem
to
come
last.
It
is decidedly
the best design of
the
three, and
was
evidently
popular, since Commodus'
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8/9/2019 'Britannia' on Roman coins of the second century A.D. / by Jocelyn Toynbee
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'BRITANNIA
ON
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COINS
OF
SECOND
CENTURY
A.D.
I5I
Pius' second
issue of
coins with Britannia
types was some
twelve
years later than his first issue and dates from his fourth consulship
in the year
155 A.D. We
have seen
that the events
associated with
Lollius'
activities in Britain
can be
assigned to a
definite date, which
tallies exactly with
the date of the
earlier Britannia
coins.
But it
is
not
quite so easy to place
the other
literary record that has
come
down
to us
of affairs in
Britain during
this reign,
namely the
statement
of Pausanias that
the
Emperor annexed the
larger part of
the
territory of
the Brigantes
because they had
made an
attack
upon the
Genounian 'moira' (a
district otherwise
unknown),
which
was
subject to
Rome.1 The problem
of dating has,
however, recently
been solved for us by two modern historians of Roman
Britain.2
As it
is
clearly impossible to
identify Pausanias'
account of
a campaign
against the
Brigantes with
Capitolinus'
account of
Lollius'
operations
in
Scotland, it seems not
unreasonable to equate
the former with
events in
Britain
which
occasioned
the issue
of Britannia
types
in
I55.
That
events of
importance did
take place in Britain in
I54
or
I55
is
the natural
conclusion to be drawn from
the existence
of
such coins
at this date, and
the
combined evidence of
two inscriptions
found in
Roman
Britain
makes this
conclusion a practical
certainty.
An
inscription
from
Birrens,
in
the region of
the Brigantes,
tells
us
that the Roman governor of Britain in
I58
was Julius
Verus,3
while
from
another
inscription found in
the
Tyne, we
learn that this
Verus
had been
sent to
Britain with
a special draft of
troops
from
Germany.
The earliest
date
by
which
Verus could have reached
Britain
is
I575
so
he
cannot
be credited
with having himself
crushed
the British
rising,
probably
Pausanias' Brigantian
rising,
which
the
coins
of
I55 commemorate. But it would
seem
that this
rebellion, though quelled for
the
time being, had been a
very
serious
one and
had
perhaps
threatened to break out
again,
and that
it
opened
the
eyes
of
the Roman
government
to
the
necessity
of
reinforcing the garrison of the province with
troops
drawn from
elsewhere,
when
the new
governor
was
appointed.
A serious
rising,
possibly accompanied
by
a
massacre
of
Roman
troops
and
put
down with
considerable
severity,
is
just
what the
Britannia
type
of
I55
A.D.
suggests.
6
Here
we
have
no
pure
abstrac-
medallion
(vide
infra)
is an
almost exact copy of it.
(ii) may
be dated between (i) and (iii); as far as
style and
composition go, it holds an intermediate
position
between the other two. I would also
suggest that the
c
)s.
III
coins
with the same type as
(iii) but
without IMPERATOR
II,
(=Cohen
II6)
were
struck later in
I43
when the interest in the
'
salutatio
'
had died down, to commemorate the
progressof the work
on
the wall,
the latest and most
successful
of
the
three IMPERATOR
II
types being
repeated for this
purpose.
'Pausanias viii, 43, 4.
'Awer4Te7ro
U
Kai
TWv &V
BpeTTaaLOa
BptyavrWv
T1v
roXX5v,
6'Tt
e7reoBavLLe
Ksal
oirot
oui'v
67rXots
1pati eri
I'evouvcLav
,a
oLpaO,
7r-qK6ouvs
PwicLaw.
2
Haverfield,
Roman Occupation
of
Britain,
pp. I
zo,
I2 I
;
Macdonald, op. cit.
pp.
9,
I
0.
:
Haverfield, op. cit. fig. 6, p. I22.
4Haverfield,
op. cit. fig. 5, p.
I2I
; Macdonald,
op. cit. plate
I, I3,
p.
8.
5
Ritterling,
Wesedeutche Zeitschrift, Korres-
pondenz-blatt, xxii (I903),
p.
217.
6
|
Obv. ANTONINVS AVG. PIVS
P.P. TR. P. XVIII.
Rev.
BRITANNIA,
COS
III, S.C.
Cohen, op.
cit. 2
i
p.
z8z,
nos.
117
II8, iL2.
G.
Macdonald,
op. cit. pl.
ii,
2;
Num.
Chron.
I907,
pl.
xi,
5-8
(Plate
XXlV, 7).
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I52 BRITANNIA
ON ROMAN COINS
OF SECOND
CENTURY A.D.
tion, embodying the
'
universal' aspect of Britain
as a unit of
the
Empire. The type was struckto commemorate a particularoccasion on
which
Roman arms dealt successfully
with rebellious subjects,
and
we
shall not be surprised
to find that it
differs very
markedly in character
both from
the
Hadrianic
and from the earlier
Antonine
Britannia
types.
Britannia,
wearing short chiton,
braccae and
cloak, is seated
to the
left on a rock, on
which her
left hand rests.
Her right knee
is drawn up and supports
her right elbow,
while her
head is bowed
anid her chin rests
upon her right
hand. It
seems to me that
there
can
be little doubt that
we have here a representation
of Britannia
capta.
The whole attitude
of the
figure implies dejection
and defeat.
The downward glance and loose dishevelled hair falling down the
neck recall immediately
the portraits of captives which occur
not
infrequently
as personifications
of countries
in pre-Hadrianic
art,
and the position of the
weapons on the left
of the design-the
large
oval shield, with
central spike,'
and the
vexillum
2-also
indicates
that
we should look upon
our Britannia
in this
light. In the
Hadrianic type and earlier
types of
Pius the shield, spear
and standard
are all closely
connected
with
Britannia
herself; she rests
her
hand
and elbow upon
the shield
and
holds
in
her hands her spear
and
standard, as
though she were
ready to fight at
any moment in defence
of civilisation against the incursions of barbarism. But in the type of
Pius'
second issue
she takes no heed
of the shield
and vexillum
at her
side. She
has been disarmed and deprived
of her military equipment
because
it had
been turned against
the Roman Empire
in mutiny
and
not used in its
service. So clearly
does this
type appear
to
belong
to the
regular
'
provincia
capta'
class
and
so
obvious
is
the
contrast
between it and
all
earlier Britannia coins,
that
it
is
curious
that
Cohen
does not mention
in this case 'l'attitude
de
la
tristesse,'
and
that
Jatta,
while
placing
the
coin
under the
heading 'Tipo
della
provincia capta,'
is
equally
silent
on this
point.
Yet
this
Britannia
would seem to
have
as
clear a
claim to the title
'capta'
as
the Germania
capta
of Domitian's
famous silver
medallion,3
and
Bienikowski
seems
to
be
drawing
an over-subtle
distinction
between
this
and other
'
provinciae captae
'
when
he says (op.
cit. p.
34)
of
our
type-'
Auf der
hier .
..
wiederholten
Miinze ist
der
Ausdruck
des
Trauer
gemildert,
da
die Frau
ihren
Kopf
nur
ganz
leicht
mit
den
Fingern
beriihrt.'
The
last
Britannia
type
dating
from the Antonine
age
is of
special
interest as
showing
how
strong
was the influence,
right
down
to the end of the second century, of the Hellenising tendency in
1
This
is not,
I think, an
utnbo,
as Biesikowski
(op.
cit. p.
34) describes
it.
2
I
am
convinced
by
an
examination
of the coins
that
this object
is
a vexillum and
not
'
a
sceptre
surmounte.d
by
an eagle
'
as it
is
called
by Cohen
(op.
Cit.
2
ii,
p.
z8z) and his follower
Jatta (op. cit.
p.
15).
3
Gnecchi,
I medaglioni romani,
i, pl.
zi
1i
Grueber,
Roman Medallions in the British
Museum,
pI.
i.
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BRITANNIA
ON
ROMAN COINS OF SECOND CENTURY
A.D.
I53
'Roman
'
art. In the year
I85
A.D. Commodus
struck
a fine
bronze
medallion with the figure of Britannia as the reverse design.
1
Our
literary sources
do not supply
us with any dates, but
one
is naturally
inclined to suppose that the events mentioned by Cassius Dio and
iElius Lampridius as taking
place in Britain
under Commodus were
the occasion
for the issue
of the type.
2
Both writers
agree in
recording a serious rising
on the part of the provincials
and a punitive
expedition, conducted
with great severity, on the
part of
Rome.
Thus, speaking
quite broadly, the relations
between
the Roman
government and the inhabitants
of Britain were similar
to those
that
existed
under Pius in 155 A.D., and
we should have expected
that the artist of Commodus' reign, when preferring to revive an earlier
design, instead
of creating one of his own,
would have borrowed
the
type of Pius'
second issue.
But the medallion is an
almost3 exact
replica of the
third type of Britannia
coins issued
by Pius
in
I43,
the
type
of the peaceful, vigilarnt
province, conceived
in the
'idealistic'
Greek manner, gazing before
her, with her hair
neatly
dressed and her arms held
in readiness to protect
her share of
the
Graeco-Roman civilisation
of
the
Empire,
whose tranquillity the
Britanni-even the provinciales,
according to the
Vita,
who are,
perhaps,
to
be distinguished
from the wilder tribes
of the
north,
the &Bp3opotf Dio, and may be the mutinous troops -had actually
disturbed.
In addition
to
the
medallion another and earlier
Britannia type
of Commodus, a coin
struck in the year
I84,
is mentioned
by Cohen.
5
Obv.
M.
COMMODVS
ANTONINVS AVG.
PIVS
BRIT.
Rev.BRITTANIA
(SIC) P.M. TR. P.
X. IMP.
VII.
CoS
IIII, P.P. (Plate
xxxv,
8).
Cohen, op. cit.
2
iii,
p
232,
no.
37;
Gnecchi,
op.
cit. ii,
pl.
782;
Grueber, op.
cit. p .
xxix;
G. Macdonald,
p.
cit.
pl.
ii)
3; Bienikowski,p. cit.
fig.
46; Jatta
(op.
cit. p. 15) makes he curious
mis-
take of assigning Commodus'medallion to the
reignof
Hadrian. The originof
his
error
s probably
to be
found in
his misreadingof the following
sentence
in Biefikowski op.
cot. p.
56),
where the
medallion
is mentioned:
'Noch wilder und
barbarenhafter
ieht
Britannia
(fig.
46) auf den
Miinzen
Hadrians
(Cohen,
n.
I94-9),
Pius
(ebd.
n.
113-II9)
und Commodus' (ebd.
n.
37-38)
aus.'
Fig. 46
is
the
medallion
of Commodus,
but
Jatta,
who seemsto
have taken
over
Bienkowski'sentence
without further verification,
concludes
that it
reproduces
a Hadrianic type,
as
Bienskowski's
wording
which
is
certainly
misleading,might
at
first
sight
suggest.
As a result of
this
confusion,
Jatta
does not include
in
his
collection
the
real
Britannia ype of Hadrian,a seriousomission.
2
Cassius
Dio LXXII,
8.
'E,7&vero
de
Kal
7r6Xeol
7-tves
aCTWl
.
...
/yLsrTO7
de
o
BpeTrPPtK6e
.
TiV
yap
ev
r--
Vros eOYs
vrep-
PeC3oK67eV
T6
TElXOS
TO
&iOpitOv avTo)s
rE
Kai
7-a
-cWY
'Pwsacwtv
arpar67reaa, mat
o0\X&
KaKOVp-
yO6vTwv,
o-TpaTlrqlyoP
i
e
rtva 1eraTiS
o-WTfSpa0LiTWPY
o0s
etXe
KaL-cKOq/dvTc'7i,
fo/?siOeles
o
K6,u,uo3os,
MdPKsXXOV
06XtOV e7r' aLUTObS
9e
eV
....
MdpKeXXOe [LeV
6'
700otO70os
bv
TO7S
5re f3ap/3dpovs
To0s ev
Bperavst'i
6eP4r3 KdKiKWE.
lii Lampridii
Commodus Antoninus
13,
'in
Britannia .
. .
im-
perium
eius recusantibus provincialibuis,
quae
omnia
ista
per duces sedata
sunt.'
Cf. 8,
'
appellatus
est
Commodus
etiam Britannicus
ab adulatoribus,
cum
Britanni etiam imperatorem contra eum deligere
voluerint.'
3
The only point
in which Commodus'
medallion
really
differs from
the
sestertius of Pius
is in a detail
of the standard.
The standard
held by
the
Britannia of Commodus
does not
show
the half-
moon decoration
which appears
on the
standard
in
both the second
and third
types
of
I43
A.D.
4
Cf.
Rostovtzeff,
'
Commodus-Hercules
in
Britain,' J.R.S.
xiii,
p.96.
This
revival
of the peace-
ful Britannia
type does,
however,
take on
a new
significance if
we accept Mr.
Collingwood's
theory
(in I.R.S.
xiii,
69
ff.)
that between
i8i,
the
year of
the great catastrophe,
and
I85
Ulpius
Marcellus
carried out extensive repairs on the Wall. The
type
would then
commemorate
the restoration
to
Britain of her
line of frontier
defence-the
Wall
and
the watch thereon.
o
Cohen, op.
cit.
2
iii, p.
231,
no. 35. Obv. M.
COMMODVS
ANTONINVS
AVG. PIvs.
Rev.
BRIrT.
(exergue)
P.M. TR.P. VIIII
IMP.
VII
COS IIII
P.P.
(circumf.)
s.c.
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154
BRITANNIA ON ROMAN COINS OF SECOND
CENTURY
A.D.
He
describes
Britannia
as a
female
figure
standing to 1.,
holding a
curved sword and a wreath (?) or a patera (?). This coin I am not
in a
position to
discuss, for
there is no
specimen of it in the
British
Museum
collection, and I
have not
at present been
able to
obtain
either cast
or
reproduction
of it
from elsewher'e.
If it is genuine
and
accurately described
by Cohen, it is of
considerable
interest
as
giving
us a
type of
Britannia with quite
unique attributes.
With
the Britannia
types of
Commodus we may
class two early
third-century
types-the
Africa of Septimius
Severus struck in
(?)20zo 1
and the Italia
types
of
Severus
and Caracalla
issued in
(?) 20I and 203
respectively 2-as
being the last
products of the
Greek revival
of the
second century in this particular group of personifications. After this
time Roman coins
can no longer,
from the
aesthetic point of
view,
claim a
place in the history
of Greek
art. The
Greek conception of
a
geographical unit
personified as an
ideal figure did,
indeed, survive
on
the
Roman coinage.
The orbis
terrarum type appears to
have
enjoyed considerable
popularity, and
was adapted for
such
personifica-
tions as Oriens and
Respublica. But apart
from this the
geographical
types struck
during the period
which
separates the close
of the
second
century
from the
end of
the
western Empire in
476,
are
comparatively few and far
between and are
confined to a very limited
number of
provinces,3
and a comparison between the earliest of these
-the
Dacia
of
Traianus Decius, issued c.
250-
and the
types of
the
second
century shows how
rapid was the
decay of
technical
skill
during the
third century.
The coins
connected with
Britain
afford
a
good illustration
of
the sudden loss of
interest in these
personifica-
tions
which seems to
have
accompanied the decline of
art.
It was
only
twenty-five years after
the
striking of
Commodus' Britannia
types
in
I84
and
I85
that
a large number
of coins were
issued
by
Septimius Severus,
Caracalla
and
Geta in the
years
2i0
and
2II
to
commemorate their British
campaigns. Yet
the
reverses
of the
coins of
this
group
are
nearly
all
occupied
by
conventional
figures
of
Victory.5
Among
the
Severus coins there
is
only
one which contains what is
possibly a personification of
Britain-the
female figure
on the
reverse,
described
by
Cohen as
standing
on
one
side of a
trophy,
while
a
Victory stands
on the other and
a captive is seated below.
6
1
Cohen, op. cit.2 iv, p.
6,
nos.
25-31.
I am
following
Cohen's dating of the silver coins
on
which
Severus is simply
described
as
PIVS
AVG. The
bronze Africa coins with the same types can be dated
as
belonging to the years 194 and
195,
owing to
the
presenceof
IMP.
III
or
IMP.
iv
on the obverse.
2
ibid.
iv, p. 27,
no.
zz8, p. 153,
no.
io2.
3
Africa
(ibid. vi,
pp.
500, 503, 504;
Vii,
pp.
6z,
105,
235); Hispania (ibid.
vi, p. 66); Gallia
(ibid. v,
p.
528;
vi,
Pp.
49-50, 8o); Francia
xibid. vii,
pp.
249,
349);
Alamannia
(ibid. vii, pp.
248, 346,
377);
Pannonia
(ibid.
v,
pp. 193-4)
217
226;
vi, 171, 192);
the
Pannonian city
of Siscia
(ibid.
vi,
p.
3
I
6);
Illyricum
(ibid. vi,
p.
304);
Dacia
(ibid. v, pp.
I87-I88, 269, 36I ;
Vi, p.
136,
I84)
and Sarmatia
(ibid. vii,
p.
377).
Colonial
coins are
not
here
included.
4Cohen,
op.
cit.
iv,
75-77,
209-210,
275-277.
5
G. Macdonald,
op. cit.
pl.
ii,
4-10.
6 Cohen, op. Cit.2 iv,
p. 77, no. 733.
Obv.
L. SEPT. SEVERVS
PIVS
AVG.
Rev. VICTORIAT
BRITANNICAE
S.C.
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BRITANNIA
ON ROMAN COINS OF SECOND CENTURY A.D.
155
FIG. 22.
GOLD
MEDALLION
OF
CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS, FOUND
NEAR ARRAS
IN
1922
(From
Arethuse, I924).
1.
,r.
FIG.
23.
GOLD
MEDALLION
OF
CONSTANTIUS
CHLORUS WITH
THE PERSONIFICATION
OF
LONDON,
FOUND
NEAR
ARRAS
IN
I922 (From
Arethuse,
924).
{1.
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I56
'BRITANNIA' QN
ROMAN COINS OF SECOND
CENTURY A.D.
This type
appears to be really identical with one which is
found on coins of Caracalla and Geta, showing a Victory
erecting a trophy, on the opposite side of which there stands to the
front a female
figure, wearing a long chiton, with her hands bound
behind her
back.1 It seems likely that this figure is intended for
Britannia and not merely for a British captive, as in some cases
she
wears a mural crown and there
is
a captive, on a smaller
scale,
seated at her feet.
But the tying of the hands indicates that we
have
here
a
Britannia
capta, a conception intermediate between
a
purely
'
ideal
'
figure and the representation of a native prisoner.
2
Only
one
other episode during the history of post-second
century
Roman Britain occasioned the striking of Britannia types on Roman
coins-the
usurpation of Britain by Carausius in z86 A.D. and the
recovery of the island by Constantius Chlorus ten years later. The
coins struck by
Carausius with the reverse legend
EXP.
or EXPECTATE
VENI
show the
usurper clasping the hand of the Province who stands
to the r. facing
him, wears a long chiton and has her hair gathered into
a knot behind, and
holds
a
standard.
3
Among
the
gold
medallions
found
near Arras in
I922
are two pieces struck by Constantius
Chlorus which record on their reverse types the defeat of Allectus,
Carausius'
assassin
and successor
(fig. 22).
These show
Constantius
crowned by Victory, standing to the r. and raising up the kneeling
figure of
Britannia, who wears a long
chiton
and holds an oblong
legionary shield
and a spear
in
her
left hand
and
a
palm-branch
in her right. 4 Finally, on the reverse of the largest and most
important
medallion of the Arras treasure is seen the personification
of
Londinium, which
had now replaced
York
as
the centre
of Roman
administration in
Britain, distinguished by
the
legend LON., kneeling
outside the walls
of the city in the year 296 A.D. to welcome her
deliverer (fig.
23).
The
type was,
of
course,
intended
to
com-
memorate Constantius' triumphal entry into London in that year,
and the
fact
that
the
city
itself
is thus
personified
on
so
large
and
striking a piece is indicative of the important position
it
occupied
at
the time.
Londinium wears
a sleeved
chiton,
himation and
shoes,
her hair
is
fastened
up neatly
into
a
knot
at
the back of the
neck,
and
1
Cohen, op. Cit.2 iV,
p.
I95,
no. 495. Obv.
M. AVREL. ANTONINVS
PIVS AVG. Rev.
PoNsrF.
TR.
P. XIIII
COS
III
S.C.;
p.
2io,
no. 639. Obv.M. AVRFL
ANTONINVS
PIVS
AVG.
Rev.
VICTORIAE BRITANNICAE
S.C.; p.
277,
no. 223, Obv. P.
SEPTIMIVS
GETA PIVS
AVG.
BRIT.
Rev.
VICTORIAE BRITANNICAE.
(Plate
XXIV,
9,
IO).
2
It is noteworthy that in this Severus,
Caracalla
and Geta type the
figure of
Britannia,
if Britannia
she
be,
is on a small
scale and is strictly subordinate
to
the
composition
as a
whole, being
no
longer
the
central object of interest as
in
the
second-century
types. For the
mural
crown, cf. the
Britannia
medallion
in
a mosaic at Berlin (Jatta, op. cit. fig. s).
3
Cohen, op. Cit.2
Vii, p.
8, nos.
54-6i.
Num.
Chron.
1907,
pp.
305, 306, pl.
i,
9
(Plate xxiv,
iI).
The caduceus which Cohen suggests as the attribute
of
Britannia
on one coin
(no.
56)
would be an
odd
attribute for
Britain, and
it seems
probable
that it
is a standard
indifferently rendered. Cohen also
describes her as holding a tridentin some
cases;
but
in all the British
Museum specimens, at any rate, the
attribute
is
certainly
a
standard.
4
Arethuse, Jan.
1924,
pl.
viii,
5,
6.
I
am able
to
reproduce
here
these medallions from Aretbuse
through the kindness
of M. Jules Florange.
5
Arethuse, loc. cit. pl. vii; Gordon Home,
Roman rork, p.
79.
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'BRITANNIA ON ROMAN COINS OF SECOND CENTURY A.D.
I57
on her head there
is
an object, rising to a point in the centre, which
seems to be a stephaneof the regular Greek type.- She is in fact,
as are the Britannia types of Carausiusand Constantius, an
'
ideal'
figure carryingon the tradition
of
the second century types; and
thus the last. monument
of our
series shows an interesting juxta-
position
of the
Greekand Romanelements
n'
Roman' art,
the,'
ideal'
personification
of
the
city
side
by
side
with
a
realistic
sketch
of
her
actual walls and
towers. Nor
is it
without
interest
that, just as
the
first type
in
the series, the Britannia
of
Hadrian, symbolises the
recognition of the province as a unit in the Roman world, so the
London medallion
records the
gratitude
of the
people
of
Britain
to
the redditor lucis aeternae, the Emperor who restored them to
Rome and to their membership
of
the Empire.
1
A
similar object appears
to be
worn
by
Constantius'
kneeling
Britannia,
but
it cannot be
distinguished
very clearly
on these
smaller
medallions.
2
The legend round the circumference
of the
reverse reads REDDITOR LVCIS AETERNAE.
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19/19
J.R.S.
vol.
xiv
(1924).
PLATE XXIV.
2
4
5
6
7
m~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Gm
10
COINS
SHOWING
THE VARIOUS TYPES
OF
BRITANNIA
I
(see
pp. 142
if.).