Discover my collection in 3D
Virtual Gallery
AE As (Rome, 169-158 BC)
O/ Laureate Head of Janus; I above.
R/ Prow right; TP or PT above; I before; ROMA below.
26.84g; 31mm
Crawford 177/1 (17 specimens in Paris)
- Bertolami Fine Arts e-Auction 44, lot 399.
Anonymous PT or TP:
It is difficult to guess the moneyer because PT/TP could refer to so many names; Crawford pessimistically says that "resolution of the monogram is impossible". Babelon even thought that it was not the name of a magistrate, but the mintmark of Paestum; although this issue was clearly from Rome.
No nomen or cognomen starting by PIT or TIP is known during the Roman Republic; TP can only be initials.
If T is the first letter of a praenomen and P that of a nomen, then the moneyer can not have been a Papius, Peducaeus, Perperna, Petillius, Petronius, Pinarius, Plaetorius, Plautius, Plotius, Plutius, Poetilius, Popillius, Porcius, Postumius, Procilius, Publicius, Pullius, or Pupius, as none of them used Titus or Tiberius as praenomen.
A single member of the Papirii was named Tiberius, but he was military Tribune in 380; idem with the Pompeii with Tiberius Pompeius, who was only a military tribune in 89. So these gentes can be left aside as well.
Moreover, none of them as a cognomen starting with T, except a C. Papirius Turdus, Tribune in 177 and moneyer (RRC 193). However, he signed his coins with TVRD; so, if PT was also a Papirius Turdus he would have used a similar signature instead of PT.
If P is the first letter of a praenomen and T that of a nomen, then the moneyer can not have been a Tarquitius, Tillius, Titurius, Trebanius, Trebellius, Tremellius, Tuccius, Tullius, and Turrius, as none of them used Publius as praenomen. No cognomen starting with P is known for all these gentes.
A Publius Titius is recorded, but only as Tribune in 43; idem with Publius Tadius, a Legate in 73-71.
Thus, there are only three recorded magistrates with matching initials within the time frame of the TP series:
- Publius Titinius, Legate in 200 (Livy, XXXI, 21).
- Titus Pomponius Veientanus, Praefectus Socium in 213 (Livy, XXV, 1).
- Publius Terentius Tuscivanus, ambassador in 167 (Livy, XLV, 17).
The latter, or his son, would be our most likely candidate. Although many magistrates’ names have been lost for this period, it still makes sense to think that a Tuscivanus was our moneyer, because as demonstrated above, these initials were in fact very rare during the 2nd century. They were used by our moneyer precisely because he was the only one to bear them among the senatorial elite, apart from Turdus, but he used a different signature.
Collection : Roman Republic