Victory As A Coin Type / by Alfred R. Bellinger and Marjorie Alkins Berlincourt
Victory As A Coin Type / by Alfred R. Bellinger and Marjorie Alkins Berlincourt
Victory As A Coin Type / by Alfred R. Bellinger and Marjorie Alkins Berlincourt
$b460947
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike / http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#cc-by-nc-sa-4.0
By ALFRED R. BELLINGER
AND
NEW YORK
1962
PRINTED IN GERMANY
AT J. J. AUGUSTIN. GLUCKSTADT
Number 149
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
JoHN V. A. FINE
THOMAS O. MABBOTT
EDITORIAL STAFF
CONTENTS
III. ROME 44
INDEX TO PLATES 65
PLATES 69
and those who control them so that it long outlasts its ori-
whose life as a coin type stretches from the end of the sixth
angel.
in its pursuit the author gathered a large amount of information about the
use of Victory on coins, which she presented as a history of the type. There
have been some modifications both of form and of content in the inter-
supplement her original descriptions. It would not be easy now to say how
much of the present text is precisely as she wrote it. Since it has not been
practicable to collaborate with her since her leaving New Haven, I may
not always have represented her present opinions, and she cannot be
charged with errors which I may have introduced. But the work is essenti-
ally hers and I am grateful for her permission to make this use of it.
II
sister of Zelos, Kratos and Bia." She was not considered an-
the verb vik&Co and the substantive vikn can be used either for
the granter of victory, but the bearer of it. She is not depicted
*To conquer in battle or any contest: Iliad III, 439; XXIII, 656, 663.
In war: Iliad VII, 26; Plato, Laws 641 A. In the games: Thucydides VI,
16; Pindar, Isthmian II, 13, VII (VI) 22, VI (V) 60. Bacchylides, Bergk
vinity with her own attributes, such as the wreath and palm.
Reprinted from Nomisma VIII, IX, XI. He gives, pp. 13, five reasons
for assigning the coins to Olympia rather than to Elis. His arguments and
zen, NZ 1871, pp. 150 esp. 24f., believes that Nike originally belonged
to the games. The archaic sculptor Achermos is alleged to have made the
first Nike with wings. Antony E. Raubitschek, Dedications from the Athe-
* Richter, op. cit., pp. 6264 discusses the development of the flying
figure. Seltman's statement that this was the only attitude by which
* This raises the question, which Seltman does not pursue, of whether
the coin type is derived from an actual statuary model. There is nothing
in the round for the eagle on the obverse, and models in relief would have
of the type show that the die-sinkers emancipated themselves from the
1*
pointed, are just like those of the eagle on the obverse, with
early period.
right hand is the tunny fish which is the regular sign of Cyzi-
possibly not later than B.C. 500. The figure can scarcely re-
of 1887), p. 81.
* BMC Lycaonia, etc., Pl. XVI, 7. This is illustrated instead of the still
earlier pieces, Pl. XV IO-I2 (ca. 520485 B.C.) because it is so much clearer.
The series to which it belongs is dated by Hill ca. 485425 B.C. He is dubious
pp. 56I-564.
ling, believes that the group to which our type belongs falls
relation with the town as that between Nike and the games.
palm branch (PLATE I, 8), this being the most famous, the
downward and she supports it with her left hand, her elbow
powers that ruled over the holy place, but Nike is a hope and
per until much later. Instead, she appears in Sicily with a re-
the 7th century. The lords of that great city had shown their
or the horses (PLATE II, 2). The connection with the Olym-
This has some advantages for the design as a whole, but the
until the last third of the 5th century that the remarkable
* Since these coins are dated by style ca. 510-485 B.C., we have no way
of proving that those of Olympia are earlier, but the logic of the types
would seem to make it sure that the independent figure was the original,
the accessory figure of Syracuse the adaptation. The dating and arrange-
Syrakus, Berlin, 1929. We need not assume any particular incident to ac-
count for the first appearance in Sicily, but Seltman (Greek Coins, p. 74)
No. 3 (Mantua, March 1950), p. 18, suggests that the inspiration for coin
two of her neighbors, Leontini and Gela who copy her type
introduced hares into Sicily for the first time, and having
won the race for mule cars at the Olympic games, put both
These examples all show the same origin and meaning, but
(PLATE II, 6). Here the ungainly attitude is not unlike that
* For this whole episode see Dunbabin, op. cit., pp. 387398,
rived from them than from those of Olympia. But the signi-
with the games at all, for she is now used as an adjunct not
winged figure faces to the right, her wings filling the space
behind her, her left arm held stiffly before her. The lower
left or right, her wings spread before her and behind, with
* The conventional theory that the crab was the canting device of the
city has lately been called in question by L. Lacroix, Revue belge de Numis-
One obverse die of the Catana stater is used both with the
flying Nike and with her successor, a Nike striding to the left
type until 476 B.C. when Hiero of Syracuse drove the in-
duced new types. This goddess may have been derived from
any son of the city who triumphed. Are they then the im-
the latter is true. For above the back of the bull sometimes
flying to crown his head with a wreath (PLATE III, 4). Here
Nike and crown the victor. It is not now nearly so clear that
more luxuriant, and Nike, like all other types, was affected
lose contact with its origin. While Nike had disappeared from
the Olympian coins toward the end of the first phase of the
tended from the late 5th century through the first half of
on his head with one hand while she offers a wreath to him
with the other (PLATE IV, 1). A more extreme variation was
self-assurance, for the Nike flying over the chariot holds now
the city's name upon it; in this case Nike herself is the
from Velia a little Nike flies over the city's lion (PLATE IV, 8).
But these two cases are somewhat different from the earlier
2.
for the name NIKA is beside her (PLATE V, 5). This has, of
but the question has little importance to us, for after this
period, which lasted until about 450 B.C., are in three different
one hand being concealed in the folds of her chiton. These are
testify. There may well have been some local meaning which
whole series. The dates and sequence there given are adopted here.
pp. 269-277. It is more reasonable to suppose that this earliest coin shows
should also remember the remark of Pausanias (III, 15, 7) who explains
retain their wings and often their wreaths, but they usually
wings to right and left since the standing goddess of the first
and on the whole consideration of style see Regling, op. cit., pp. 3260
and H. von Fritze and H. Gaebler, Terina, Nomisma I (1907), pp. 1422.
period (PLATE V, 6), and one can hardly doubt that the
ity.
ular with the die-sinkers. One has only to recall the variety
dus of the late 5th or early 4th century (PLATE V, Io) show-
holds the extreme position that most of the types which do not derive from
There is also the use of Nike in vase painting which presents much too
bingen, 1876.
Studies VII (1886), pp. 275285, points out that the kneeling position of
to the users of the coins, but the precise meaning is lost to us.
Nike is more appropriate to the smaller animal, and suggests that the coin,
and the late Italian vases on which a ram is shown rather than a bull, may
represent the earlier form of which the bull is a later modification. Smith
supposes that the first preserved appearance of the group is on the balu-
Coinages.
* It seems, pace the British Museum Catalogue that the Nike of Terina
always wears a chiton. It is certain that she generally does so, and it seems
whim. But the chiton is represented as very light and transparent and
with a little wearing of the coin it would become invisible. At least there
is a great difference between the maiden of the Lampsacus coin and the
clear that these lesser issues were saying in their own way
battle of Himera of 480 B.C. is intended, but the coin cannot be so early.
He can suggest no explanation for the youth riding a goat on the obverse,
that the little Nikes are here for the first time unmistakable
gested, 394 and 375 since 4Io seems to him too early for the
Mrs. Brett, gives her opinion that the stater is of fourth cent-
and p. 34.
2*
symbolism.
received some signal benefit or in which its citizens had participated and
acquired honour to their native city. The single known specimen was
found in Nubia! Borrell comments on the fact that the gold of Lampsacus
is regularly found far from that city (though it is not confined to Syria
pieces had its influence on the tendency to make their apparent connection
II THE KINGS
ander what the winning chariot had been to his father. The
new and abstract idea, for now she has become one of his
the great car that bore his coffin should have been decorated
2I
his subordinates. The empire was still his as the victory had
been his. Of this the coins are evidence; the same types were
would designate the young son just as well as the dead con-
by the deification of the hero and the cult that was beginning
his estimation in the eyes of the rest of the world can never
strike the same types, but, on some of the coins, replace the
* WSM, p. 317, no. 1530. Alexander staters also are found after 300 B.C.
E.T. Newell, The Coinages of Demetrius Poliorectes, Oxford, 1927, p.25, no.19.
The Kings 23
house, and the successors were left to work out their opposed
phants, then an eagle like that on the silver. One issue of the
old gold type is dated after 31I B.C.," and, on coins from
Cyrene struck between 308 and 304 B.C., the familiar Nike
* Svoronos, ibid., pp. IIf., nos. 6164, Pl. III, 25. Omission of the
rash to insist that the later coin was influenced by the earlier
since we have no evidence that the earlier ever found its way
Alexander the Great, which may well have been his am-
Evans" thinks that the occasion for this coin was the period
The Kings 25
the title of king soon after 305 B.C. The most interesting
of the successors: 306305 B.C. and 3OI B.C. The former is the
J/
dorus (XX, II, 3f.) of Agathocles letting loose owls in the face of the
* WSM, p. 84, no. 1, with the brilliant demonstration, pp. 8489, that
these issues are in fact the coins of Antigonus though they never bear his
I13.1116.
the author of Victory and Nike his agent why is he also the
the solution with the goddess. In any case his natural con-
drachms from Antigonea like those from all his other mints
KOY. Whether or not this was later than the Ptolemaic gold
for all his reign and from all his mints. It is also to be distin-
/ of a new era and who might with justice feel that victory was
(Rois de Syrie, p. XCV) that it was Seleucus I who set up, at Daphne by
case rests entirely on the assumption that the type with Nike was first
struck by Seleucus.
The Kings 27
victory.
the practice of Seleucus and put his own name on the gold
* ESM, p. II.3, nos. 300-302, pp. 154159. Why should the type be
confined to two mints so remote from the victory? Is it not because he was
reluctant to show a trophy of Greek arms too near home? In Syria his
foundation of cities was a perfectly clear proof of his power and what had
he to gain by reminding his neighbors that the power had been bought at
the cost of Greek and Macedonian lives? The East had no such suscepti-
bilities to be considered. There the celebration of Ipsus was paired with his
East for them to have been acquainted with his coins. It was
say how much the government was responsible for the modi-
these changes bring her into direct relation with the Nike of
down with the hammer. Yet the display of wings to right and
West.
It was not the victors alone who made use of the battle of
brate, beside escaping with his life. But there was one cir-
The Kings 29
Salamis was some years past its effects were not diminished.
obverse of his new coins. The fashion of her wings, her cloth-
ing, the mast she carries are all like the Nike of Alexander.
* Newell, op. cit., pp. 3538 argues strongly for the view that the ship
is one of the defeated vessels, the acrostolium torn away. If it were not for
might more readily assume that the ship was Demetrius' own and that the
trumpet blast was sounding the attack, since we know that trumpets were
used for just that purpose at Salamis (Diodorus XX, 51, 2). But we know
figs. 7145, 7146. The relation of this type with the Nike of Samothrace in
the Louvre, often discussed, does not concern us here. It is now apparently
unanimously agreed that the statue is too late to have been a monument
of Demetrius.
"The reverse of a very rare issue of gold with the same obverse, (Newell,
op. cit., Pl. II, II, 12) issued simultaneously with the first Salamis tetra-
drachms has Athena Promachos to the left, exactly reversing the figure
mints and were issued for many years makes this a more
it is true, like Seleucus use his own name on gold with the
on which the same types were used for both silver and gold
seated to the left with her shield beside her. On her out-
king's name to stand for the king it was made to appear that
used as early as 312 B.C. on the silver of Ptolemy. There could hardly be a
more telling type for a coin recording Ptolemy's great defeat (Newell,
The Kings 3I
after his death in 281 B.C. the cities continued to strike them
and there were none left of the great group that had been
at the same time recognize the new age which they intended
confidence.
ing biga (PLATE VII, 6). Hiero II (274216 B.C.) used the
same type for gold (Giesecke Pl. 24, 3), and Nike with a
Like all the other episodes of his career, the conception was
wing falling behind the body, the other with both wings
that its use was much restricted both in time and space.
both with the laureate head of Zeus for obverse, one with a reverse of
I (1913), p. 21, fig. 1), the other with Nike holding a thunderbolt (below,
The Kings 33
left (PLATE VII, 5). Tyche certainly represents the city itself,
Tigris. In this case the importance of the city, which was the
I50.
from Seleucia on the Tigris, Ann Arbor, I935, pp. 19 f., 44.
numismatic curiosity.
t (PLATE VIII, 2). Though they are from different mints, the
* silver, but how very different it is! Not only has the sober
* David Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor, Princeton, 1950, p. 731, 12.
The Kings 35
unusual appearance.
gests that the occasion may have been the assembling of the
cuse for being: pious tradition and pious hope. Very often
Except for the bull's head and the palm which Nike bears,
the new group adds nothing to the old. The goddess has
time and resources of the two kings and from the fact that
* WSM, p. 19.
3*
and the coins themselves have not been recorded from the
minor importance for us, and the identity of the king may
suggest a special occasion and perhaps the fact that the type
case is perhaps not quite so clear as the first, but both give
field Nike is with him. This type, then, we may class with
* ESM, p. 80.
The Kings 37
king's name, in some she holds her wreath over the Seleucid
rather than to the left. By the later kings the type is used
for small silver as well as for bronze (PLATE VIII, 8). In both
left; it is true that his brief career from I62I60 B.C. saw
* WSM, Pl. VII, 12. The available specimens are too much worn to
illustrate.
p. 210, 1588, Antiochus XII, Damascus. The reversal of position may have
It is perhaps worth noting that among the early Seleucids only Seleucus II
and Antiochus III use this reverse with a royal portrait as obverse. The
his only bronze type, but his reign from 162160 B.C. produced a single
issue alone.
may explain the first of these, but the year 8887 B.C. was
might still appear on their coins but she was hardly a goddess
may well have been times when her appearance on the coins
The Kings 39
Nike.
1938, pp. 35f., Pl. II, 15, BMC Phoenicia, pp. XVf., 2335.
* Above, p. 33.
with the name of the city. The goddess is ugly and there is
which she holds the wreath behind her as though she were
about to throw it. The only notable point about her is that
but with their lord the King of Pontus who took this means
the thunderbolt and aegis which she bears proclaim her the
Mineure, 2nd ed., Paris, 1925, I, Chabacta: Pl. XI, 23, Comana: Pl. XI,
25, Laodicea: Pl. XII, 17, Cabeira: Pl. XII, 21, Amastris; Pl. XVIII,
* Above, p. 24.
The Kings 4I
head are those of Nike and remind us of the strange fact that,
Head's date for the beginning of the issue, which has been
give an occasion for the type, since the Boeotians were the
nus became much worse in the next year, and in 192 B.C.
London, 1881, pp. 8892. Head calls the obverse Zeus, but Poseidon seems
a better identification.
tians at once joined him against Rome. His defeat and their
but holds in his hand a little Nike who crowns him (PLATE
IX, 1): that is the demigod Taras who is, of course, the
*Polybe et lHistorie de Botie au III Sicle avant notre Ere, Paris, 1942,
The Kings 43
attach too much importance. For one thing Nike is only one
III ROME
the Greek cities of Italy affected the Romans too, and shortly
after their power had been established in the South the first
* Greek influence is detected even on the aes grave; Karl Pink, The
Triumviri Monetales and the Structure of the Coinage of the Roman Republic
dating of early Roman silver. The generally accepted theory that the
denarius was first struck in 269 B.C. has been challenged by Harold Mat-
of evidence showing that 269 B.C. is the date of striking of the Romano-
Campanian didrachms (The Date of the Roman Denarius and other Land-
Arsinoe, NC 1946, pp. 6367). The resulting revised dates for quadrigatus,
victoriatus and denarius are much more uncertain. Mattingly and Robin-
son proposed 187 B.C. for the denarius, which Mattingly later brought down
to ca. 170 (or earlier) (NC 1949, p. 66), but J. G. Milne preferred 205
(JRS 1934, pp. 6163) and Pink accepts 2Io (op. cit., pp. 16, 51). New
us, but it may be remarked that the part of Pink's argument which relies
pp. 2533).
Mattingly, The First Age of Roman Coinage, JRS 1945, pp. 6577, and
pp. 57-74.
44
Rome 45
the side. The wings are properly to the left instead of dis-
bent right leg. The palm and wreath to the right with serial
letter beneath, and the inscription to the left fill the space
trophy (Reinach, op. cit., fig. 1), may we assume that this one was struck
in anticipation of victory over the Romans, the other after their defeat at
the left foot with the right knee bent. The gesture of crown-
but the meaning of the type was clear and apparently satis-
(PLATE IX, 5). Of course this, like the type of the quadrigatus,
(1951), 241-244.
which he classes Victoria, may have had their roots in old Roman religion,
If there is an old Roman element it does not appear in the earliest Roman
types. There is, however, abundant evidence that a cult of Victory flour-
Rome 47
Victory flies to crown him 1 (PLATE IX, 6). The elephants are
Nikai of Olympia and Terina, yet it is plausibly suggested that the cult
she represents may be derived from that of the Nymphs of South Italy
spear is crowned by Nike (PLATE IX, Io). The coin was struck
with the New Style tetradrachms has made it clear that this
tractiveness and their own value, but no one can feel that
Rome 49
Victory for the whole figure (PLATE IX, 9). This appears
Harold Mattingly, Roman Coins (Chicago, 1960), p. 67, Pl. XV, 1517.
* Mommsen did not believe that the figure was Sulla on the grounds
that it was too early for the appearance of a contemporary scene on a coin.
4.
from Iulus the son of Aeneas is the reason for the use of
Here she has the special form of Venus Victrix, not only
for this time and, one would suppose, very obscure to the
Rome 5I
in his hands and urging him to strike his enemies, who were
of its appearance, for Caesar was well known for the honor
with the types as part of the imperial propaganda. * Op. cit., p. 28.
tium as the critical point, and the tradition has left us with
Empire I, Pl. XIV, II, 12); but the other three are of more
* Indeed it has been argued that they, or some of them, belong to the
years before Actium, and to Italy, celebrating the victories over Sextus
Pompey. Grant, op. cit., pp. 49f., n. 4. Sutherland, op. cit., p. 186, con-
ceded the possibility that this may be true of the CAESAR DIVI F coins
but believes that those with IMP CAESAR should probably be given to
as a coin type long years before by Demetrius Poliorcetes (op.cit., pp. 29f).
well as the statue. Specimens and reproductions are available to any nu-
Grant has emphasized, be taken as proof that the earlier instance was still
Rome 53
the Senators took oath. The only real basis for the identi-
one will stand scrutiny and we are left with no more evidence than that of
Cassius Dio and Herodian in the passages cited. Yet H. Bulle in the article
III, Leipzig, 18971902, cols. 354-356) can conclude that there can be
no doubt that the coins reproduce the Victoria of the Curia. The coins
which he cites exhibit four major variations and one might well ask by
what criterion he would accept one as original and reject the others as
changes. But he regards the fact that the figure is shown to left, to right
and facing as certain proof that it had a statuary model (since statues may
be viewed from three sides, anything that is viewed from three sides must
be a statue), and, once that position is taken, the details can be resolutely
5*
Horace.
Rome 55
what shield it is. To combine with this circle the figure of the
convincing.
tying the laurel wreath on his head (PLATE X, IO). The dis-
been well received for it was not repeated and the surviving
personality.
already been an important device in Greek art: the golden Nikai of the
Acropolis, the figures of the Nike parapet, the Nikai on the hearse of Alex-
drachms, e.g. Noe, Sicyon, p. 17, no. 30. But there was no such develop-
Rome 57
her face with a gesture like that of Pudor (PLATE XI, 4)."
the learned emperor, was used on both gold and silver and
Victory are not many and are not remarkable except that
the artistic level of his coins is high. The period of the Civil
* BMC I, pp. 146, no. 6, 148, no. 21, 150, no. 31, Pl. 27. 5, 17, 25.
*One denarius, BMC I, Pl. 32, Io, and the gold quinarii, Pl. 33.23, 24.
Augustus from the East (PLATE XI, 7). Victory to the left
on the other she gives him the Palladium. But, for the
I950.
Rome 59
the later one gets the less of artistic merit they have to
offer.
tellius and Vespasian with OB CIVES SERV still less so. There
now the shield is part of the spoils taken from the Germans.
to wonder who the divine scribe is, after all. The conquest
as yet written nothing, but below her, where they give every
The adjective can only refer to the actual physical event and
NALIBVS SVSCEPTIS.133
ORBIS (PLATE XII, 2). But the normal purpose of the shield
essential to the ten years achieved and the ten to come, the
two figures stood for the past and the future, but it seems
Rome 6I
ted and the two figures are opposed, either clasping hands
"Gallienus, RIC V. I, p. 156, nos. 294 f.; p. 158, no. 3II. Carausius,
Christian God.
new idea is added. But there are two phenomena that call
for his wife Flacilla. It was struck in all metals and was
with a shield, but in two respects she is new. In the first place
she is now fully clothed, though the similar type on the gold
Rome 63
angel.
dosius II began his reign with the gold types familiar to his
the end of the century, this was the solidus type par excel-
lence, at first inscribed only with the date VOT XX MVLT XXX,
but later bearing the old familiar title VICTORIA AVGG. The
types of semis and triens also become fixed. The former has
nected with the new religion. The pagan figure does indeed
been all that was left of the bronze currency. She flies to the
figure gives place to a facing one leaning with the right hand
(PLATE XIII, 8). The remarkable thing is that, though the in-
and A. M. Friend has suggested that the occasion was the reli-
only a cross for the reverses of his gold and so put an end
imperial coinage.
the British Museum and the Coins of Justin the First, pp. 418420.
the illustrations of coins from the British Museum and the Cabinet des
work.
PLATE I,
PLATE II,
PLATE III,
PLATE IV,
:|
PAGE
I. Private Collection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
946. London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9, 18
65
66
PLATE V,
PLATE VI.,
PLATE VII, I.
PAGE
27
24, 27, 45
6. ANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
sim. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
9.
PLATE VIII, I.
London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
London. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
PLATE IX,
PLATE X,
9.
IO.
II.
I2.
I.
I.
3.
5. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Yale... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
1, 2. Berlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
p. 361. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5-ro. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5, 6 ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6, 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
67
58
58
68
PLATE XI,
PLATE XII,
PLATE XIII,
I.
ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
294-296. ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ANS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
58
60
59
59
6I
6I
6I
6I
6I
62
62
62
62
63
63
64
63
63
PLATES
II
III
IV
VI
VII
IX
XI
XII
XIII