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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
The denarii of M'. Fonteius, to be dated about 107 B.C., fall into two basic varieties, the first much more common than the second:
The heads of the Dioscuri on the obverse of the first variety presumably allude to the Tusculan origin of the moneyer, the ship perhaps to the transmarine origin of the family of the founder of Tusculum; but the symbolism of the second variety, for reasons which are unclear, is considerably more complex. The letters P P are generally held to stand for Penates Publici (rather than pecunia publica) and the obverse type is interpreted as reflecting the identification of the Dioscuri and the Penates. The arguments normally advanced for this view, however, are not entirely cogent.
1 Crawford, M. H., Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge, forthcoming), no. 307CrossRefGoogle Scholar; E. A. Sydenham, Coinage of the Roman Republic, no. 566.
2 L. R. Taylor, Voting Districts of the Roman Republic 214.
3 Cassius Hemina, fr. 6 P (= Servius on Vergil, Aen. 1, 378); cf. Servius on Aen. II, 296; III, 12; Macrobius, , Sat. III, 4, 7–9Google Scholar; Varro, , LL V, 58Google Scholar. Weinstock, S., RE XIX, 452Google Scholar; Lloyd, R. B., AJP 1956, 38Google Scholar; Weinstock, S., JRS 1960, 112–14Google Scholar.
4 MEFR 1962, 448–9. N. Masquelier, Latomus 1966, 88 is unsatisfactory, particularly over the handling of numismatic evidence; for instance, at 96, n. 9 the dog which appears as a moneyer's symbol on an early issue of denarii is treated as if part of the main type.
5 The significance of formulae such as a(rgento) p(ublico) on the coins is in any case obscure and it is unwise to be dogmatic about their nature.
6 The object is missing on a plated piece of the second variety in Paris (Ailly 9759—an ancient forgery).
7 D. Hal. 1, 67, 4 = Timaeus, FGH 566, F 59. For the symbolism compare the gem displaying Faustulus, the wolf and twins, and Roma, all on a ship, A. Furtwängler, Antike Gemmen, pl. 28, 58.
8 A. Alföldi, Urahnen, Pl. XIV = Early Rome, Pl. XXV = C. K. Galinsky, Aeneas, Pl. 45. The vase is in the Autitensammlungen, Munich, no. 3185.
9 E.g. Haeberlin 679 (which I cannot trace).
10 S. Weinstock, JRS 1960, 113–14.
11 A. Alföldi, Early Rome 285, n. 5.
12 Varro, , LL v, 157Google Scholar.
13 Varro, , LL v, 157Google Scholar.
14 Plutarch, Cam. 20; Festus 60L (number of vessels not stated); Livy V, 40, 7–10 (number of vessels not stated).
15 Plutarch, Cam. 20.
16 So, briefly, R. M. Ogilvie on Livy v, 40, 7–10.
17 By contrast, he knew of the story, found in Plutarch, Cam. 20, which made the Penates originate in Samothrace and go from there to Troy and thence to Rome, Servius on Vergil, , Aen. I, 378Google Scholar; III, 148; cf. 11, 325; Macrobius, , Sat. III, 4, 7Google Scholar.
18 G. Pugliese Carratelli, Parola del Passato 1962, 20–2, ignores this possibility.
19 I see no way of making sense of the tradition that one doliolum was full, the other empty.
20 C. K. Galinsky, Aeneas 154–8, esp. 155, n. 47.
21 It is of course true, as argued by Weinstock, that the occurrence at Lavinium, home of the Penates, of an archaic dedication to the Dioscuri strongly suggests identity of the Dioscuri and Penates.
