The Context and Dating of the Pompeys Aureus (RRC 402)

Narodowe Centrum Nauki / The National Science Centre Poland

This article revisits the issue of dating and interpreting the áureus of Pompey the Great (RRC 402), one of the most elusive Roman coins. The lack of any archaeological context and ambiguous imagery hampered the efforts to date the coin. In this study, first, I review all the dates proposed in previous studies. Then, I analyse the imagery focusing particularly on the female head with elephant's skin on the obverse. Subsequently I present earlier coins bearing similar image as well as elephants related both to Asia and Africa. Finally, I propose that given the circumstances in which the Romans minted gold emissions in the late Republic, i.e civil wars, we can narrow down the many possibilities of dating Pompey's áureus to just two. The two most popular among scholars alternatives date the coin to 71 or 61 BCE. The former does not fit both contextual and iconographical analysis. The latter may be accepted in terms of imagery but not so much in terms of the context. There is no reason why Pompey would issue an aureus in 62 or 61 neither in the East nor in Rome. 76-75 or 48 should be regarded as strong possibilities, if not the most plausible dates, of the RRC 402 emission.