Coins as Evidence: Some Phantom Temples

263 COINS AS EVIDENCE: SOME PHANTOM TEMPLES The accuracy with which coins portray the architectural detai Is of ancient monuments is a familiar problem. So many buildings are known to us primarily by their representation on coins, but how closely do such types portray the original? In a notable review of architectura numismatica Th. Drew-Bear has drawn attention to the pitfalls in attempting to reconstruct Greek temples from Roman imperial coin images. 1 Die-engravers, he shows, clearly took liberties with the actual appearance of the temples they illustrated, emphasising some aspect of a temple that seemed more important at the expense of others. For example, iconographic convenience can require that the number of columns be abbreviated or a straight lintel be replaced by an arched one, simply to leave room for depiction of a cult statue. In general he concluded that the dissimilarities between coin pictures and architectural reality can on occasion be far greater than the resemblances and that representations of temples should be treated cautiously until confirmed by results of actual excavation. A more positive view of the fidelity of numismatic portrayal has recently been put forward by M. J. Price and B. L. Trell in a pioneering collection of coins illustrating ancient monuments at some 862 cities throughout the Roman Empire. 2 While emphasising the short-hand conventions of the die-engraver and the need to understand what he was up to, they are concerned to argue the contrary case: that 1Th. Drew-Bear, "Representations of Temples in the Greek Imperial Coinage", ANSMusN 19 (1974) 27-63, esp. 29ff. 2M. J. Price and B. L. Trell, Coins and their Cities (London, 1977), 15ff. 264 D. FISHWICK architectural details carefully delineated coins in fact frequently confirmed by the existing remains of buildings and that numismatic representations, however sketchy, however far from a photographic reproduction, can be all-important in providing an accurate picture of the architecture of the monument. The following remarks concern a category of evidence that seems so far to have been left out of account, though of obvious relevance, one would have thought, to the point at issue. It consists of coins that portray non-existent buildings. Several, though not all, of the following are well-known, but it may be worth while to group examples of this kind together in order to bring out their cumulative impact on the debate. The instances given are not intended to be exhaustive and readers will doubtless add to the stock from their own experience. 3 To compile a full corpus of such types would be a valuable exercise for its wider relevance to central controversies, in particular the use of coins as propaganda or as statements of official policy. 4 A denarius issued in 44 B. C. by P. Sepull ius Macer shows a tetrastyle temple with a globe in the pediment and the legend CLEMENTIAE CAESARIS. 5 In all probability this temple was never 3Coins showing projected structures are the topic of a recent paper by Fr. Prayon, "Projectierte Bauten auf r6mischen Munzen" in B. von Freytag gen. L6ringhoff et al. (edd.), Praestant Interna (Festschrift U. Hausmann: Tubinge--n:-T982), 319-330 (non vld.). 4For discussion and bibl iography see D. Mannsperger, "ROM. ET AVG. Die Selbstdarstellung des Kaisertums in der r6mischen Reichspragung ", ANRW 2.1 (1974) 919-996 at 920-928; G. C. Belloni, "Significati stonco - politici delle figurazioni e delle scritte delle monete da Augusto a Traiano", ibid., 997-1144 at 999 f.; J. R. Fears, liThe Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology", ANRW 2, 17, 2 (1981) 827-948 at 910f; A. Wallace-Hadrill, liThe Emperor and His Virtues", Historia 30 (1981) 298-319 at 307f; cf. P. A. Brunt, JRS 69 (1979) ~ 5M . H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge, 1974), no. 480, 21; £!. p. 495. COl NS AS EVI DENCE: SOME PHA.NTOM TEMPLES 265 begun and what is portrayed is the projected temple of Caesar and the personification Clementia, the coin having been minted on the basis of the senatorial decree of April (?) of that year. 6 On Appian1s evidence the temple was to contain their statues clasping hands, in which case the two were intended to be...