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What the heck is it called ...
astrorat
Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭
... when a cut is placed across the face or throat of the emperor on a Roman coin as an act of disrespect? I can't remember the Latin word for it ... and it's driving me crazy!
I just picked up an original "Dictionary of Roman Coins" by Stevenson and I wanted to look it up ... and my brain froze!
I just picked up an original "Dictionary of Roman Coins" by Stevenson and I wanted to look it up ... and my brain froze!
Numismatist Ordinaire
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
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See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Deliberate damage or defacement of the coinage portrait of an emperor who was not under damnatio would have been considered treasonous and, if the emperor in question was divine, sacrilegious. If some of the more paranoid emperors executed people for taking "their" coins into a public latrine, they certainly wouldn't have looked kindly upon such a deliberate and permanent insult.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
<< <i>That's not quite the full story. Damnatio memoriae was a legal edict to attempt to erase from the historical record all reference to a certain person. A coin issued in the name of someone under damnatio memoriae would usually be melted down, though some provincial bronzes did tend to be defaced rather than recycled. Note the important aspect of a damnatio coin is the removal of the name, rather than damage to the portrait. Wikipedia has a good example of a coin of consul Sejanus.
Deliberate damage or defacement of the coinage portrait of an emperor who was not under damnatio would have been considered treasonous and, if the emperor in question was divine, sacrilegious. If some of the more paranoid emperors executed people for taking "their" coins into a public latrine, they certainly wouldn't have looked kindly upon such a deliberate and permanent insult. >>
Thanks!
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces