21^st April 2025

Next club meeting Monday 12th May

A talk by Tim Everson - Things Fall Apart: The Slow and Steady Decline of the Seleucid Empire

June 2^nd – Club AGM and Display Competition

It’s that time of year again!

Time to elect your club committee for the year – and time for volunteers to step forward to join the committee! Do consider it, as your knowledge and energy are needed to help us run your club.

It’s also time to for your entries to the annual display competition – so thinking caps on please!

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

April 2025 Meeting

Maria Lloyd – gave a talk titled Hercules and Liber Pater at Lepcis Magna: Shifting Meanings

Maria commenced her talk with a little bit of background about herself, since as a new member she was not yet that well known in the club. She always had an interest in coins and in history and as a student had dropped modern (post Columbian) history, preferring ancient history. With a wish to work as a museum curator, she had, while studying worked at both the British and Ashmolean Museums. However post-graduation she worked in marketing for 7 or 8 years, and enjoyed marketing strategy; audience profiling; positioning and the like but was frustrated by marketing being considered as just sales. A specific interest in how complex messages were conveyed simply, and it is there her love of coins came into play.

To demonstrate how coins could convey difficult and complex messages Maria discussed a modern coin; in this case the 2019 UK Hawking 50 pence.

Both obverse and reverse convey many messages. On the obverse the choice of the diadem crown links to earlier coin effigies of the late Queen and her coronation, while the legend is bi-lingual as ELIZABETH II D.G. Reg. F.D are Latin and the values are English. [As an aside we considered what 50 and 2019 were in Latin – they were L and MMXIX]

The reverse design by Edwina Ellis conveys in a simple design a most complex subject – Stephen Hawking’s proposition regarding the formation of cosmic black holes. Curved lines representing gravitational lines dwindling into emptiness with the scientist’s name and the mathematical formula supporting the proposition.

This demonstration of how a coin can communicate a difficult message is most effective, and of course is extensively used in modern coins to celebrate the many achievements of the British nation. [Not just 50 pence coins, but also £5 and £2 commemoratives and the old round £1 coins]

Maria now took us back to 194CE and the commencement of the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus following the year of 5 emperors.

Septimius was born in 145 CE in Lepcis Magna in Libya and was of Libyan, Punic (Phoenician) and Italic origins. Maria clarified why the city was described as Lepcis rather than the more familiar Leptis. It was founded as a Phoenician city, and so the name is neo-Punic and in that script the word Lpqi is rendered Lepcis. The use of the t form has only been found on imported blocks of marble, but with the victors of the Punic Wars and dominance of Rome the Roman form Leptis became common.

Septimius Severus is top right; Julia Domna is top left (his second wife) and Lucius Septimius Bassianus, known as Caracalla (his elder son) is shown lower centre.

Picture by Antikensammlung, Altes Museum Museum, Berlin

The patron gods of Lepcis were Hercules and Liber Pater, and on the coinage of Septimius Severus these are his supporters and appear on the reverse of his coins.

Severus rose through the ranks of the Roman hierarchy during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. After the death of Commodus there was the year of the five emperors, when there were claimants across the empire. Severus at that time was the governor of the province of Pannonia. He was declared Emperor by his legions and the pretenders Pertinax and Julianus were murdered after which Severus took Rome. The claimant Niger was based in Syria and was eventually crushed by Severus’s forces and years later Clodius Albinus the governor of Britain and co-emperor, previously working in harmony with Severus revolted, and he was then defeated and killed in battle by Severus’s forces (197 CE).

As his power grew and he was the established emperor, with Caracalla as Caesar so the coinage changed, particularly with the emperor’s legends and his patron gods.

Maria then showed three coins illustrating these changes

First the Auspices

RIC 25 | Aureus | 194 CE

L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP II

Appearance very much as established, and includes reference to his predecessor. This is year II of imperial reign.

RIC 25 | Aureus | 194 CE

DIS AVSPI-CIB TR P II, COS II P P

Hercules and Liber Pater only appear together on Severus’ coinage, and it seems that they are being credited with his elevation to emperor. Hercules is recognizable with his club and the panther skin.

Here, above, Septimius Severus is connecting himself (Pius) with Marcus Aurelius, and after the death of Albinus, he has had himself adopted by the Aurelian family.

The deities Hercules and Liber Pater now appear at the core of the games, as godly sponsors, in the reverse legend.

DII PATRII - Gods of the Fatherland

As the personal gods of the emperor, Hercules and Liber Pater are by extension gods of Rome and the Empire.

Maria summarized how Hercules and Liber Pater shifted in meaning from being local Punic gods to becoming adopted by Rome as gods of the fatherland, and while their images remained the same, over time their meaning became multi-layered as the context in which they were minted changed.

Maria’s talk very warmly received and applauded by the club members.

Future Events.

• London Coin Fair – Shortlands, London W6 – 7^th June 2025

• Midland Coin Fair - National Motorcycle Museum –11^th May and 8^th June 2025

• Spinks Auctions – 7^th May, 5^th-19^th June 2025

• Noonans, Mayfair, W1J 8BQ – 13^h, 14^th and 28^th May 2025

Warwick & Warwick – 18^th June 2025

St James Auctions –7^th May and 7^th June 2025

Baldwins – 9^th July 2025

Past Events

Ten years ago, Hugh Williams gave a talk on Counterfeiting in Roman Britain.

Twenty years ago, Mr. P Preston-Morley delivered a talk on the Gold Coins of the USA.

Club Secretary