Thanks for the link Victor. Here's a summary of my essay on this coin: “The ‘Barbarian/Hut’ Centenionalis and Vergilian Iconography.†Vergilius 54 (2008): 70-96.
While this reverse type may indeed signify the resettlement of barbarians within Roman territories, I believe much of the mystery surrounding this reverse type can be explained by reading it as a conscious allusion to the “Flight from Troy†imagery from Virgil’s Aeneid –the foundation myth of the Roman people. The “Flight from Troy†imagery was ubiquitous in the Roman Empire and depicted Aeneas leading his son Ascanius from a burning Troy while carrying his father Anchises.
I have two principal reasons for my Aeneas/Ascanius reading:
1) As Mattingly noted, 348 A.D. was the 1100th anniversary of the founding of Rome, making a Roman foundation theme appropriate, and with numismatic precedent. Just as Antoninus Pius issued Aeneas-themed coinage in preparation for Rome’s 900th anniversary in A.D. 148, so too might Constans and Constantius II have instituted a similar reverse type alluding to Rome’s foundation coinciding with its 1100th anniversary. The legend “FEL TEMP REPARATIO†is quite appropriate for a reverse type alluding to Rome’s blessed (felix) foundation.
2. The visual iconographical parallels are very close and, for me, pass the “eye test.†Indeed, reading the small figure as a type of Ascanius solves one of the mysteries of the coin: what the smaller figure is holding in his hand (in some emissions). If the small figure is based on the traditional imagery of Ascanius, then the object in his hand is a pedum, or stick that was a cross between a hunting stick and shepherd’s crook.
The greatest obstacle to my reading is the absence of an Anchises figure from the centenionalis reverse, but I do go into that a bit in my essay
Below I’ve supplied some iconographical parallels to various coins and reliefs. In the fifth century, a de luxe manuscript of Virgil’s works (the Vergilius Vaticanus, aka, “Roman Vergilâ€) was illustrated, and its images offer interesting parallels to those of fourth-century coins. To me, the various depictions of Ascanius and Aeneas in the Vatican Vergil resemble certain features of the figures on the coins, suggesting that the die engravers and manuscript illustrators were working with the same iconographical palette.
Here’s the final paragraph of my essay, which sums up my reading:
“The images on the “barbarian and hut†reverse, then, are polyvalent: the hut and overhanging tree are, in the words of Caló Levi, “an abbreviation of a whole landscape and indicate the woods and the huts where the barbarians lived,†as well as an allusion to the ancient cypress in Aeneid 2 and possibly to a protective wall. The leggings/trousers of the smaller figure, as well as his shepherd’s crook or hunting stick, may denote the figure’s pastoral/barbarian status, but they also place him in the iconographical tradition of Ascanius, as witnessed by the roughly contemporary Vatican Vergil. Though Ascanius’ costume suggests the distant Roman past, Alessandro Barchiesi notes that in art and literature Ascanius/Iulus represented the future: “As in the Forum Augustum, in the Aeneid Iulus is the individual on whom history depends.†The same might be said of barbarian youth in the fourth century. In short, the Aeneas/Ascanius interpretation and the barbarian/hut interpretation are not mutually exclusive. An attractive possibility is that Constans and his propagandists skillfully employed traditional Roman iconography in order to celebrate present triumphs and future possibilities—nothing could be more appropriate to the reverse legend FEL TEMP REPARATIO, a concept embodied by the soldier himself who looks backward while striding forward toward future glory. By placing the youthful barbarian in the traditional position of Ascanius on the centenionalis reverse, the sons of Constantine and their die engravers imply that, like Ascanius, barbarians too have a destiny vital to the interests of the empire.â€
Perhaps my both/and reading is wishy-washy. If I were to choose one explanation of this coin, I think the Aeneas/Anchises reading makes better sense than the settlement of Franks in Toxandria, which is Kraft’s view. If the coin reverse alludes to the settlement of the Franks in Toxandria, would we expect that the Roman dwelling in Antioch, or Alexandria, or Constantinople would have any idea where Toxandria is, and why they should care? But any reasonably educated Roman would certainly know who Aeneas is, and for such a Roman, the Aeneid iconography at least would be accessible.
If you wish, you can download my essay here. Even if folks don’t buy all aspects of my reading, I do hope the scholarship review and some aspects of my argument might contribute to a fuller understanding of this coin type.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23980399/AAAA%20Barbarian%20Hut%20and%20Vergilian%20Iconography%20VERGILIUS%20with%20DRAWING.pdf(By the way, I will be posting this explanation on at least one other list, so please pardon the cross-posting.)
Gavin Richardson
