Przemiany w ikonografii Virtus w mennictwie rzymskim od republiki do Sewera Aleksandra

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show the changes that have occurred in the perception of Virtus since the first appearance of the personification in the Roman coinage around 71 BC to the reign of Alexander Severus (224-235). Virtus (Courage) as one of the four imperial values most frequently on the coins occupies a special position, because on the one hand, grammatical gender of the noun virtus suggests the use of a female personication, the other it is etymologically related to a man (lat. vir) and traditionally manly, martial virtues as bravery ( fortitudo) and contempt for death and suffering (mortis dolorisque contemptio), as already Cicero asserted in his Tusculan disputations (2. 43). In the 1st century BC, on the Republican denarii of Mn. Aquilius and Q. Fufius Calenus and P. Mucius Cordus, Virtus was depicted as a young warrior and connected with general’s courage in warfare and at the same time with the civic virtue of Roman officials – ancestors of the moneyers. The coinage under Augustus continued the iconographic scheme established in the period of the republic in which only the head of Virtus was depicted as a young warrior, but at the same time the idea of martial virtue started to be identified with activities of the emperor himself. Under Nero appeared on the coinage the whole female personification, standing and holding a parazonium and a spear, though the lack of a legend referring to her does not allow for the unambiguous identification of the personification as a figure of “courage”, although starting from Galba Virtus throughout the next century was most often presented with these two attributes. Under the Flavians the personification of courage eventually lost on coins her connection with Honos and strengthened the female figure wearing military dress (Amazon type). In the 40s and 50s of the 2nd century AD emerged new trends in the iconography, combining Virtus with Roma, either directly with the figure of the emperor. In the following decades next to the female iconography of Virtus (in accordance with its grammatical gender) became widespread the masculine image represented by a victorious ruler, consistent with the vir – Virtus etymology. That coexistence of male and female iconography being associated with the military and political courage of the emperor led at the beginning of the 3rd century AD to the emergence of a new type: Mars with attributes and in a pose of Virtus or rather the again masculinised personification of Virtus.