A Lead Tessera
of Octavia, daughter of Augustus
By Gert Boersema
Figure 1: Lead tessera of Octavia, daughter of Augustus.
Obverse: OCTAVIA•AVG•F (outwardly, counter clockwise, starting 5.00);
draped female bust to right.
Reverse: No legend, patera.
2.00g; 19mm
The lead tessera described
above and pictured in Figure 1 bears the portrait of a lady identified by the
inscription as Octavia Augusti filia
– Octavia, daughter of Augustus. The only “Augustus” who had a daughter of that
name was the emperor Claudius, who with his third wife Messalina had two
children, a daughter named Claudia Octavia, born AD 40 and a son named Britannicus, born AD 41. The siblings had an older
half-sister named Claudia Antonia, who was born c. AD 30.
The lead tessera discussed
here must have been struck between AD 41, when Claudius became emperor
(“Augustus”) and AD 53, when Octavia married the future emperor Nero. At that
moment she would have been identified as the wife of Nero (“Octavia Neronis”), or, after Nero became emperor in AD 54, as
“Augusta”. A date even in the early 40’s of the first century is not
inconceivable. Children from the imperial family were often portrayed more
mature than they actually were. This becomes clear on the coinage of Claudius.
An issue from Cyzicus (RPC 2248, Figure 2), for
example, portrays the daughters of Claudius as two girls wearing their hair in
a knot, looking to be roughly the same age. Yet actually, at the time of
striking, Claudia Octavia was still a toddler, and her half-sister was 13 years
old at the most. Their little brother on the obverse looks young, but certainly
not as young as he actually was – about 2 years old. These more precise ages
can be deduced because this coin can be firmly dated between AD 41 and 43 on
account of the obverse legend which names Claudius’ son Germanicus.
Only in AD 43 Claudius renamed his son Britannicus in
honor of his victory in Britain.
Figure 2: Coin from
Cyzicus portraying Britannicus,
Claudia Octavia and Claudia Antonia.
Before examining the lead tesserae
from this time period, one other provincial issue is especially worthy of note
in this context: a coin from Patras (RPC 1255) which,
according to the reverse legend, shows the “children of Augustus” above crossed
cornucopias, providing a neat parallel to the inscription “daughter of
Augustus” on the tessera discussed here. Although the
portrait of Claudia Octavia appearing on the Patras
coin – she is shown on the left – is of a much finer style than the one on the
lead tessera, the hair styles are remarkably similar.
Moreover, this issue was struck, probably, no later than AD 48, the year that
Messalina fell from grace. In fact, it might well have been struck in the early
40’s, as a parallel issue from Alexandria (RPC 5135) is firmly dated AD 42/43,
a time when Octavia and Britannicus were no older
than 3 and 2 years old, once again showing that the portraiture of imperial
children is not necessarily “true to life”.
Figure 3a: Coin
from Patras portraying Claudius and his three
children.
Figure 3b: Detail
of the reverse of the same coin.
There is a small number of lead tesserae
published bearing portraits of emperors and members of the imperial family. The
large majority of these can be dated to the first century AD. Only a handful of
portraits are known from the first four decades: the standard references
publish named portraits of Augustus, Livia, Julia,
daughter of Augustus, Germanicus, Tiberius, Germanicus, son of Tiberius, Nero and Drusus Caesares, Antonia Minor and Caligula.1 All of these
portraits are engraved in a naturalistic, sometimes excellent style of
engraving.
The reigns of Claudius and Nero are marked by an
increase in production of lead tesserae – if that can
be concluded on the basis of the relatively large number of published pieces –
and the style of engraving becomes cruder. Tesserae
bearing the portrait of Nero are particularly abundant. Rostowzew
publishes 57 clearly named portraits of Nero,2
while another 7 examples are published in the other standard references.3 Most of these tesserae
bear some form of the inscription NERO CAESAR.
Considering, firstly, that only 15 of the 57 examples
published by Rostowzew have a clear laurel wreath,4 and,
secondly, that only 8 published examples5
read NERO AVG(ustus), a large part of Nero’s tesserae may well have been produced in the last years of
Claudius’ reign, after AD 50, when Nero was adopted and received the name of
Caesar. In fact, Rostowzew publishes a tessera of Claudius’ son Britannicus,
Nero’s half-brother, bearing the boy’s portrait and naming him BRITTANNICVS in
the inscription (Rost 11, figure 4). The crude style
and large lettering of this tessera is similar to the
Octavia tessera discussed here. Most of Nero’s tesserae show a similar crude portraiture and style of
lettering. Noteworthy is Rostowzew 16 (Figure 5) that
has a similar outward orientation of the letters and also runs counter
clockwise, starting 5.00 – on a side note, this way of rendering the legend is
encountered frequently on tesserae of this period,
and this is a distinguishing feature in regard to contemporaneous imperial
coinage. Finally, the words of the inscription on this tessera
are also seperated by a central pellet.
Figure 4 and 5: Tesserae bearing the names and portraits of Britannicus and Nero.
Rost. 12 and 530 must also date to the last years of
Claudius’ reign or early in the reign of Nero, as they show jugate
portraits of Nero and Agrippina. One tessera shows
the portrait of Agrippina on her own (Rost. 14).
Lastly, it will be necessary to compare this new tessera to the tessera types of
Claudia Octavia that are already known, and it will become clear that these
exhibit a similar crude style of portraiture and lettering. Rost.
33 has a female portrait named OCTAVIA on the obverse (Figure 6), and a figure
of Victoria on the reverse. It can conceivably be dated after her marriage to
Nero, but it is so remarkably similar to the tessera
discussed here that a date before her marriage, as “daughter of Claudius”,
seems more likely.
Figure 6 and 7: Lead tesserae of Octavia and
Claudia Augusta.
Rostowzew 34, sadly not pictured, has, according to the text, a
portrait of Nero to the right on the obverse, and a portrait of Claudia Octavia
to the right on the reverse. Another example of this type is in Milan and is
published by M. Overbeck (as no. 8). The inscriptions
of this type read NERO CAESAR and CLAVD•AVGVSTA.
Lastly, Rost. 874 and 875
have a portrait of, according to the text, “Claudia or more probably Poppaea” (Figure 7).6
I am not sure why Rostowzew prefers Poppaea, who was never named Claudia. The portrait surely
belongs to Claudia Octavia or, for that matter, to Claudia Augusta, the infant
child of Poppaea who only lived for a couple of
months, although that seems less likely. All known tesserae
of Octavia, as well as the new type published here, have a crude portrait and
large circular lettering, outwardly, running counter clockwise and starting
5.00.
Photo Credit
Figure 1: Private collection.
Figure 2: Gert Boersema
stock no. 7394.
Figure 3: LHS Auction 96 (08/05/2006), lot 544.
Figure 4: Paris, Rostowzew 11, Plate I, 12.
Figure 5: Vatican, Rostowzew 16, Plate I, 16.
Figure 6: Vienna, Rostowzew 874, Plate V, 68.
Bibliography
Mlasowsky, A., Die antiken Tesseren im Kestner-Museum Hannover,
Hannover 1991.
Overbeck, M., Römische Bleimarken in der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München,
München 1995.
Overbeck, M., Römische Bleimarken
im Civiche Raccolte Numismatiche zu Mailand, Milan 2001
Rostowcew, M., Tesserarum Urbis Romae
et Suburbi, St. Petersburg 1903 (Rost.)
Rostowcew, M., Tesserarum Urbis Romae
et Suburbi, Supplementum I,
St. Petersburg 1905 (Rost. Supp.)
Turcan, R., Nigra Moneta, Lyon 1987.
Notes
1 Augustus: Milan 1-4; Livia: Rost. 1, 2, Rost. Supp. 1a and Milan
5; Julia, daughter of Augustus: Rost. 2, 514; Germanicus: Rost. 4, 7; Tiberius:
Rost. 5; Germanicus, son of
Tiberius: Rost. 6; Rost.
Supp. 514c; Nero and Drusus Caesares: Rost. 8; Antonia Minor: Rost 9,
10 and Milan 6; Caligula: Rost 515, Rost. Supp. 3a.
2 Rost. 12-17, 19, 21, 23-25,
27-28, 30-31, 34, 531, 836, 837, 870. Rostowzew
counted multiple examples for some types. There are other tesserae
that probably belong to Nero, but these pieces don’t have clear inscriptions or
lack a portrait.
3 Milan 8-10; München 1-3; Turcan 119.
4 This is sometimes hard to check from the plates, but
cf. Rost. 19, 23, 28, 30-31, 531, 836.
5 Rost 28, 837; München 3.
6 “Caput Claudiae vel potius Poppaea.”