Lyons lead medallion

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lyons lead medallion, Cabinet des Médailles in the Bibliothèque nationale de France , Paris
Partly incorrectly interpreting drawing

As Lyon's lead medallion a 1862 in which is Saône at Lyons found late antique lead referred medallion that now in the Cabinet des Médailles the Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France is located. It bears a shortened illustration of the Roman Mogontiacum , today's Mainz , and is the oldest representation of the city.

The lead medallion is to be addressed as a trial embossing and was used to test an embossing stamp that was made for the back of a gold multiple (gold medallion).

The city of Mainz awards a replica of the medallion as a Roman imperial medallion to the city of Mainz at irregular intervals as recognition to people who have made services to the cultural history of Mainz.

description

The trial tee has an outer diameter of 8.0 to 8.7 centimeters, the pearl rod framing the image field is 6.9 to 7.1 centimeters. The discount was part of the largest known, and therefore probably the most difficult, reconstructable multiplum. The heaviest preserved gold multiple comes from the treasure trove of Szilágysomlyó , today's Șimleu Silvaniei , and has a weight of around 180 grams without a holder.

The image field of the medallion is horizontally divided into two registers. In the upper part, two seated persons, who can be identified as Roman emperors by their nimbus, can be seen with their bodyguards on the right. It is the oldest known representation of the nimbus as a sign of imperial dignity. A group of people approaches from the right, some with raised hands, some kneeling in the gesture of Proskynesis or holding children in their arms, turning towards the emperors. The inscription reads SAECVLI FELICITAS (“Fertility of the Age”).

In the lower half of the medallion, people can be seen walking across a bridge from right to left . Small inscriptions inserted in the image field mark the locations: the FL (umen) RENUS (river Rhine ) to be crossed , the bridgehead CASTEL (lum) on the right bank of the Rhine ( Castellum (Mattiacorum) , today Mainz-Kastel ), on the left the fortified MOGONTI / ACUM ( Mogontiacum, today Mainz). The two places are shown in a schematic abbreviation with the topoi to identify fortified places and do not reflect any real architecture.

interpretation

The representation can only have arisen after the establishment of the tetrarchy in 293 and the associated multiple empire. According to Maria Radnoti-Alföldi , the coin was a reminder of a historical event that she identified with a settlement permit from the year 297. An eulogy for Emperor Constantius I tells us that after a victorious battle at the mouth of the Scheldt in 297 , Caesar allowed the defeated Teutons to settle on the territory of the Roman Empire . Accordingly, the upper register shows emperor and Augustus Maximian as well as his co-emperor Constantius I at the proclamation of this decision, which could possibly be localized in Mogontiacum. The lower register staged the immigration of the Teutons into the Roman Empire: They came from the free Germania on the right bank of the Rhine via Castellum and the Rhine bridge to Mogontiacum on the left bank of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania superior .

According to Radnoti-Alföldi, the scene alludes to a concrete act practiced during the Tetrarchy of the settlement of Germanic tribes, so-called Laeten , in the often desolate regions of Gaul . In this way, abandoned areas were to be led to new fertility and prosperity, and peace and the felicitas saeculi to be secured. The gestures of the population pleading for a grace or pleading for something in the presence of the emperors can in this context be interpreted as deditio , as submission to the rulers of Rome and the emperors.

literature

  • Louis de La Saussaye: Lettre a MA De Longpérier sur un monument numismatique inédit, du règne des empereurs Dioclétien et Maximien. In: Revue numismatique. Nouvelle Série Volume 7, 1862, pp. 426–431 ( digitized version of the first publication).
  • Wilhelm Unverzagt : On the Lyon lead medallion in the Paris National Library. In: Germania . Volume 3, 1919, pp. 74-78 ( digitized version ).
  • Maria Radnoti-Alföldi: To the Lyon lead medallion. In: Schweizer Münzblätter. Volume 8, 1958, pp. 63-68 ( digitized version ).
  • Pierre Bastien : Le médaillon de plomb. In: Bulletin des musees et monuments Lyonnais. Vol. 5, 1972-1976, pp. 157-176.
  • Pierre Bastien: Le médaillon de plomb de Lyon (= Le monnayage de l'atelier de Lyon (274–413). Supplément; = Numismatique romaine. Volume 18). Ed. Numismatique Romaine, Wetteren 1989.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Better drawing from Dietwulf Baatz , Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen. 2nd, revised edition. Theiss, Stuttgart 1989, p. 219; Heinz Cüppers (Ed.): The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Theiss, Stuttgart 1990, p. 131.
  2. ↑ Pierre Bastien : Le médaillon de plomb de Lyon. Ed. Numismatique Romaine, Wetteren 1989, p. 5.
  3. ↑ Markus Beyeler: Gifts from the Emperor. Studies on the chronology, on the recipients and on the objects of the imperial gifts in the 4th century AD (= Klio . Supplements. New series, volume 18). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, p. 20.
  4. ^ Maria Radnoti-Alföldi : Gloria romanorum. Writings on late antiquity for the author's 75th birthday on June 6, 2001 (= Historia. Individual writings. Issue 153). Published by Heinz Bellen , Hans-Markus von Kaenel . Steiner Stuttgart 2001, p. 112.
  5. ↑ Panegyrici Latini 8,8,3-4; 8.3.3.
  6. ↑ Hartmut Ziche: Barbarian Raiders and Barbarian Peasants. Models of Ideological and Economic Integration. In: Ralph W. Mathisen, Danuta Shanzer (Ed.): Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World. Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity. Ashgate, Farnham 2011, pp. 206 f. ( Digitized version ).