Spintria
Modern research refers to coin-like tesserae as Spintriae (Pl. From Spintria) , which presumably originate from the early Roman imperial era and occasionally show erotic motifs on the motif side and a number on the other.
Terminology
Probably based on the Greek σφιγκτὴρ (sphincter) or σφίγκτης (lewd person), the term spintria ( Latin : "stick boy") does not designate an object in the ancient texts, but only people who were understood as male prostitutes. In a text published in 1664, the scholar Ezechiel Spanheim combined tesserae , which bore erotic motifs, with the literary stories of sexual excesses of the Emperor Tiberius on the island of Capri. These defamatory reports also speak of spintriae present . Spanheim apparently followed a terminology that was already in use at the time and introduced the term spintria into modern research literature . However , we do not know whether and how such tesserae were called exactly in ancient times.
description
In contrast to coins, relatively few coin-like tesserae have survived - which also made them a coveted collector's item. The work by Bono Simonetta and Renza Riva from 1981 is based on 184 known tesserae , which are referred to as spintria. These round, coin-like tesserae with a diameter of 20 to 23 mm are usually made of bronze, some specimens also made of brass. Fifteen different spintries with erotic scenes with two people are known on the motif side, while on the back there are numbers in a circle of dots or a linear circle, which in turn is surrounded by a wreath, which usually range from I to XVI. On some Spintria there is an "A" in front of the numbers II, IIII and VIII. It is unclear whether a small group of similar objects, made of brass and instead of the otherwise usual pairs on the motif side, only shows individuals who, however, also belong in an erotic context: a naked woman, the God Pan with erect penis and others. But there are also spintria that show a portrait without sexual reference on the motif side.
Interpretations in research
The interpretation of the spintria is controversial. Ezechiel Spanheim, who in the 17th century was one of the first to treat the spintria, saw vouchers in the stamps, which were distributed among the visitors in the theaters, like ancient texts handed down. In the period that followed, there were other suggestions: Entry tickets for visits to the theater or thermal baths; Tokens for brothels that indicated on the back the value of the services depicted on the front which the owner could use; Tokens. At the moment, the interpretations as game and brothel brands are mainly represented.
Theodore V. Buttrey put the spintria in a wider context in an essay from 1973: In addition to the tesserae with erotic motifs, he assumed that they belonged together, but whose motif side shows gods and portraits. Buttrey considered the common characteristic of the numbers on the back to be more important than the different forms of motif design. Since he believed that he could assign the portraits to certain emperors and members of the imperial family, Buttrey, in connection with the reign of these rulers, came up with a dating of the Spintria between AD 22 and 37. A connection between the two groups of objects was found Buttrey saw erotic motifs and those with other images in stamp couplings on the reverse, i.e. in the fact that the number sides of several tesserae with portraits were embossed with the same stamp as the number sides of individual tesserae with erotic motifs. Accordingly, the tesserae all came from a single workshop. Buttrey read the multiple inscription "AVG" instead of a number as an abbreviation of "Augustus" or "Augusta", or their plural forms, and thus as a reference to the imperial family. He assumed that the later gossip stories that the writer Suetonius spread about Tiberius in the 2nd century AD were also read from these objects. Buttrey left it open whether the contemporaries of the coinage intended such indications. He did not want to commit to an exact purpose either, but he rejected a necessary connection between use and images, in particular the interpretation as "brothel brands" and favored use as game pieces.
Bono Simonetta and Renza Riva took a different approach to their analysis than Buttrey. They attributed the higher degree of characteristic to the motifs and therefore largely excluded portrait tesserae from the considerations. They took the letter “A” in front of certain numbers as an abbreviation for the coin unit As or Asses , which would have given the spintria a number function. For Tiberius in particular, but also for other emperors, ancient literary texts report that these rulers forbade the introduction of coins - all of which bore their portraits - into brothels. Accordingly, the spintries would have been tokens that brothel visitors would have bought at the entrance. Simonetta and Riva divided the spintria into three groups based on the stylistic criteria of the pictures, which they put in a chronological order in connection with information from ancient texts. Under Tiberius there were already lead tesserae for this purpose; these were given out by the brothels themselves. But the actual spintria were only introduced in the Flavian period. Simonetta and Riva hypothesized that Vespasian emitted bronze spintria in the center, which were then exchanged in public places. In this way the emperor could easily have levied a tax. After Domitian , there was no longer any evidence of the use of spintria. The authors try to underpin their interpretation with passages in the text that speak of numismata and tesserae nummerariae . The inscription "AVG" they refer to the ludi Augustales , a public celebration, because in connection with erotic scenes the emperor himself could not have been meant. In particular, the historical interpretation is very weakly supported. The assumption that an erotic depiction must point to the area of prostitution appears to be methodically highly problematic . In the past, because of the numerous erotic images in the interior design, it was assumed that there were innumerable brothels in Pompeii . Today it is clear that many of these representations were completely common in ordinary pubs - and in many bedrooms - too.
literature
- TV Buttrey, The Spintriae as a Historical Source. In: The Numismatic Chronicle. No. 13, 1973, pp. 54-63.
- Bono Simonetta, Renzo Riva: Le tessere erotiche romane (spintriae). Quando ed a che scopo sono state coniate . Chiesa, Lugano 1981.
- Luciana Jacobelli: Spintriae e ritratti Giulio-Claudii . Vol. 1. Spintriae e scene diverse. L'impianto iconografico . Centro Culturale Numismatico Milanese, Milano 2000.
- Ursula Kampmann, Honni soit qui mal y pense or What did you actually do with the Spintrien?
Web links
Pompeii # Prostitution at Pompeii's supposedly omnipresent brothels