Egypt, Alexandria. Dattari. Lucius Verus, 161-169 Drachm circa 163-164 (year 4), Æ 33.5mm., 27.52g. Laureate head r. Rev. Poseidon standing with foot on rock, l., holding dolphin and trident; in field, L-Δ. RPC Online 14065 (this coin cited). Dattari-Savio Pl. 202, 3759 (this coin).

Brown tone, Good Fine.

From the Dattari collection.

The mint of the Monetales was on on the Capitoline Hill, in the place where the sacred geese alarmed the goddess Juno, saving the city from the attack of the Gauls. In memory of this event, Lucius Furius Camillus in 345 a.C built a temple in the name of Juno called Moneta from the verb monere = to warn. Interesting is the Moneta epithet given to the goddess, identified with Mnemosyne, who gave birth to the nine muses according to Greek mythology. In fact, in Livius Andronicus, a poet of the third century BC it reads "... diva Monetas filia docuit", where indeed the mother of the muse identifies itself with Moneta. It is important to denote that, while the term Mnemosyne, derived by the verb μιμνήσκω/μνημονεύω, indicates the simple act of remembrance, as an individual remembrance, the epithet of Juno, Moneta, coming from monere, seems to invest a semantic area much broader. In fact, can mean: bring back to the memory but also warn, advise. And it is in this last sense that the epiclesis of the goddess Juno can be interpreted. It was no coincidence, on the other hand, that his temple was placed on the Capitoline Hill so that the episode of the geese, sacred to the goddess, would call upon the collective memory of the Romans, who fighting saved the city from the siege of the Gauls.