GENS CALPURNIA Crawford 340-1
Legend ./:L. FRVGI FLOOR
The Calpurnii were a gens of plebeian origin who claimed descent from Calpus, the third of the four sons attributed to Numa Pompilius, and it is because of this legendary origin that we see Numa’s head on some of their coins. The first mention of a member of this gens occurs during the First Punic War, Calpurnius Flamma was then a military tribune under the consulship of A. Attilius Calatinus in 258 BC. Another prominent member was the praetor C. Calpurnius Piso, taken prisoner in the battle of Cannae in 216 BC and urban praetor in 212 BC, regularized the ludi Apollinares and made them a regular event. The Calpurnios carried the following cognomina during the republic: Bestia, Bibulus, Flamma, Piso. The Pisones are divided into two groups, with the cognomina of Caesoninus and Frugi. The name Pisón seems to derive from pisere or pinsere and is related to the cultivation of wheat (it refers to grinding or crushing wheat). This etymology was given by the Romans themselves, if we refer to these verses addressed to Piso and preserved by Pliny [1].
Humida callosa cum pinseret hordea dextra.
The name of Caesoninus carried by a branch of the Pisones comes from Lucius Calpurnius Piso, consul in 148 BC. C, member of the Gens Caesonia, adopted by one of the Pisones. As for the name Frugi, it is believed that it comes from the character of honesty and righteousness of L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, tribune of the plebs in 149 BC, praetor in 139 BC and consul in 133 BC, the first to bear this name. His son, of the same name, served under his father in Sicily and died in Hispania, where he served as propraetor around 112 BC. Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, our purser, was the son of the latter. The magistrate, mentioned several times by Cicero, was, like his father and grandfather, a man of the highest honor. He appeared as accuser of P. Gabinius in 87 BC and was with Verres in Sicily as propraetor in 74 BC.
The Pisones, famous since the Second Punic War, remained in the highest dignities until the 3rd century AD. Horace dedicated his Ars poetica to one of them. The last of them that history records was counted among the thirty tyrants, in the year 260 of our era [1,2].
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi exercised the magistracy of tresviri monetalis during the period of the Bellum Marsicum or Allied War, hence the extraordinary breadth of his issue, but the authors differ slightly in their chronology.
Babelon and Grueber think that he performed the functions of monetary official around the year 89 BC, as Borghesi inferred from the coins bearing E. L. P, which he translated as Ex lege Papiria. The Plautia Papiria law contained, among other things, provisions regarding coins. The ingots from the metal reserve of the public treasury had to be converted into money to meet the expenses of the war. It is to this circumstance that we owe the knowledge that this reserve, in 89 BC, amounted to 17,410 pounds of gold, 22,070 pounds of silver in ingots, and 6,135,400 sesterces (=18,230 pounds) in silver coins. These ingots were minted and L. Piso Frugi was commissioned to manage this extraordinary issue [1,2].
Crawford differs from this chronology based on several arguments. The author indicates that issues nº 337 and 340-44 appear together in the Fiesole treasure, a number of pieces of the finds help to establish their relative order. The Hoffmann treasure contains only the emissions of D. Silanus and L. Piso Frugi, the Fuscaldo treasure only contains the emissions of Q. Titius and C. Vibius Pansa; The Fiesole hoard only has two of the three types of L. Titurius Sabinus, suggesting that its issue is the last of the six. The absolute chronology is more complex. M. Cato’s issue is copied in an Italian issue of the social war with a Latin legend, therefore, from 89 BC or earlier.
Two organizations are theoretically possible:
| 91 | D. Silanus |
| 90 | L. Frugi Apartment |
| Q. Titius | |
| C. Vibius Pansa | |
| 89 | M. Cato |
| L. Titurius Sabinus |
either:
| 90 | D. Silanus |
| L. Frugi Apartment | |
| 89 | Q. Titius |
| C. Vibius Pansa | |
| M. Cato | |
| 88 | L. Titurius Sabinus (and others). |
On the other hand, Crawford does not consider it credible that the tribunate of M. Livius Drusus in the year 91 BC was not accompanied by a coinage. He also thinks that it is more likely that the issuance occurred in 90 BC in a school full of purses, than in 89 BC, when reserves were running out.
One of the objectives of the Plautia Papiria law appears to have been to authorize the production of bronze series with a standard weight of half an ounce instead of one ounce. A second purpose seems to have been to revive the sesterce, which had not been issued for more than a century. All these provisions seem to influence the reduction of public treasury reserves as a consequence of the enormous expenses of the Allied war [3].
The administration and, above all, the tax system of the provinces was in the hands of the equestrian publicani. Their extortions were a scourge for the provincials, powerless against the actions of the knights. The senatorial governors could do little against the plunder carried out by the powerful companies, even less so when the equestrian order controlled criminal matters. Upon the return of an official legation from Asia, chaired by Scaurus, he denounced the situation and proposed sending a governor to establish the necessary reforms to end the abuses. The choice fell on Q. Mucius Scévola, linked as Scaurus, to the factio Metella, to whom the legate P was assigned. Rutilio Rufous. After the return of Rutilius in 92 BC, the legate was taken to court under the unfounded accusation of extortion of the provincials. He was condemned to exile, choosing as his destination the same province in which he had acted, Asia. Rutilio’s scandalous conviction put the spotlight on the equestrian Gracchani iudices. It was in this context, when M. entered the scene. Livio Drusus, young aristocrat supported by the factio Metella with the purpose of reforming the courts held by the knights. The tribune executed popular measures that were contested by the equestrian order and by the senate, but with the support of the factio Metella, he managed to maintain the viability of the project. At some point during his tribunate, Livy Drusus included in his program the granting of citizenship to the Italian allies. The tribune knew the problems and frustrations of the allies firsthand from the princeps italicorum Popedius
Sidon. The inclusion of the Italic socii in the Roman citizen body was one of the most urgent and difficult tasks faced by a reluctant state, which ended up withdrawing any possible support that Livy Drusus might have had. The Senate invalidated his laws and a few days later he was murdered. The elimination of the tribune represented the last opportunity for the allies for dialogue with the Roman state. The culmination of Roman clumsiness came from the hand of the praetor Q. Servilius, with his provocation to the inhabitants of Asculum, which led to the death of the ambassador and all the Romans in the city. The senate held the Italic communities responsible and, when a commission of them tried to present the old allied aspirations, it was realized that the positions were irreconcilable. The way to war was clear [4].
This confrontation is part of the various problems that affected Rome at the beginning of the 20th century. I BC Rome had gone from being a city-state to an empire without having hardly changed its laws and institutions. During this time, the Italic communities discovered to their regret that they were simply subjects of Rome, forced to maintain a state based on taxes and human capital that only benefited Roman citizens. These events had as a consequence the spread among the Italian allies of the idea of obtaining Roman citizenship to participate in the benefits of contributing to the state.
The shortsightedness of Roman politicians pushed the Allies into a civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and a large portion of Italy’s economic resources. Rome obtained the military victory, but only after recognizing its political defeat, that is, the recognition of the Italian allies’ right of Roman citizenship with the approval of the lex Plautia Papiria.
It was at this beginning of the Allied War, Bellum Marsicum or Italicum, when Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi coined the issue in question [5].
OBVERSE:Laureate bust of Apollo to the right, behind symbol: spike.
The head of Apollo towards the right on the obverse alludes to the games held in honor of Apollo, the Ludi Apollinares.
In the year 213 BC. C., in the middle of the Punic War, the operations against the Carthaginians were dragging on in a desperate way: Hannibal still had the prospect of taking over Taranto, and the people were striving to achieve the pax deorum with all kinds of rites, not only in private, but in public and in the forum itself. The situation reached such a point that it transcended the Senate. He commissioned the urban praetor, Marcus Aemilius, to take the necessary measures to control the situation. He promulgated an edict in which, together with the prohibition of making sacrifices in a public or sacred place, with new or foreign rites, the immediate delivery of all the books of prophecies and the arts sacrificial was ordered. But the urban praetor scrupulously read all the Material that had fallen into his hands, and handed over to his successor in office the following year, Gaius Calpurnius Piso, the Carmina Marciana, a set of prophecies that They had appeared among the confiscated books for further analysis. The Carmina Marciana were two oracles, one ex eventu that announced the already suffered defeat of Cannae, and another that exhorted the Romans to celebrate games in honor of Apollo and a public sacrifice as a sine qua non condition to defeat the Carthaginians in war. Apparently these omens were interpreted by a seer named Marcius, hence the name.
The prophecies dictated that the Romans should use Greek ritual to honor Diana and Latona, and that they should help contribute to the costs of the games, according to their means. The Sibylline books were also consulted and confirmed this prophecy. The impact caused by the first oracle is linked to the degree of desperation in which the Roman citizens found themselves due to the wear and tear caused by the war, which is why the Apollinares ludi were consequently instituted in 212-211 BC, although it is unknown if they were regular on that date. As in other times, the games served to allay the public’s fears and distract them from Hannibal’s invasion.
There is some discussion about when and who officially made them annual games. It may be that they became an annual event after the plague that Rome suffered in 208 BC, which led the curule aedile L. Varus to make them permanent with the authorization of the senate, in honor of Apollo, whom they considered a god of healing. From that date on, they were celebrated on July 13 and eventually increased to lasting 8 or 9 days.
For our moneyer it was evident that it was his ancestor who established them and, therefore, he reflected it in his denarii, being the largest series of denarii in the entire republican coinage [1,2].
REVERSE:Rider with palm galloping to the right, with number below the legend:XXVIII
Legend ./:L. FRVGI FLOOR
The coins of L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi show on the reverse a horseman with a palm, a whip or a torch in his hand. Like the obverse, they allude to the Ludi Apollinares, which were solemn games (ludi) consisting of equestrian shows and theatrical performances, including praetextae, a category of Roman drama. There were chariot races and desultor races, riders who led two horses and jumped from one to the other during the race. It is to these games that the motifs on the coins of L. Piso and his son C. Piso refer.
The numerous monetary marks found on the coins had no other purpose than to distinguish the coins for the workers in the workshop and allow the verification and control of this enormous issue. The numerous and varied mint marks, composed of symbols, numbers, letters and fractions, demonstrate that this issue is one of the largest that was produced in the Roman mint. Furthermore, there is a complicated arrangement and combination of symbols, numbers, letters and fractional signs on the obverse and reverse that make it very difficult to classify all the variants [2,3].
Some of the symbols found on the coins of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi [2].
[1] Babelon E. Description Historique Et Chronologique Des Monnaies de la République Romaine. Vol 1. 1885.
[2] Grueber H. A. A Catalog of The Roman Coins in The British Museum. Vol 1. 1910.
[3] Crawford M. H. Roman Republican Coinage. Vol 1. 1974.
[4] Roldán J. M. History of Rome. The Roman Republic. 1982.
[5] Valverde L. A. The bull against the wolf. 2016.