Crawford 218/1, Roman Republic, 147 BC., moneyer Lucius Cupiennus, Denarius
Roman Republic (Rome mint 147 BC.), moneyer Lucius Cupiennus.
Denarius (17-18 mm, 3,59 g), silver, axis about coin alignment ?? (ca. 170°),
Obv.: head of Roma right, wearing griffin helmet; behind, cornucopiae; [below chin value mark X , 10 As]. Border of dots.
Rev.: The Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, on horseback, charging to right; below horses, L·CVP (VP ligatured). In exergue, ROMA within rectangular frame. Line border.
Crawford 218/1 ; Sydenham 404 ; Babelon (Cupiennia) 1 ; BMCRR Rome 850 .
Lucius Cupiennus was a republican moneyer, known only from his coins. These are marked with L·CVP (VP ligatured) and the symbol of a cornucopia.
For this type Crawford noted an estimate of 73 obverse dies and 91 reverse dies.
Castor and Pollux are twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri. Their mother was Leda (an Aetolian princess who became a Spartan queen), but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who raped Leda in the guise of a swan.
From the 5th century BCE onwards, the brothers were revered by the Romans, probably as the result of cultural transmission via the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia in southern Italy.
The Romans believed that the twins aided them on the battlefield. The construction of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, located in the Roman Forum at the heart of their city, was undertaken to fulfill a vow (votum) made by Aulus Postumius Albus Regillensis in gratitude at the Roman victory in the Battle of Lake Regillus in 495 BCE. Their role as horsemen made them particularly attractive to the Roman equites and cavalry. Each year on July 15, Feast Day of the Dioskouroi, 1,800 equestrians would parade through the streets of Rome in an elaborate spectacle in which each rider wore full military attire and whatever decorations he had earned.