II. THE ALTAR OF PROVIDENTIA ON COINS OF EMERITA

Our knowledge of what has been taken to be a local altar at Emerita is based upon aseries of bronze coins issued by the colony during the reign of

Tiberius . I These show on their reverses a large monument in the form of a square, on the front of which is a simulated double door with corner pilasters or small columns; on some issues similar pilasters appear at the centre of the doors. Above the crowning cornice the usual altar horns are replaced by what look to be three palms at either side, while in the field PER(m issu) and AVG(ustl) can be read left and right of the altar, below which appears PRO­ VIDEN(tia). The obverses show the head of Augustus mostly left and radiate with DIVVS AVGVSTVS PATER, also on some issues C(olonia) A(ugusta) E(merita) (PI. XXXVIII: a, b). Apart from the coins, we have no literary or epigraphical evidence to work with, nor have any archaeological traces been recovered. Sutherland originally dated the altar to the reign of Augustus on the grounds that it was similar to an earlier altar at Tarraco established perhaps ca. 26 B.C.2 Direct testimony to this is provided by aseries of dupondii that were struck at Tarraco under Tiberius and also show on their reverses an altar from which rises a palm. 3 In the most recent treatment of the municipal cult of Emerita Etienne has likewisestressed the correspondence between the coins of both centres and pointed to the possible influence of retired veterans resident in the colony.' He proposes a date ca. 15 B.C. since it was about two years earlier(?) that imperial issues began to stress the theme of Augustus' foresight in linking the succession with the name of Agrippa, who had presented

Emerita with a theatre and was personally popular there.S As Sutherland himself stressed, the coins of Emerita are all posthumous to the reign of Augustus-not that this in itself is a basic objection to assigning the altar to his lifetime: the altar of Tarraco certainly existed under Augustus

I A. Vives y Escudero, La Moneda hispdnica, Madrid, 1924,4, p. 64, no. 39 (pl. CXLll, 9); p. 65, nos. 46-49 (pI. CXLIII, 6, 7, 9, 10); p. 66, nos. 58, 61 (pl. CXLIV , 8, 11), 64 (pI. CXLV, 3). See now F. A. Burgos, Catälogo generat de 10 Monedahispdnica desdesus Ortgines hasta el Siglo V, Madrid, 1979, nos. 1571 -74, 1579-82. For commentary see A. Belträn. "Los monumentos roman os en las monedas hispano-romanas", AEA 26 (1953), 39-66 at 55 f.; id., "Las monedas romanas de Merida: su interpretaci6n historica " in Augusta Emerita (Actas dei bimi1enario de Merida), Madrid, 1976,93-105 at 103. 2 C.H. Sutherland, "Aspects of Irnperialism in Roman Spain", JRS 24 (1934),31-42 at 32, nn. 5 f.; id., The Romans in Spain 217 B.C.-A .D. 117, London, 1939 (1971), 154. For the date of the Tarraco altar see "The Altar of Augustus at Tarraco" above, Appendix I, pp. 171-173. l "Altar of Augustus", above, p. 171, note 2. For the obverses see ibid. • Etienne, Culte imperial 378 f'., cf. 395 with refs. , For Agrippa see Mattingly, BMC I, 21 ff. (13-12 B.C.), 142 f. (undated). n. THE ALTAR OF PROVIDENTIA ON COINS OF EMERITA 181 yet is first attested on coins after his death. But the circumstance is put in a new light when it becomes clear that the similarity between the issues of the two towns lies mainly in their obverses,' rather than the reverses showing the two altars . To judge from the coins the monument celebrated by Emerita bore little, if any, resemblance to that at Tarraco. The latter was decorated with im­ perial insignia of a type found commonly on public and private monuments in Italy and the Western empire, in particular an oak swag (corona civica) suspended from bucrania with a shield (clupeus virtutis) in the loop so formed.' Again, a single palm springs luxuriantly from the centre of the Tar­ raco altar-where it evidently recalls the famous miracle announced by the townsfolk to Augustus (Quintilian, Inst. Orat. 6,3, 77)-and can in no way be compared with the two sets of scraggy palm branches that jut above the altar at Emerita. Much more significantly, there is no mention at Tarraco of PRO­ VIDENTIA, unquestionably the most significant feature of the Emerita reverses. In cataloguing the coins of Emerita Vives drew attention to issues of Italica that likewise show an altar with the legend PROVIDENTIAE AVGVSTI. 8 Beltran has emphasised that no real resemblance exists between the two altars apart from the circumstance that both evidently served the same cult; the nearest correspondence is rather between the altar coins of Emerita and a bronze coin, issued by Agrippa 11 of Judaea (A.D. 50-100), which likewise shows a square monument with simulated door, though it has the legend SALVTI AVGVSTI SC.9 Beltran gave no reason for the appearance of vir­ tually the same type at centres situated so widely apart, but in practiceonly one explanation comes into question : both must be provincial copies of an of­ ficial Roman issue. The common type from which both are derived may be identified without difficulty as an undated as belonging to the "DIVVS AVGVSTVS PATER" series of Tiberius' reign (PI. XXXVIII : c). 10 On the obverse appears the head of Augustus radiate and DIVVS AVGVSTVS PATER starting low left, while the reverse shows SC large, left and right of a monument with panelled door in front; above are what Mattingly describes as flames or (more probably) altar horns . In the exergue can be read PROVIDENT. "What is actually

• Above, note 3. Cf. Vives (above , note I) 4, p. 131, no, 7 (Tarraco), showing obverse the radiate head of Augustus left and DlVVS AVGVSTVS PATER. 1 "Altar of Augustus" pp. 174 f. I Vives 4, p. 60, type 14 ad p. 127, nos. 9 f (pI. CLXVIII, 8 f.). • Beltran (above, note I) , citing A. Reifenberg, Ancient Jewish Coins'; Jerusalem, 1940, nos. 103 f. (AD 85, 86). Despite the different legend, this is c1early the same altar and obviously a copy of a Flavian issue, itself a revival of a type of Tiberius. For paralleis see, for example, the follow­ ing-all showing roughly the same altar with SAL VTI AVGVSTI: BMC 2, p, 261, no . 189 + (pl, SO, I); p. 361, no . 291 (pl, 70, 7); p. 367, no . 316 (pl , 72, I) ; p. 375, no. 358 (pI. 74, 4). ,. BMC I, pp. cxxxixf, 141, nos. 146-150 (pl. 25, 12; 26, 2). For bibliography see "Divus Augustus" above, p. 151, note 9.