(124) Carinus - AV aureus, A.D. 283-285, 5.38 g. (inv. 93.017).
Obverse: Diademed and draped bust of Magnia Urbica r.;
MAGNIA VRBICA AVG(VSTA): Magnia Urbica Augusta.
Reverse: Venus standing r., holding apple in l., lifting
mantle from shoulder with r.; VENERI VICTRICI: to Venus Victrix.
Provenance: Harlan Berk, 1990.
Bibliography: P.H. Webb, The Roman Imperial Coinage
V.2 (London 1933) 340.
If little is known of the short-lived soldier-emperors of the third century,
even less is known of their wives. In some cases not even their names are
known, and in others the coinage of their husbands provides the only record
of their existence. Magnia Urbica, wife of Carinus (see no. 123),
who ruled from A.D. 283 to 285, is known only from coins, which tell us
that she had received the title Augusta. If her portrait actually records
her features, she was young (Carinus was in his early thirties when he became
emperor) and beautiful. She wears an elaborate hairstyle characteristic
of the period, with her hair softly waved backward, then braided, with the
braid pinned on the top of her head by her diadem.
The reverse depicts Venus Victrix holding the apple which she won in the
Judgment of Paris. Venus had been associated with Augustae since the first
Augustus claimed descent from her, and Venus in the form of Victrix was
especially appropriate for a fair young empress (see no. 101).
C.L.L.
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