Concordia in 62 BC

Detail from Les Sabines or The Intervention of the Sabine Women by Jacques-Louis David, 1799, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris. The painting depicts Romulus's wife Hersilia – the daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines – rushing between her husband and her father and placing her babies between them. A vigorous Romulus prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates.

"Concordia has religious, political, and social aspects, and a lengthy history in Roman cult worship. The concept is based on the Greek idea of homonoia, but acquires a distinctly Roman nuance. In general, the presence of concordia suggests a state of agreement of an entity’s constitutive parts, whether this refers to partners in marriage, family members, other relationships, or the state."
- Gillespie, Caitlin. “Livia and Concordia in Tacitus’ Annals.” Latomus 78, no. 3 (2019): 621–52.

The Republic's institutions were designed for a city-state and in the face of the new scale, with expansion post-Carthage, the concentrations of power and wealth revealed the inadequacy of these Roman institutions and allowed the politically powerful and wealthy to establish an oligarchy that  captured and eventually concentrated power in one man.

Polybius writing (The Histories Book IV.18) in the mid 2nd century BCE saw the strength of the Roman system of divided government: 

"For when one part (of the consul, senate, and the people) having grown out of proportion to the others aims at supremacy and tends to become too predominant, it is evident that, as for the reasons above given none of the three is absolute, but the purpose of the one can be counterworked and thwarted by the others, none of them will excessively outgrow the others or treat them with contempt."

Sallust writing (Bellum Catalinae Ch. 10) in the middle of the 1st century BCE saw the end of Carthage (146 BCE) as a turning point:

"But when our country had grown strong through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty peoples subdued by force of arms, when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s dominion, had perished root and branch, and all seas and lands lay open, then Fortune began to be savage and to throw all into confusion. Those who had easily endured toil dangers, uncertain and difficult undertakings, found leisure and wealth, desirable under other circumstances, a burden and a curse. Hence a craving first for money, then for power, increased; these were, as it were, the root of all evils. For avarice subverted trustworthiness, integrity, and other virtuous practices; in place of these, it taught insolence, cruelty, to neglect the gods, to set a price on everything."

Rome in 62 BCE After Catiline’s Conspiracy

The denarius of 62 BCE was struck in the tense calm that followed Cicero’s suppression of Catiline’s conspiracy. Catiline had promised debt relief and revolution; his defeat was hailed as salvation for the Republic. Yet the city was still on edge, with Cicero defending his extraordinary measures and the Senate eager to project stability.

On 21 October 63 BCE, Cicero persuaded the Senate to pass the senatus consultum ultimum granting extraordinary powers to the consul to defend the state. On 5 December 63 BCE, after heated Senate debate with Julius Caesar arguing for life imprisonment, and Cato the Younger urging execution, Cicero ordered the immediate strangling of five conspirators in the Tullianum prison without trial. Executing Roman citizens without due process was legally dubious.

The two young moneyers, Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus and Lucius Scribonius Libo, issued coinage that celebrated the harmony restored and divine protection.

Roman Republican & Imperatorial, L. Aemilius Lepidus Paullus and L. Scribonius Libo, 62 BC. Denarius (Silver, 20 mm, 3.64 g, 5 h), Rome. PAVLLVS LEPIDVS CONCORD Diademed and veiled head of Concordia to right. Rev. PVTEAL•SCRIBON / LIBO Garlanded Puteal Scribonianum (Scribonian wellhead), decorated with two lyres; hammer at base. Babelon (Aemilia) 11. Crawford 417a. RBW 1503. Sydenham 927. Nearly very fine.

This denarius was issued jointly by Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus and Lucius Scribonius Libo in 62 BCE. In this year, the Roman Republic was recovering from the Catilinarian Conspiracy of the previous year. Catiline was thwarted by Consul Cicero, who promoted a policy of concordia ordinum (“harmony of the orders”) to unite senators and equites in defense of the state. The two young moneyers were political allies of Cicero and shared his emphasis on restoring civic harmony. Liv Yarrow's "Unpublished Paper of 2011" is interest reading on the subject of Cataline, Concordia, and Cicero.

Sallust in Bellum Catalinae 10.1 Sallust presents Catiline as the product of Rome’s broader moral decline:

"But when our country had grown great through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty peoples subdued by force of arms, when Carthage, the rival of Rome's sway, had perished root and  branch, and all seas and lands were open, then Fortune began to grow cruel and to bring confusion into all our affairs. Those who had found it easy to bear hardship and dangers, anxiety and adversity, found leisure and wealth, desirable under other circumstances, a burden and a curse. Hence the lust for money first, then for power, grew upon them; these were, I may say, the root of all evils."

Cataline repeatedly sought the consulship, failed, and turned to radical measures. His program: cancellation of debts, redistribution, appealed to indebted aristocrats, Sullan veterans, and disenfranchised Italians. Catiline’s movement was a last-ditch populist effort by a frustrated noble who had genuine (if destabilizing) political goals.

A famous myth of early Roman concord is depicted in Les Sabines by David as the opening image. The Temple of Concord in the Forum, is where the Senate met to deliberate Catiline’s fate.

1760-767 - etching by C. Clerisseau & D. Cunego, Rome. The structural remains of the Temple of Concordia are very fragmentary, especially compared to those of Saturn. The Concordia temple was rebuilt under Tiberius (in AD 10) but later urban development and the Tabularium’s construction obscured much of its remains. The Ruins shown are of the Temple of Saturn.

Puteal Scribonianum

The reverse depicts the Puteal Scribonianum, also known as the Puteal Libonis, a famed monumental wellhead in Forum. The coin shows the puteal as a round, altar-like structure decorated with a garland and flanked by two lyres/citharae, with a hammer symbol at its base. The puteal was not an active well but a sacred enclosure marking a spot struck by lightning, which had either been dedicated or restored by an ancestor of the Scribonia gens. By Republican tradition, any lightning-struck ground was made sacred and often encircled by a structure (a puteal) to honor Jupiter.Its location in the Forum was near the praetor’s tribunal, making it a well-known meeting point for litigants, money-lenders, and merchants. The puteal serves as a symbol of legal justice and financial trust as well as a reference to the moneyer's family.

Lyres and Hammer: The two lyres (better described as citharae) likely reference Apollo. In this context they likely suggest harmony restored after civil discord and may allude to Apollo’s role as guarantor of truth and order in civic life. The hammer is the tool of Vulcan (Hephaestus), the divine blacksmith who forges Jupiter’s thunderbolts.

Details from an engraving by Cornelis Cort (Netherlands 1533 - 1578) with Concordia as guarantor of both marital harmony and civic stability, supported by nature’s symbols (olive, bird, branch) and expressed in the accompanying Latin verse “Be well-matched, and therefore come together in harmony; for beauty, youth, and love join you.”. Harvard Art Museum.

Aemilia & Scribonia

Paullus belonged to the ancient patrician gens Aemilia, one of Rome’s most distinguished lineages. He was the younger brother of the future triumvir M. Aemilius Lepidus and would himself become consul in 50 BCE.The Aemilii Paulli claimed illustrious ancestors, notably the conqueror of Macedon (L. Aemilius Paullus of 168 BCE), and were patrons of public works (the Basilica Aemilia in the Forum bore their name). In 62 BCE, the young Paullus leveraged these coins to advertise both his family’s gloria and contemporary ideals. Another coin from this same year, Crawford 415/1, depicts his ancestor’s victory over King Perseus.

Libo belonged to the plebeian gens Scribonia, an influential family with a legacy of public service. He would later become consul in 34 BCE and was an ancestor of Scribonia, the second wife of Octavian (Augustus). The Scribonii were traditionally connected to the Puteal Libonis – ancient sources suggest a Scribonius (perhaps a praetor of 204 BCE or tribune in 149 BCE) originally dedicated or refurbished that monument. By restoring the Puteal in 62 BCE, Libo burnished his family’s reputation for piety and for maintaining Rome’s sacred landmarks. Placing the Puteal Scribonianum on the coin’s reverse, alongside his name “LIBO”, proudly advertises this achievement.

References

• Gillespie, C. (2019). Livia and Concordia in Tacitus’ Annals. Latomus, 78(3), 621–652. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48763453

• Lewis, P. E. (2021). The Puteal Scribonianum. Centre for Coins, Culture & Religious History.

• arrow, Liv Mariah. “Cicero on Concordia – Unpublished Paper, c. 2011.” Liv Mariah Yarrow (blog), September 20, 2021.

• Kondratieff, E. (2015). Finding Libo: Numismatic, Epigraphic, and Topographic Evidence for the "Cursus Honorum" of L. Scribonius L. F. Libo, Cos. 34 BCE. Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, 64(4), 428–466.

• “Libo,” Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, Theodora.com.

• Brown, R. (1995). Livy’s Sabine Women and the Ideal of Concordia. Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), 125, 291–319.