Empire of Iron - Medallions and a Mystery

This article is for readers of my novel Empire of Iron, which is the third and last book in The Vesta Shadows Trilogy, a book series that follows the life of the Vestal Virgin Pomponia Occia through the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, and beyond.

The Course of Empire. Thomas Cole, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Here, and in other articles, I’ve included a number of ancient Roman coins from my collection, coins that bear the images of the personalities, legends, events and so on that are dramatized in my novels. If you are reading the novel(s), I recommend that you finish before you read this article, as there are SPOILERS ahead—and also because I think you will enjoy seeing these coins much more that way. *Also, if you’re following the trilogy, you may wish to read the articles for Brides of Rome (book one) and To Be Wolves (book two) before this one.

In the prologue of Empire of Iron, we see a fictional Vestal named Tacita—she’s something of a legendary figure in the series—and she’s facing off against an invader. During this confrontation, she prays to the goddess Vesta, seeking permission to perform a certain act. And when she does, she prays to “Vesta Sancta,” which is Latin for holy Vesta. That way of speaking to or identifying Vesta is shown on the below coin.

This is coin from around 200 CE of the empress Julia Domna, and the reverse depicts a standing Vesta, draped, with her head veiled. She is holding a sceptre and a patera (an offering dish), and around the edge of the coin are the letters VESTAE SANCTAE (this is actually Latin for “to Holy Vesta”).

If you’ve read some of the previous articles, you might remember that we’ve seen coins that say Vesta Mater for Mother Vesta, Vesta Felix, for Fortunate Vesta, Vesta Aeterna for Eternal Vesta—and now this one, Holy Vesta. Very pretty.

Moving on—in the novel, Tiberius arranges for games in honor of Augustus.

Roman Gladiators. Howard Pyle (d. 1911), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As part of the celebration, he has a unique medallion designed for the emperor. I put this in the book because apparently Augustus did collect coins himself, which is interesting, so you’re in good company if you’re a collector. In any event, the emperor’s portrait is on the obverse of this fictional medallion, and it might have looked something like the portrait on the below real coin.

This is actually the obverse of a coin I showed you in another article – the other side depicts the Vestal Tarpeia. But here, you can see a fairly young looking emperor. This coin is from 19 BCE, so it’s about a decade into the empire. You can see Octavian’s very typical hairstyle, which you’ll see in pretty much all official depictions of him, but just in case you missed that, his name is on it—CAESAR AVGVSTVS (and just FYI, the V in Latin is our English U, which is why you’ll see V in the name “Augustus”).

So that’s the front of this fictional medallion. Below is what I had in mind for the back.

Here we see a depiction of the Vestals. Now I don’t believe there’s an actual ancient coin like this—with Augustus on the front and Vestals on the back—but I have seen a fantasy medal like this. Regardless, for the novel, I took inspiration from this reverse of a Julia Domna coin.

We can see the Vestals in their stolas and veils, and we can see can see the simpulum that one priestess is using to offer into the altar fire. In the book, Pomponia sees this image on the back of this gold medallion and sees herself as Vestalis Maxima offering into the hearth. I like to imagine that she is here, doing just that.

Next up is unfortunately a somewhat poor quality coin, but it shows a sacrificial implement featured in the novel, so I wanted to include it.

We can see a seated Vestal here and the letters VESTALIS (for “Vestal”) along the right, but on the left, there is a circled image—that is a culullus, one of the official emblems of the Vestal Order and a sacrificial implement (like a patera or a simpulum). There is a scene in the novel where something falls, and a priestess is cut by a smashed culullus, so I thought it would be interesting to show that.

Here is another interesting thing about this coin—it’s actually a fake. A counterfeit; however, it is a contemporary counterfeit, meaning that it was made in antiquity to be a fake. Considering how many people try to pass off fake Roman coins as originals even today, it seems the practice has always haunted Roman coinage.

Yet not all fake coins are, or were meant to be, deceptive. In fact, there is a certain artistry to reproducing ancient coins and it’s a labor of love for many people. It was done in the Renaissance with Paduan medals, for example. Others are used as commemorative items. I have one such item in my collection, and it’s such a bold and fun piece that it’s one of my favorites—a copper French medallion that was made to be a large-scale reproduction of an actual rare coin. As you can see below, the obverse has the face of Augustus.

Here we have another portrait of Augustus; however, in this one, he’s actually shed his mortal coil and is deceased. The real coin with this image was a posthumous issue under Tiberius. We can see Augustus’s recognizable hair and face, and of course the letters DIVVS AVGVTVS PATER for Divine Augustus the Father (I’ve put a dotted line between the words…also, remember that the Latin V is the English U). So we see Augustus deified here in the same way that Julius Caesar was deified, and indeed the way that the first king, Romulus, was deified.

Yet even more notable about this coin, or this big medallion, is the reverse, as seen below.

I know there is some debate about what temple this is. It is not the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum, but there is reason to believe that it is the smaller Shrine of Vesta on the Palatine Hill. If that is true, it might be the only image we have on coins of that shrine. 

The Shrine of Vesta (also called the Aedicula Vestae, as opposed to the Aedes Vestae which is the temple that stood in the Forum) factors into the storyline of Empire of Iron, so if you’re a reader you might find that interesting. However, in a larger and more important sense, if this is the shrine on the Palatine, it is yet another example of how vital ancient coins are when it comes to understanding the world of ancient Rome.

So this is a good place to end—with this look at what is possibly Palatine Vesta. It leaves us with a little mystery, and maybe that’s a good thing. That drive to know more, to keep discovering and digging, I think that’s part of what makes this time in history so fascinating. Thank you for reading.