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Dritto moneta
Dritto
Lot # 274
Roman Empire. Circa 1st - 2nd centuries AD. Tessera (Lead, 14.58 mm, 4.03 g). Tripod (?). Rev. Sow’s udder (?). Ficoroni, pl. 24, n. 18. Scholz 457–458. Rostovtzeff 563. Turcan 764. British Museum Collections B.9045. Dark patina. About Extremely Fine. Scholz interprets the obverse as showing a "crown between jagged rings" and the reverse as an elongated "loaf of bread," identifying the piece as a Verteilungsmarke, that is, a token used for food distribution. Rostovtzeff instead suggests a theatrical mask and classifies it among spectacle tesserae. Turcan rejects both interpretations, noting that Roman bread was not elongated in shape (Blümner, Technologie..., I², 1912/1969, p. 88) and that the mask is not clearly depicted. He proposes a new hypothesis: the image may represent a sow’s udder (sumen), a delicacy in Imperial Rome (J. André, L’alimentation et la cuisine à Rome, 1961, p. 141), also shown in butcher shop reliefs (Fournier, DAGR, I,2, p. 1159; Reinach, Répertoire, III, p. 154; Helbig, Führer, IV⁴, 1972, p. 192 ff.). The token may therefore have served as a voucher for hot food distributed during the sportula, a client-patron tradition vividly described by Juvenal (Sat., I, 249 ff.): Nonne vides, quanto celebretur sportula fumo? The tripod depicted on the obverse would thus allude to the cooking of such meals. 4.03 g
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Starting price: CHF 40
CHF
B.P.: 19.00%
Closing on: 2025-11-02 16:00:00 Roma time