Urania – Muse of Astronomy
Q. Pomponius Musa. 56 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.89 g, 11h). Rome mint. Head of Apollo right, wearing laurel wreath, hair rolled back and in loose locks over forehead; star of eight rays to left / Urania, the Muse of Astronomy, wearing long flowing tunic and peplum, standing left, touching with wand held in right hand a globe set on base; Q • POMPONI downward to right, MVSA downward to left. Crawford 410/8; Sydenham 823; Pomponia 22; BMCRR Rome 3628-32; Kestner 3385-6; RBW 1488. Toned. In NGC encapsulation 4278466-005, graded Ch XF★, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 5/5.
Ex Heritage 3051 (8 January 2017), lot 30157; Elvira E. Clain-Stefanelli Collection (Numismatica Ars Classica 92, Part I, 23 May 2016), lot 1827.
Although the moneyer Q. Pomponius Musa is unknown to history, his choice of Hercules Musagetes and the nine Muses as coin types is remarkable and clearly connected to his cognomen.
The reverses of this series – Hercules playing the lyre and the Muses, can be none other than the celebrated statue group by an unknown Greek artist, taken from Ambracia and placed in the Aedes Herculis Musarum, which was erected by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 187 BC after the capture of Ambracia in 189 BC (Plin. NH xxxv.66; Ov. Fast. vi.812). By the second century BC, Rome had overrun most of Greece and was captivated by Hellenic art and culture, not the least of which was its sculpture. Fulvius is said to have taken the statues to Rome because he learned in Greece that Hercules was a musagetes (leader of the Muses). Remains of this temple have been found in the area of the Circus Flaminius close to the southwest part of the circus itself, and northwest of the porticus Octaviae. An inscription found nearby, ‘M. Fulvius M. f. Ser. n. Nobilior cos. Ambracia cepit’ may have been on the pedestal of one of the statues. The official name of the temple was Herculis Musarum Aedes, which Servius and Plutarch called Herculis et Musarum Aedes.
