Women Of Rome - Magnia Urbica

I am taking this next entry in our series at the suggestion of EFLargeCents.

Most commentators identify Magnia Urbica as the wife of Carinus, however in the present Wikipedia entry for this figure Ras Suarez, of Dirty Old Coins, puts forward the conjecture that she was actually the wife of Carus. However, Michael Grant offers the observation that Magnia Urbica was "identifiable as Carinus' spouse because a coin shows her in his company." Percy Webb in RIC V pt observes that there is a coin in the British Museum with the portrait of Carinus on one side and hers on the other. There is also a gold medallion bearing both their portraits. Although the Historia Augusta, always ready to defame Carinus, reports that through a series of debaucheries Carinus had as many as nine wives, Magnia Urbica is the only one honored with coinage, Which Webb associates with the latest coins of Carinus. Little is known of her life, but it appears that with the death of her husband, at the hands of his eastern army who had elevated Diocles (aka Diocletian), their principal general of the imperial guard, to emperor in 285, her life was forfeit. Diocletian succeeded her unpopular husband, and instituted a damnatio of his memory. For this she is all but lost to history.


The coins of Magnia Urbica, the most common of which are still considered scarce, were produced at four imperial mint cities in the center of the empire (Lugdunum, Rome, Ticinum, and Siscia).
Of the five obverse inscriptions only the form MAGNIA VRBICA AVG was used at all four mints and is the most common. The VENVS GENETRIX reverse was used for the antoninianus at Lugdunum and Siscia, but the presence of the D in the left field and the absence of anything at her feet ties this example specifically to Lugdunum.




The obverse inscription form MAG (or MAGN) VRBICA AVG was used only at Rome. This form, together with the VENVS VICTRIX reverse with Victory standing left and a shield standing at her feet, was used only at Rome, which operated seven officinae at the time, although Webb in RIC V pt2 states that most of her coins from Rome were produced in officina 6. These are distinguished by the exergual mark; which here reads: K(crescent)A(zeta or final sigma) signifying officina 6. Numerically KA is the Greek equivalent of Roman XXI and is a reference to the denomination of the coin according to the convention introduced by Aurelian. Here we might note that the crescent shifts position within this series of marks, but its significance I do not know.





In addition to these the mint at Siscia used a dative (or possibly genitive) form of inscription: MAGNIAE VRBICAE AVG; to or for (or "of") Magnia Urbica Augusta. And the Voetter collection had a single example from Ticinum with the inscription VRBICIA MAGNA AVG which placed her names out of proper sequence and put the letter "I" in the wrong place.