04-07-2004, 01:24 AM
Chariovalda,<br>
Well, as a matter of fact I am the author of that page, and "neutral" means to me that it has to be proven that VAR stands for Varus, not the opposite.<br>
If one comes across a countermark as the early numismatists like Mattingly did in the early 1900s, and interprets it as VAR (as this countermark is in ligature, there are several ways to read it), and the makes a link from VAR to Varus, then this is a nice hypothesis, but there is no proof. And later numismatists copied from Mattingly, and copied, and copied, but there is still no proof.<br>
<br>
The two coins with VAR over Tiberian countermarks is on the other hand a strong argument against a 9 AD date of the VAR cmk.<br>
<br>
So the scales tip against an attribution to Varus, unless one wants to hypothesize that Varus started this countermark for whatever reason and it was later continued during Tiberius as a souvenir to his desaster :-). Romans very however not well known to have such masochistic personality treats. Rather they were likely trying to forget that unfortunate incident altogether.<br>
<br>
Probably that countermark means something else, and does not even stand for VAR. <p></p><i></i>
Well, as a matter of fact I am the author of that page, and "neutral" means to me that it has to be proven that VAR stands for Varus, not the opposite.<br>
If one comes across a countermark as the early numismatists like Mattingly did in the early 1900s, and interprets it as VAR (as this countermark is in ligature, there are several ways to read it), and the makes a link from VAR to Varus, then this is a nice hypothesis, but there is no proof. And later numismatists copied from Mattingly, and copied, and copied, but there is still no proof.<br>
<br>
The two coins with VAR over Tiberian countermarks is on the other hand a strong argument against a 9 AD date of the VAR cmk.<br>
<br>
So the scales tip against an attribution to Varus, unless one wants to hypothesize that Varus started this countermark for whatever reason and it was later continued during Tiberius as a souvenir to his desaster :-). Romans very however not well known to have such masochistic personality treats. Rather they were likely trying to forget that unfortunate incident altogether.<br>
<br>
Probably that countermark means something else, and does not even stand for VAR. <p></p><i></i>
