Denarius of L. Titurius L.f. Sabinus

Roman republican coins often featured images from their foundation myths: the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, the Dioscuri riding in Lake Regillus, or the descendants of Troy arriving in Italy. On the obverse, we see King Tatius of the Sabines, a local Latin tribe. On the reverse, we see one of their less savory stories: The Rape of the Sabine Women. As the story goes, the early Roman settlement was full of outcasts, criminals, and general vagabonds- the kind of people you don’t want your daughter to marry. Fearing their new settlement would die out quickly, the Romans reached out to the local tribes to arrange marriage rights. However, they were rebuffed. In a bit of treachery, the Romans held a banquet for neighboring tribes, and during the meal, they rose and abducted all the attending women to forcibly take them as their wives. The reverse shows two soldiers “acquiring” their new brides. Hence the origin of the wedding tradition of carrying a bride into her new home (not really).

As with any myth, there is a bit of truth and lie. Did the early Romans really hold a picnic and kidnap the attendees? Probably not. Did the Romans have challenges integrating into the local communities? Probably. The early city contains conflicts with local tribes over land and trading. These groups likely resisted the rise of a new competitor in the region. However, in the end, the Roman and Latin populations agreed to combine, with Romulus and King Tatius agreeing to a joint rule.

What is more interesting is when this coin was issued. In 89 BC, Rome was in the midst of a civil war with its Italy allies. The issues of this time are different involving voting rights, taxation, and land ownership, but the parties in conflict are the same even hundreds of years later. Was this coin minted to remind the allies of their shared history of coming together as one through Tatius or as the forcible consequence of defying Roman rule?