My God is Better Than Your God
We have already explored how Neptune was used on Sextus Pompeius’ coinage to allude to Pompey the Great’s divinity, and by extension, Sextus benefitting from his relationship to his father by justifying his divine legitimacy against his opponents. The in-depth discussion continues here. However, the Neptunian iconography present in Sextus’ coinage also expresses another aspect which contributed towards establishing his legitimacy though a divine patron.
Featured on the reverse of RRC 511/3a is a nude Neptune, wearing only a chlamys and holding an aphlaston, with his foot resting on the prow of a ship. The presence of the chlamys establishes the military connotations quite unambiguously. Worn specifically by those in the military, a chlamys was a type of cloak. Within Roman society, the chlamys could be used to illustrate the militaristic capabilities and character of the figure who wore it. The imagery was often used almost as a contrast to the toga; a stark comparison between traditional militaristic and social values. Therefore, as the Neptune on the coin wears a chlamys, there can be no mistaking the focus being placed on the god. Sextus Pompeius had established Neptune as his divine patron, but also emphasised the militaristic nature of this relationship. The value of this can be further understood when considering Sextus’ main rival, Octavian, and the divine patrons he established. [1]
When Julius Caesar was deified by the Roman Senate in 42 BC, Octavian became the son of a god; the easiest path to a justifiable divine patron if there ever was one. However, the deified Caesar was not the only god in Octavian’s repertoire. Present on Caesarean coinage in as early as 47 BC, the use of the goddess Venus was the visual culmination of a claim that Julius Caesar had made decades earlier.
The family of my aunt Julia is descended by her mother from the kings, and on her father’s is akin to the immortal Gods…the Julii, the family of which ours is a branch, to Venus. Our stock therefore has…the claim to reverence which attaches to the Gods…
Suet. Iul. 6
A powerful connection to have, Venus was highly regarded in the Roman pantheon. As the mother of Aeneas, the man who escaped from Troy and established the people who would go on to become the Romans, Venus was thus regarded as the mother of the Roman people. The goddess Venus was understood to encompass love, beauty, desire, fertility, and prosperity amongst other functions. However, she was not associated with militaristic themes, unlike some of her pantheon counterparts, such as Mars, the other Roman god closely tied to the foundation of the Roman people. It is true that Neptune was not as prevalent in Roman religious practices as Aphrodite may have been, and by that logic, Octavian would have a much stronger divine patron to justify his position of power within political and religious spheres.
Despite the cultural value Octavian’s divine patroness presented, she distinctly lacked any association with military capabilities, which Sextus used to his advantage. Having an explicitly militarised Neptune as his divine patron, Sextus was able to justify his militaristic domination over Octavian. Therefore, his naval supremacy, and his claim to legitimacy through that, could viewed as something divinely ordained. [2]