- The Collaborative Numismatics Project
  Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! NumisWiki Is An Enormous Unique Resource Including Hundreds Of Books And Thousands Of Articles Online!!! The Column On The Left Includes Our "Best of NumisWiki" Menu If You Are New To Collecting - Start With Ancient Coin Collecting 101 NumisWiki Includes The Encyclopedia of Roman Coins and Historia Nummorum If You Have Written A Numismatic Article - Please Add It To NumisWiki All Blue Text On The Website Is Linked - Keep Clicking To ENDLESSLY EXPLORE!!! Please Visit Our Shop And Find A Coin You Love Today!!!

× Resources Home
Home
New Articles
Most Popular
Recent Changes
Current Projects
Admin Discussions
Guidelines
How to
zoom.asp
Index Of All Titles


BEST OF

AEQVITI
Aes Formatum
Aes Rude
The Age of Gallienus
Alexander Tetradrachms
Ancient Coin Collecting 101
Ancient Coin Prices 101
Ancient Coin Dates
Ancient Coin Lesson Plans
Ancient Coins & Modern Fakes
Ancient Counterfeits
Ancient Glass
Ancient Metal Arrowheads
Ancient Oil Lamps
Ancient Pottery
Ancient Weapons
Ancient Wages and Prices
Ancient Weights and Scales
Anonymous Follis
Anonymous Class A Folles
Antioch Officinae
Aphlaston
Armenian Numismatics Page
Augustus - Facing Portrait
Brockage
Bronze Disease
Byzantine
Byzantine Denominations
A Cabinet of Greek Coins
Caesarean and Actian Eras
Campgates of Constantine
Carausius
A Case of Counterfeits
Byzantine Christian Themes
Clashed Dies
Codewords
Coins of Pontius Pilate
Conditions of Manufacture
Corinth Coins and Cults
Countermarked in Late Antiquity
Danubian Celts
Damnatio Coinage
Damnatio Memoriae
Denomination
Denarii of Otho
Diameter 101
Die Alignment 101
Dictionary of Roman Coins
Doug Smith's Ancient Coins
Draco
Edict on Prices
ERIC
ERIC - Rarity Tables
Etruscan Alphabet
The Evolving Ancient Coin Market
EQVITI
Fel Temp Reparatio
Fertility Pregnancy and Childbirth
Fibula
Flavian
Fourree
Friend or Foe
The Gallic Empire
Gallienus Zoo
Greek Alphabet
Greek Coins
Greek Dates
Greek Coin Denominations
Greek Mythology Link
Greek Numismatic Dictionary
Hellenistic Names & their Meanings
Hasmoneans
Hasmonean Dynasty
Helvetica's ID Help Page
The Hexastyle Temple of Caligula
Historia Numorum
Holy Land Antiquities
Horse Harnesses
Illustrated Ancient Coin Glossary
Important Collection Auctions
Islamic Rulers and Dynasties
Julian II: The Beard and the Bull
Julius Caesar - The Funeral Speech
Koson
Kushan Coins
Later Roman Coinage
Latin Plurals
Latin Pronunciation
Legend
Library of Ancient Coinage
Life in Ancient Rome
List of Kings of Judea
Medusa Coins
Maps of the Ancient World
Military Belts
Military Belts
Mint Marks
Monogram
Museum Collections Available Online
Nabataea
Nabataean Alphabet
Nabataean Numerals
The [Not] Cuirassed Elephant
Not in RIC
Numismatic Bulgarian
Numismatic Excellence Award
Numismatic French
Numismatic German
Numismatic Italian
Numismatic Spanish
Parthian Coins
Patina 101
Paleo-Hebrew Alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew Script Styles
People in the Bible Who Issued Coins
Imperial Mints of Philip the Arab
Phoenician Alphabet
Pi-Style Athens Tetradrachms
Pricing and Grading Roman Coins
Reading Judean Coins
Representations of Alexander the Great
Roman Coin Attribution 101
Roman Coin Legends and Inscriptions
Roman Keys
Roman Locks
Roman Militaria
Roman Military Belts
Roman Mints
Roman Names
romancoin.info
Rome and China
Sasanian
Satyrs and Nymphs
Scarabs
Serdi Celts
Serrated
Siglos
The Sign that Changed the World
Silver Content of Parthian Drachms
Star of Bethlehem Coins
Statuary Coins
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum
Syracusian Folles
Taras Drachms with Owl Left
The Temple Tax
The Temple Tax Hoard
Test Cut
Travels of Paul
Tribute Penny
Tribute Penny Debate Continued (2015)
Tribute Penny Debate Revisited (2006)
Tyrian Shekels
Uncleaned Ancient Coins 101
Vabalathus
Venus Cloacina
What I Like About Ancient Coins
Who was Trajan Decius
Widow's Mite
XXI

   View Menu
 

Hygia






Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate.


HYGIA, the daughter of AEsculapius Medicus, called by the Greeks Υγεια and inscribed on Roman coins SALVS. The Gentiles are supposed to have adopted the serpent as the symbol of health, from the brazen one of Moses. The patera in Hygia 's hand indicates that health is to be sought through religion. On coins of Deultum, struck under Alexander Severus, Hygia stands with serpent and patera. Of Alexander himself Lampridius says - "He visited the sick soldiers in their tents, even those the most distant, causing them to be conveyed in wagons, and assisted them with all things needful.

When mention of Hygia, or of AEsculapius, as deities of health, is made on the imperial mint of Rome, it always indicates that those emperors are at the time themselves laboring under disease; or that sacrifices have been performed for their recovery. - See SALVS. - SALVS AVGVSTA. - SALVS AVGVSTORVM.

Hygia et AEsculapius cum cane suo. - Pausanias alludes to the magnificent works which Antoninus Pius dedicated to the honour of AEsculapius. The veneration of that emperor for the god of medicine has been evidenced by a brass medallion (see p. 20 of this dictionary) bearing on its reverse the name of AESCVLAPIVS, and a type allusive to the legend of that divinity 's arrival in the form of a serpent at Rome from Epidaurus. Another brass medallion of the same emperor exhibits AEsculapius, seated on a throne, with a dog at his feet. In his left hand he holds a staff, round which coils a serpent; in his right is a patera, attesting his assigned divinity. The other figure represents his daughter Hygia, clothed in the stola; she stands near an altar, and in the act of sacrificing. - Behind the goddess is a tree.

Pedrusi having thus described the reverse type of this unique and remarkable medallion, and caused it to be engraved in the 5th volume of the Museum Farnese (TAV. ix. fig. 6), a faithful copy of it is inserted below, together with the purport of some of the learned Italian 's animadversions on the subject: -

This pious but mistaken display of personified deification has for its object to promote the health of a beloved monarch. All united in putting up vows for its restoration, for every one enjoyed the results of the imperial beneficence. Punctiliously courteous to his subjects, "Imperatorium fastigium ad summam civilitatem deduxit:" - Kind and considerate with the Senate, to which "tantum detulit Imperator, quantum, cum privatus esset, deferri sibi ab alio Principe optavit:" - Most  benignant towards the people, among other examples -"Balneum, quo usus fuisset, sine mercede, populo exhibuit." - Provident, and always attentive to the good of the conquered provinces, it was under Antoninus that all the provinces flourished. - Most honest in his opinions, he was resorted to by nations even as distant from Rome as the Bactrians and the Indians, when they had differences to settle, soliciting his decision as that of an oracle. A monarch adorned, then, with so many estimable qualities, might well lay claim to the public vows in favor of his own health.

But the true AEsculapius, who watched over the health of Antoninus, was the celebrated Galen, to whose consummate knowledge this prince, in one of his dangerous sicknesses, was indebted for the preservation of his life. * * * The ancients frequently associated Hygia with AEsculapius, and in Achaia and other districts of Greece, their statues stood together in the temples erected to their united honour. And at Rome the same union took place in the worship of father and daughter, with this sole difference, that the goddess whom the Greeks called Hygeia, was by the Latins termed Salus or Bona Valetudo.

Eckel (vi. 33) remarks, that frequently as the image of AEsculapius appears on ancient coins, the dog is rarely seen as his companion. Pausanias, however, affirms a figure of that animal to have been placed at the feet of the celebrated statue of AEsculapius at Epidaurus. - The reason, as explained by the same writer, was that having soon after his birth been left exposed, he was suckled by a goat and guarded by a dog. "Canes adhibebantur ejus (cujus?) (AEsculapii) templo, quod is uberibus canis sit nutribus." - "Cane ad pedes (simulacri AEsculapii) decumbente." (Pausan. ii. 61).
The appearance of the tree rising in the field of the reverse, is supposed to bear reference to another superstitious belief of the ancients respecting AEsculapius, that the god of medicine took no satisfaction in the worship of this votaries unless paid to him in his own grove. On this point Pausanias (ii. 60) says - "AEsculapii lucum, circumquaque, montes incingunt, intra cujus ambitum mori quenquam, aut masci, religio est."


View whole page from the Dictionary Of Roman Coins
All coins are guaranteed for eternity