How do you do it! What a wonderful coin!
Look at all the plates in Imhoof-Blumer's publications. It isn't, so far as I recall, in Pick's old article, Thrakische Münzen, on pl. 10 of the Jahrbuch
des deutschen archaeologischen Instituts for 1898. I just called up the old computer for the scans I
hope I have of the text of that article, since he starts out with Orpheus coins, and I think that Orpheus is a much better bet than Little Boy Blue.
Traianopolis?
Hadrianopolis? Do I see some of the letters of
Kallatis (no, they
had nearly nothing for
Elagabalus)? I see that Traianopolis has an Harpokrates for your boy, but not an Orpheus (
nor a
Paris), and
Hadrianopolis did not issue for
Elagabalus.
If I find anything, I'll get back.
Pat L.
P.S. Since it doesn't look Thracian anyway, I tried Alexandreis in
Egypt, which B. V.
Head HN p. 862 says has an "Orpheus charming the wild beasts" (why not Paris-Alexander tending
his father Priam's flocks?). It's buried in text in the third quarter of the page. Doesn't say whether it's
Elagabalus. Compared with some silver and
terracotta and 'faience' reliefs I've seen, I could imagine this pictorial scene being sub-Ptolemaic, as it were. (
Alexandria herself,
BMC pl. XI, has an Orpheus, but it is the usual seated in the center on a rock,
animals close around).
On Pick's 1898 plate, one Orpheus is on a coin clearly legible as
Philippopolis, but it's not like yours.
Anyhow, I think yours is some other shepherd, such as
Paris, because those are tame
sheep! P.L.
