Here is a nicer specimen of the same coin as heads this
thread: it is
AMNG 1498 (but with a lambda in the
ethnic), and the question is
still whether "wohl ein Apfel" (probably an
apple) on the
Berlin specimen is one or, as I suspect, a bow: does it refer to the Tree of Immortality or to the Stymphalian
Birds?
A bow
still is not evident, but I think apples are less so (almost precluded).
What is signifcant is the stance (see also the coins featured in Replies #6, #11, #13, #14): the
weight is on Herakles' right
leg, and the left
leg is forward, as in the Kassel
Apollo, to name the most famous statuary
type, of c. 450 BC, much beloved, as E.
Schmidt showed in
Antike Plastik V, in the Antonine age.
This stance, as well as the pyramid of globes, apples, distinguishes the clear-cut Apples of Immortaiity examples, above, from Caracalla's noble tiny
Herakles: the
Apple holders have their legs more apart, and they seem to balance back and forth rather than to be so intent on
contrapposto of the Attic variety.
There is also a Tertullus
Caracalla Herakles of which I have a very faint ghost, which
Pick describes straightforwardly as "with a bow",
AMNG 1525.
• 23 06 05 Æ25 9.53g
axis 6:30h
Nicopolis ad Istrum. Issued by Tertullus.
Caracalla, laureate, draped
bust to r. AV. K. M. AV[R] A[NTONEI]NOS .
Rev. Herakles stg. to r. (if beardless, then 'young' as
Pick says), in
his lowered r. hand
his club resting on the groundline; in
his outstretched l. hand
his bow; over the l. forearm the
lion skin. VPA OOV [TERTVLLOV
NIKOPOLI PROS I(continuous).
Pick knew one specimen in St. Petersburg. He says, whether it is
AVr or AVRH is uncertain,
still more so on mine, and The
rev. is very similar to or perhaps the same as that of
Severus, above no. 1276. Just so, but I think they were in either case issued as a pair.
Varbanov I, 2446, cites only
AMNG I, 1, which means the Petersburg coin.
Pat L.
N.B., I've been sharing Curtis's doubts (Reply #1 above) and pursuing an answer for nearly a year now. I do think that the absence of palpable apples, the not much later Tertullus for
Caracalla, the Gallus for
Plautilla, and the very distinctive stance (already loosening and abandoning strict Classical ponderation on Plautilla's) all show that this is a distinct
type of
Herakles, that featured by Barbarus at
Philippopolis and by Tertullus for Septimius at Nicopolis, with a bow. (The Auspex for Septimius, with a bow but a rocking stance, is the odd one out.)