Sorry for the small images, but I'm
still working on my camera skills and this is the one I
had left filed away somewhere on the computer.
On the left, an anomyous
denarius dating to the Republic (
RRC 222/1) showing
Diana in a
biga of stags.
The
denarius can now be attributed to the
gens Rudolphia, whose ancestor once helped to distribute the Saturnalia gifts. After all, if a
horse can be
consul designatus, a reindeer's descendant should be able to make it to
IIIVir!
Talk about "going down in
history".
Thankfully, the ancient diecutters did most of the
work themselves for this. Even on the unmodified example, the nose of the second stag stands out so much the coin reminded me immediately of this story.
Happy holidays, merry
Christmas, Io Saturnalia, and so forth.
OK. So now I have to find a way to get that song out of my
head...