PIETAS, Herennia

AR denarius. 108 BC. 3,87 grs. Diademed head of Pietas,with necklace,right. PIETAS ( AT in monogram) behind / Amphinomus carrying his father aloft right, who looks back. M. HERENNI behind. Control letter E before.
Herennia 1a. Cra 308/1b.

The reverse of this coin shows the iconography of the saga of the Catanean brothers in Sicily.
As Pausanias writes ( X.28.4.) " The ancients charished their parents highly as you can see in Katane by the so-called "pious", who when the fire from the Mt. Aitna was flowing onto Katane gold and silver regarded for nothing but escaped one carrying his mother, the other his father. Because they advanced only badly the fire reached them with its flames, and because even then they didn't set down their parents, the fire-stream is said to have split in two parts and the fire flowed around the youth and their parents without causing harm to them. Therefore they were worshipped until now by the Katanaians."