... The iconography is also discussed here, but to say the truth. Even with auto-translator I do not understand the interpretation of the author. ...
As far as I understood it, the article is mainly about the
dolphin rider.
But
Carroccio also remarks that the human on the
horse is sometimes so small that in these cases it cannot be seen as an adult hero.
Here we have a small, nude human on a
horse holding a
palm branch or
wreath:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.3395here with an additional
Nike:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1957.172.137This perfectly corresponds to the world of sports and to a jockey, being mostly young and small people because of the low
weight.
Another with someone shoeing the
horse, again a scenery from the turf:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1978.64.41And here we have two persons, the one on the
horse clearly a child compared to the other:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1949.177.1https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5877677But sometimes we have real warriors with different
weapons (
shield, spear, helmet) which are looking adult:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1957.172.141Here we even have two of them:
http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.3401Perhaps these
horse riders are not always meant to be the same person. And perhaps this imagery is more about horses that about deities.
If it should be Taras, what is not obvious from the coins, why do we have so many different situations he is depicted in?
So I am not convinced that this should be Taras, for me this is too much speculation
.
The most recent book about this coinage seems to be W.
Fischer-Bossert, "Chronologie Der Didrachmenprägung von Tarent 510-280 v.Chr.",
Berlin 1999 (where I don't have access to
), perhaps there can be found more information about that.
Regards
Altamura