When I was shown this coin, knowing that the specimen I
had of this
obv. die (
DHa on my web page) was in bad shape, I realized that I 'had to have it'. And I
had a different
rev. die. Malcolm (
Diadumenian, p. 107, NIC4.28e) has the same die pair. Neither of us, however,
had the
reverse legend fully preserved. Well, it did look like an
Agrippa, didn't it?
But no. Read for yourself: VP STATI LONGINOV
NIKOPOLITÔN PROS IS and in
exergue TRÔ. What prompted the
mint men to order this rather 'Augustan', somewhat hieratic
portrait of the ten-year-old lad, and that not at the end of
his father's reign but more or less in the middle?
As usual, when the coins are almost all the evidence we have, we can only ask.
But isn't it, if I say so myself, a beautiful die (even if we like the tender, childlike ones better, as a rule)? And isn't that a nice dignified
Hygieia, offering her
snake for once solid food (so that we don't have to point out that
snake tongues are not for lapping)?
Just having a bare
bust is quite remarkable for the boy. Notice, too, that ANTÔN[--- preceded
his own original name on the
obverse.
Pat L.
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