I wonder what these hares are doing on the Moesian/Thracian coins? If the
hare is no more than just an appropriate symbol for the region (because of the supposed super-abundance of the
animals), why then is
Moesia waving it about on the
Viminacium coins (year 4) for
Gordian? Why isn't the animal merely hopping about on the baseline, like the
legionary animals on the commonest
Viminacium coins?
Now, if the
hare were a tribal totem animal in the Balkans, and Gordian's generals
had beaten up or intimidated the local tribals on the emperor's way to the East (through
Moesia) in 242-3, that might just explain why
Moesia (the
Roman province) is shown waving her hunting booty. (Are there any Moesian/Thracian experts out there who know about the local cultures?)
An even wilder thought, regarding the
Viminacium hare coins: At the risk of turning into an Erotic monomaniac, might not the
Moesia coins not only include the "Balkan bunny" as a familiar
provincial symbol but also
echo the Eros-with-hare motif, known from
statues in
Philippopolis and elsewhere, and refer - with sly flattery - to the young imperial visitor, for whose future fecundity and ability to establish a stable dynasty
his loyal subjects might well invoke the
help of
Eros and Aphrodite?
Speculation upon speculation!