I'm not sure that the
Genius of
Rome (
genius populi Romani) was ever depicted holding the
head of
Serapis, though both
Sol and the
Genius of
Augustus were sometimes so pictured, both shown on the useful page previously noted, descriptively titled "Heads in
Hands":
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/reverse_heads.html A
good excerpt on
Genius from
Stevenson's
Dictionary of Roman Coins:
GENIVS EXERCITI. The
Genius of the Army.---Du Choul, in
his observations on this and the various other numismatic dedications to
Genius, says, "The ancients esteemed it to be the God of Nature. And such was the religion of the
Romans that it assigned to every man
his genius and
his presiding spirit. Thus we find inscriptions to the
Genius of the Emperor, of the Senate, of the Roman People, and (as in
Aurelian and others) of the Army. This last named
legend is accompanied by a
type portraying the image of
Genius , with a cloak half covering the shoulders, and leaving the rest of the body naked, holding a conucopiae in one hand, and a simplum or a
patera in the other. Censorinns, in
his treatise De Die Natali, says, that the moment we are born, we live under the guard and tutelage of
Genius. Other writers asser that the
Lares and
Genius were the same thing. (pp. 148, 149).
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=GENIVS%20EXERCITI(this entry does not mention the
kalathos / basket headgear included in later depictions of these genii; like the basket headgear of
Serapis himself, this suggests an
abundance of life-force or power in reserve)
And a further remark on
Serapis / Osir-Apis:
Serapis (sometimes Sarapis) was introduced about 300 BC to
Alexandria as god of the state by Ptolemaeus I
Soter (305-284 BC), known as the founder of the famous Alexandrian
library too. He built the big Serapeion in
Alexandria and the famous sculptor Bryaxis created the statue of
Serapis: Also a venerable man with
modius (Greek.
kalathos, not
polos!) on
his head, holding
sceptre, the three-headed
Cerberus /
Kerberos at
his feet. Full beard and mighty hair let him look like
Zeus, and reminds on Pluton. He was a syncretistic (= mixed up) deity und should unify the Greek and the
Egyptian religions, so connecting the people of the East with the people of the
West, an important objective of the Hellenism.
His name was derived from Apis-Osiris, a god of grain,
fertility and wealth too. He was melted with
Asklepios, the god of healing, with
Dionysos, of whom he got the secret consecrations, with Pluto, as god of the underworld, then with
Zeus, and yes, with Christus, as sole god and creator of the world. The last time
his cult was promoted by
Julian II, who sometimes called himself
Deus Serapidis.
AD 389
Theophilus,
bishop of
Alexandria, destroyed the Serapeion, probably by order of
Theodosius, and with this event the time of paganism was gone for ever.
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?PHPSESSID=cafec36afa5f5656e0298107f9e46770&topic=25089.25
