Thanks guys. I really like the pre-195
Severan denarii, they just look and feel better in hand, on
average.
this one is really interesting, I'm not sure why the
panther is prancing with it's
head upstretched and
Bacchus is pouring wine into its mouth. That must have symbolized something in 193 CE, but I'm not sure what that was apart from being fascinating. The ancient
Greeks believed the
panther was one of the favored mounts of the god
Dionysus, and
Bacchus (and
Liber Pater) are thought to be the same God, just named differently in
Rome than in
Greece, so maybe Liber's mount subsisted on Wine?
Here's a neat image I scabbed from the net showing the "
panther" connection, though it looks more like a Cheetah to me:
I acquired a couple other nice
denarii at the same time, but this one was my favorite. The other two were posted in my
member's gallery post. Comments on all my coins are always very welcome in my
gallery