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| ---------- The Sign Language of Roman Coins ---------- |
| Hercules, the Heavy Hitter |
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A bronze unit of Alexander III showing the head of Herakles in a lion-skin headdress.
The Greek Herakles
Like many other deities, the Roman Hercules was adopted with very few changes from a Greek original. This was Herakles, demi-god and supreme hero, very strong and brave, but actually not a very nice person at all.
On the right is what must be the best known representation of Herakles on a coin. This image, on coins of silver and bronze, was spread throughout the empire of Alexander the Great. It shows his head wearing a lion-skin headdress. On the reverse of the bronze coins were his weapons, a bow and arrow-case and a large club. His club was the weapon shown most often; it is a suitable implement for a hugely strong hero to wield.
Herakles was the subject of many stories in the body of Greek myth. He was the child of Zeus and a mortal, woman, Alkmene, whose father Elektryon was a son of the hero Perseus, making Herakles Perseus' great-grandson. His name at birth was Alkeides. Hera, Zeus' wife, was annoyed by her husband's philandering and disliked or even hated any child he had by another woman. The child Alkeides later became known as Herakles, meaning "The Glory of Hera;" but the goddess was not appeased by that name and caused him many problems, all of which he overcame, sometimes in a brutish and bullying way.
The reverse of a silver diobol of Taras showing Herakles wrestling the Nemean lion.
The reverse of a bronze Indoscythian unit showing Herakles holding his club and resting on a rock.
But he was nevertheless considered the supreme Greek hero. He defeated many monsters and so made mankind safe from them. His feats, and particularly his handling of twelve challenges set by Eurystheus, king of Tyrins, were often depicted.
The coin on the far left, from Taras in the 4th century BCE, shows one of these. This lion was impervious to weapons and Herakles had to strangle it too defeat it. The killing of the lion of Nemea is shown on many coins, Greek, Roman and modern; this is the lion whose skin he wears as a headdress on the coin of Alexander the Great at the top of the page.
The coin next to it is to give a taste of the widespread use of Herakles on coins in antiquity. Here he is holding his club and about to rest on a rock. This coin is from Kandahar in Afghanistan, about 75-60 BCE.
The twelve labours of Herakles (or Hercules) can all be found on coins, many of them ancient, and the Beast Coins site has a very nice display: Beast Coins page about Herakles. I will not attempt to outdo that page here!
The Roman Hercules
The reverse of a silver antoninianus of Gordian III showing the Farnese Hercules.
The reverse of a billon antoninianus of Gallienus showing the Farnese Hercules.
Herakles was adopted into Etruscan culture as a deity named Heracle or Herceler or Hercle. When the Etruscans were brought into the Roman Republic, their culture was subsumed and Hercle became the Roman Hercules. Variations of the Etruscan name survived into later Roman times as an oath.
Although the Greeks regarded Herakles as a hero, not a god, Hercules was worshipped by Romans from the outset. His first shrine in Rome was the Ara Maxima, the Great Altar of Hercules, in the Forum Boarium, Rome's cattle market. This dated from the 6th or 5th century BCE. The main reason for his worship seems to have been his supposed ability to protect people from evil.
There were many other altars and temples of Hercules in Rome, celebrating his different aspects; Hercules Resting, the Guardian, the Invincible, the Victor, of the Pompeians; and even a second place of worship in the Forum Boarium, another temple of Hercules the Victor, which survives today.
Herakles, or Hercules, was a popular figure for Roman and Greek statuary and on their coins. Some Roman Republican denarii showed the strangling of the Nemean lion, and many Republican bronzes showed his head in the lion-skin headdress.
The reverse of a silver denarius of Trajan showing Hercules with club and apples.
The reverse of a billon antoninianus of Gallienus showing Hercules with club and apple.
Another well-known image was the one known today as the "Farnese Hercules," so called because a copy was in the collection of one Cardinal Farnese. This depiction of a weary Herakles was one of the best known statue types in antiquity. There were many copies, but the original was probably by Lysippos in the 4th century BCE.
This heroic stance was reproduced on many coins as well as in statuary. The two Roman Imperial coins above right show stylistic variations of it.
One is an antoninianus of Gallienus from Antioch in 264 CE; the other is an antoninianus of Gordian III from Rome in 341-243. Hercules is in a relaxed pose, his right hand behind his back, his club tucked into his left armpit — padded by his lion skin — and resting on a rock.
The reverse of a provincial bronze coin of Macrinus showing Hercules fighting the Lernean Hydra.
You can't see from these frontal views, but the Farnese Hercules is holding some apples beind his back. These are the Apples of the Hesperides, which were recovered as one of his twelve labours, usually ranked as the eleventh in sequence.
Some coins have a different pose which shows the apples clearly. Above left left are two of them. One is a denarius of Trajan from Rome, 101-102 CE; the other is an antoninianus of Gallienus from Antioch in 266-267 CE.
The twelve labours (or many of them; I do not know if the complete set is available) were also represented on Roman Imperial coins, but in the eastern provinces, where they would more correctly be referred to as the labours of Herakles. The rather worn object on the right is one such. It is a coin of the emperor Macrinus from Nikopolis ad Istrum in Lower Moesia, 217-218 CE. It shows Herakles defeating the Lernean Hydra, grasping one of its necks and raising his club overhead to strike it.
The reverse of a billon antoninianus of Postumus showing Hercules the peacemaker.
The reverse of a billon antoninianus of Postumus showing Hercules Deusoniensi.
On the left are some other aspects of Hercules. These are both antoniniani of Postumus dating from around 260 CE. On the far left, Hercules the Peacemaker, putting his club behind his back and holding out a branch.
Mars, god of war, is also sometimes shown as a peacemaker. In Roman terms, this means that all enemies have been subdued. You might note that although the large club is held behind Hercules' back, it is still firmly in his grip.
Next to this is Hercules Deusoniensi. This is a Hercules of a particular locality, the details of which are no longer known. Hercules is carrying his club, bow and lion-skin, his standard attributes, and other coins with this legend show a typical Farnese pose, so there is no clue to anything special about this Hercules. Perhaps he was a local protector deity.
Hercules was personally important to more than one emperor. Below right is a coin of Commodus, who came to identify himself completely with the deity.
A silver denarius of Commodus showing his head in a lion-skin headdress and the club of Hercules.
Commodus took imperial power to a personal extreme. He was proud of his strength and physique, and considered himself to be a reincarnation of Hercules. He entered the arena as a gladiator, behaviour which was shocking to Roman society. He renamed the city of Rome and the Senate in his honour. He changed his name to a 12-part mammoth — the fifth name was Herculeus — and he gave these twelve names to the months of the year.
He commissioned many statues showing himself with the lion-skin headdress and club, even to the extent of replacing the head of the colossal statue of Nero by the Flavian Amphiteatre with his own, and placing a club and lionskin by it.
That also carried over to the coinage. Both sides of this coin are shown here. On the obverse, the emperor is wearing the lion-skin headdress. The reverse shows Hercules' club and has the legend HERCVL ROMAN AVGV across the fields, dedicating the coin to the Roman Hercules Augustus, referring, of course, to the emperor himself.
Commodus was assassinated in December 192 CE. Over 100 years later, in 297 CE, another emperor, Maximian, took the name Herculius as part of a reorganisation with his senior partner Diocletian. Diocletian took the name Iovius at the same time. In adopting themselves into the families of these deities, Diocletian became aligned with the chief god and guider of the Roman pantheon, and Maximian with a powerful enforcer. Later, Maximian's son Maxentius also struck some coins showing himself as Hercules, following this new family tradition.
The reverse of a billon Alexandrian tetradrachm of Maximianus showing Hercules with Victory.
The reverse of a billon antoninianus of Maximianus showing Hercules with a trophy.
Here are two coins which reflect Maximian's new title, and show how he wished to be regarded.
On the far left is a billon tetradrachm from Alexandria, a province whose coinage at the time was designed for internal Egyptian circulation only, part of the policy of keeping Egypt separate from the rest of the empire which had been started by Augustus.
This shows Hercules with his club and lion-skin held behind, and in his right hand a statuette of Victory holding a wreath towards him. This was a standard way of indicating success in battle on coins.
The upper class of Alexandria was Macedonian in origin, dating from its conquest by Alexander the Great, and if you click on the image to see the full coin, you will see that the coin's legend is in Greek. So these figures would have been seen by the coin's users as Herakles and Nike.
The other coin is from the Rome mint, and shows Hercules with a trophy of victory. The missing detail on this coin was caused by there being too little material to properly fill the dies when it was struck. Hercules' hair and features on this coin look very African, but this does not seem to have had any particular significance. The legend, VIRTVS AVGG, refers to the manly and soldierly virtues of the joint emperors, as exemplified by Hercules.
The reverse of a provincial copper assarion of Elagabalus showing the club of Herakles.
The reverse of a provincial copper assarion of Septimius Severus showing the head of Herakles.
The additions of the tropy and the statuette to the standard iconography of Hercules helped to identify him with Maximian, and sent a clear message about Maximian's role in the empire.
Lastly, a couple of coins showing other ways that Herakles was portrayed on provincial Roman coins.
The obverse of a provincial silver tetradrachm of Trajan showing a club mintmark.
On the near right, his head. There is no lion-skin, but no-one else's head and neck were shown in this exaggeratedly thick and strong way. Herakles was the strongest man ever, and this is what is indicated here.
The far right coin shows just a club. The club was the constant attribute of Herakles and Hercules, and so always meant him, just as much as if his name were written there instead.
The same club is on the reverse of the denarius of Commodus shown above.
Like other recognisable symbols, this club often appeared on coins as a control mark, and in fact it was the standard symbol for the Phoenician mint of Tyre, appearing on many coins struck there.
This carried over into Roman times, and in keeping with this page's Roman theme, the last coin is a tetradrachm of the emperor Trajan from Tyre. The club mintmark is under his neck.
| ———————— Useful References ———————— |
These books provided some, but not all, of the information on this page. Thanks also to the contributors to the Forum Classical Numismatics Discussion Board, a group of people who are both helpful and knowledgeable.
A Dictionary of Roman Coins by Seth William Stevenson, F.S.A., C Roach Smith, F.S.A., and Frederic W. Madden, M.R.A.S. First published by George Bell and Sons, 1889. Reprinted by B A Seaby Ltd, London in 1964.
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1970.
| The content of this page was last updated on 21 January 2011 |
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