Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

712

Goat instead of Bull

are commonly believed to represent that deity1. Denarii issued

by L. Caesius c. 91 B.C. have as their obverse
type the head and shoulders of a young god,
who is brandishing a thunderbolt of three tines
(fig. 5 25)2. A bolt of this form might be popu-
larly viewed as a bundle of arrows; and a
youthful archer would inevitably be taken for
Fig „25 Apollo3. Denarii of C. Licinius Macer c. 85 B.C.

repeat the type4. About the same date other
and more obviously Apolline renderings of the head are found
on coins of M\ Fonteius (figs. 526s, 527s). That this too was

Fig. 526. Fig. 527.

intended for a young head of Iupiter is clear from the thunder-
bolt added beneath it. But the god wears a bay-wreath, not
a mere fillet; and that trait, if original, would give a further
reason for the confusion of Vediovis with Apollo7. We cannot,

1 This is the opinion expressed by E. Babelon, P. Gardner, H. Grueber, and
numismatists in general. It is called in question by H. Jordan in the Commentationes
philologicae in honorem Theodori Mommseni Berolini 1877 p. 365, Preller—Jordan Rom.
Myth.2, i. 264 n. 3, H. Jordan Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum Berlin 1885
i. 2. 116 n. 118, A. Klligmann in the Arch. Zeit. 1878 xxxvi. 106 f.

2 Babelon Monti, rep. rom. i. 281 f. fig., Brit. Mus. Cat. Rom. Coins Rep. ii. 290
pi. 94, 10, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 200 Miinztaf. 3, 4. I figure a specimen
in my collection. The reverse has the two Lares Praestites seated on a rock with a dog
between them (P. Gardner in W. Warde Fowler The Roman Festivals London 1899
p. 351 f., cp. p. 101 n. 1).

3 The monogram is not, however, a ligature of /\P for Apollo (T. Mommsen Histoire
de la monnaie romaine Paris 1870 ii. 370, Babelon loc. cit.), but a compendium of the
word Roma (G. B. Zannoni Reale Galleria di Firenze illustrata Florence 1817 iv. 3.
176, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 200, A. Kliigmann loc. cit., H. Montagu in the
Num. Chron. Third Series 1895 xv. 162, P. Gardner loc. cit., H. Grueber in the Brit.
Mus. Cat. Rom. Coins Rep. i. 322 n. 2).

4 Babelon Monn. rep. rom. ii. 132 f. fig., Brit. Mus. Cat. Rom. Coins Rep. i. 320 pi.
38, 8. The reverse has Minerva in a galloping quadriga.

5 Babelon Monn. rep. rom. i. 505 ff. no. 11 fig., Brit. Mus. Cat. Rom. Coins Rep.
i. 323 pi. 38, 13, Overbeck Gr. Kunstmyth. Zeus p. 200 Miinztaf. 3, 5—-6. I illus-
trate a specimen in the Fitzwilliam Museum.

6 Babelon Monn. rep. rom. i. 505 ff. nos. 9 f. figs., cp. nos. 12 f. figs., Brit. Mus.
Cat. Rom. Coins Rep. i. 322 f. pi. 38, n f., cp. p. 323 pi. 38, 14 and fig. I illus-
trate a specimen in my collection.

7 Yet another reason for the mistake was the goat at Vediovis' side. On the relations
of the animal to the Greek Apollon see L. Stephani in the Compte-rendu St. Pet. 1869