DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0316
254 Dionysos displaced by Apollon
the head of a young male deity with the flowing hair of Apollon,
the rays of Helios, and the ivy-wreath of Dionysos. W. Drexler
calls him Helios1, B. V. Head calls him Dionysos2: he is both rolled
into one. And it is interesting to find that Nero, who certainly
Fig. 171.
claimed to be Apollon and Helios and probably posed as Dionysos
to boot:!, introduced his own head on similar large-sized coppers
(fig. 171)4 in place of the Rhodian god5. A treatise on epideictic
1 W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1206.
2 B. V. Head in Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins and Hist, num.2 locc. citt.
3 Supra p. 96 n. 3, infra Append. M tned.
4 Morell. Tkes. Num. Imp. Ron. ii. 103 pi. 10, 1 f., Rasche Lex. Num. vii. 1047 f.
I figure a specimen of this rare coin from my collection: obv. KAl^AP ■ AYTO-
KP[ATHPN EPfl] N Head of Nero, laureate and radiate, to right; rev. POAI flN
Nike on the prow of a ship, holding wreath in right hand, palm in left, with rose
before her.
5 Nero's interest in Rhodes (Suet. Ner. 7) and personation of the Rhodian Helios
will account for some of his vagaries. Thus his vice-gerent in Italy, 66—68 a.d., was
a freedman named Helius (De Vit Onomasticon iii. 325, C. Merivale History of the
Romans under the Empire London 188r vii. 35 f.). Again, his banqueting-hall was
circular and revolved day and night like the sky (Suet. Ner. 31)—a suitable abode for
a would-be sun-god. Lastly, it was no doubt the colossal Helios made for the Rhodians
by Chares of Lindos (Overbeck Schriftquellen p. 291 ff. nos. 1539—1554) that prompted
Nero to have a colossus of himself made by Zenodoros (Plin. nat. hist. 34. 45) and set up
in the vestibule of his Golden House (Suet. Ner. 31), cp. Mart. ep. r. 70. 7 f. nec te
detineat miri radiata colossi | quae Rhodium moles vincere gaudet opus. Vespasian had
the big figure repaired (Suet. Vesp. 18) and re-erected in the same place (Dion Cass.
66. 15, Hieron. chron. ann. Abr. 2091 = 76 a.d.: Euseb. chron. ann. Abr. 2090 (ii. 158
Schoene) and Synkell. chron. 342 b (i. 647 Dindorf) say 6 KoXoaabs 'F65ov !) : but the
usual statement that he substituted the head of Apollo for that of Nero is not sufficiently
supported by,Mart. lib. speet. 2. 1 sidereus...colossus ; the statue may well have been
radiate from the outset. Hadrian caused his architect Decrianus to move it, by means of
two dozen elephants, to its later position near the northern entrance of the amphitheatre;
he also re-dedicated it to Sol, and commissioned Apollodoros of Damaskos to make a
pendant figure of Luna (Spart. v. Hacir. 19. 12 f., cp. Plin. nat. hist. 34. 45). Commodus
cut the head off and replaced it by a portrait-head of himself; moreover, by adding a club
and a lion he transformed the whole figure more suo into a Hercules (Dion Cass. 72. 22,
Herodian. 1. 15. 9, Lamprid. v. Commod. 17. 10: according to the Chron. Pasch. 263 d
(i. 492 Dindorf) and Synkell. chron. 354 b (i. 668 Dindorf) Commodus beheaded the
colossus of Rhodes and substituted a likeness of himself; Kedren. hist. comp. 251 c
the head of a young male deity with the flowing hair of Apollon,
the rays of Helios, and the ivy-wreath of Dionysos. W. Drexler
calls him Helios1, B. V. Head calls him Dionysos2: he is both rolled
into one. And it is interesting to find that Nero, who certainly
Fig. 171.
claimed to be Apollon and Helios and probably posed as Dionysos
to boot:!, introduced his own head on similar large-sized coppers
(fig. 171)4 in place of the Rhodian god5. A treatise on epideictic
1 W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 1206.
2 B. V. Head in Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins and Hist, num.2 locc. citt.
3 Supra p. 96 n. 3, infra Append. M tned.
4 Morell. Tkes. Num. Imp. Ron. ii. 103 pi. 10, 1 f., Rasche Lex. Num. vii. 1047 f.
I figure a specimen of this rare coin from my collection: obv. KAl^AP ■ AYTO-
KP[ATHPN EPfl] N Head of Nero, laureate and radiate, to right; rev. POAI flN
Nike on the prow of a ship, holding wreath in right hand, palm in left, with rose
before her.
5 Nero's interest in Rhodes (Suet. Ner. 7) and personation of the Rhodian Helios
will account for some of his vagaries. Thus his vice-gerent in Italy, 66—68 a.d., was
a freedman named Helius (De Vit Onomasticon iii. 325, C. Merivale History of the
Romans under the Empire London 188r vii. 35 f.). Again, his banqueting-hall was
circular and revolved day and night like the sky (Suet. Ner. 31)—a suitable abode for
a would-be sun-god. Lastly, it was no doubt the colossal Helios made for the Rhodians
by Chares of Lindos (Overbeck Schriftquellen p. 291 ff. nos. 1539—1554) that prompted
Nero to have a colossus of himself made by Zenodoros (Plin. nat. hist. 34. 45) and set up
in the vestibule of his Golden House (Suet. Ner. 31), cp. Mart. ep. r. 70. 7 f. nec te
detineat miri radiata colossi | quae Rhodium moles vincere gaudet opus. Vespasian had
the big figure repaired (Suet. Vesp. 18) and re-erected in the same place (Dion Cass.
66. 15, Hieron. chron. ann. Abr. 2091 = 76 a.d.: Euseb. chron. ann. Abr. 2090 (ii. 158
Schoene) and Synkell. chron. 342 b (i. 647 Dindorf) say 6 KoXoaabs 'F65ov !) : but the
usual statement that he substituted the head of Apollo for that of Nero is not sufficiently
supported by,Mart. lib. speet. 2. 1 sidereus...colossus ; the statue may well have been
radiate from the outset. Hadrian caused his architect Decrianus to move it, by means of
two dozen elephants, to its later position near the northern entrance of the amphitheatre;
he also re-dedicated it to Sol, and commissioned Apollodoros of Damaskos to make a
pendant figure of Luna (Spart. v. Hacir. 19. 12 f., cp. Plin. nat. hist. 34. 45). Commodus
cut the head off and replaced it by a portrait-head of himself; moreover, by adding a club
and a lion he transformed the whole figure more suo into a Hercules (Dion Cass. 72. 22,
Herodian. 1. 15. 9, Lamprid. v. Commod. 17. 10: according to the Chron. Pasch. 263 d
(i. 492 Dindorf) and Synkell. chron. 354 b (i. 668 Dindorf) Commodus beheaded the
colossus of Rhodes and substituted a likeness of himself; Kedren. hist. comp. 251 c