Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

372 Ianus bifrontal on coins

Seasons issue towards a boy symbolising the New Year. This
bizarre medallion is, I think1, merely a tooled specimen of a type

Fig. 279.

first struck by Antoninus Pius in 158 A.D. (fig. 2'jjY and sub-
sequently repeated by Commodus in 185 A.D. (fig. 27s)3. The god
is Iupiter4, not Ianus, and a Paris example of the later issue shows

1 Mr G. F. Hill, with whom I have discussed the type, endorses my opinion. I see
too that Frohner Med. ei?ip. rom. p. 121 n. 1 has expressed the same doubt.

2 Gnecchi Medagl. Rom. ii. 15 no. 54 pi. 48, 9 (—my fig. 277) from a specimen
formerly in the Stroganoff, latterly in the Evans collection.

:! Gnecchi Medagl. Rom. ii. 60 no. 75 pi. 83, 3 ( = my fig. 278) from a specimen at
Monaco, ib. no. 76, ib. no. 77 pi. 83, 4, Brit. Mus. Cat. Medallions p. 24 no. 15 pi. 30, 2,
Kubitschek Rom. Medallions Wien p. 7 no. 57 pi. 4 (mounted and silvered to serve as a
bulla), E. Gerhard in the Arch. Zeit. 1861 xix. 137 pi. 147, 6 and 7 with comments by
F. Wieseler ib. pp. 137—140.

4 Eckhel Doctr. num. vet.- vii. 113 already describes him as 'Iuppiter.' F. Wieseler
in Midler—Wieseler Denkm. d. alt. Kunst ii. 4. 65 pi. 74, 960 and in the Arch. Zeit. loc. cit.
says 'Zeus'; H. A. Grueber in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Medallions p. 24, 'Jupiter'; Gnecchi
op. cit. ii. 60, ' Giove o il Secolo' (cp. infra p. 373 n. 2). The notion of C. Lenormant
Nouvelle galerie mythologique (Tresor de numismatique et de glyptique) Paris 1850 p. 135
no. 8 pi. 42 that a specimen on which the god is apparently beardless (??) represents ' Le
jeune empereur' is justly ridiculed by F. Wieseler in the Arch. Zeit. loc. cit. ; but his own
view that the medallion in question shows ' Helios-Apollon' is not much better. Possibly
Lenormant's drawing (reproduced in the Arch. Zeit. 1861 xix pi. 147, 7) is incorrect.