I am currently obsessed with the RPC coinage showing Herodotus. There are several versions of the coin minted under Trajan, Harian, Gordian III, and Antoninus Pius Does anyone here own a specimen or has any opinions? RPC III, 2152 RPC III, 2156 RPC IV.2, 3148 (temp.) RPC VII.1, 601
In Hellenistic and Roman times private and public libraries used to be adorned with busts of the classical authors whose books were available there (in scroll format of course). Of course nobody seriously knew what Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato or Aristophanes looked like, so these authors were always portrayed as old bearded men. Here is a bust of Herodotus now in the Met : It's a Roman era copy of some Hellenistic original. When the Hellenic world became Christian, they still represented the Church Fathers the same conventional way :
Thank you so much for the insights! I had no idea that these busts were housed in public libraries and I 100% want to read up on this. Do you have any recommendations?
