Statue of Actian Apollo on sestertius of Gordian III?

Inside the temple of Apollo at Daphne, just outside Antioch, a statue of Apollo seated on the omphalos at Delphi and facing left was an extremely popular cult image for the Seleucid kings -- second in popularity only to the Great Zeus -- and it was often featured on the coinage throughout the east.[1] See, for example, this beautiful tetradrachm of Antiochus II, posted only a few days ago by @TheRed .

This Daphnean Apollo is seated left on the omphalos, appearing at ease, with his right leg flexed and left leg extended, examining an arrow held in his right hand and his left hand resting on a grounded bow. It is a distinctly warlike image.

While there are some similarities between this statue and the depiction of Apollo on this sestertius of Gordian III, there are enough differences to rule out the Daphnean Apollo as its exemplar.


Gordian III, AD 238-244
Roman AE Sestertius; 20.01 gm, 28.2 mm, 11 h
Rome, 5th officina. 9th emission, AD 241
Obv: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust, right
Rev: PM TRP IIII COS II PP SC, Apollo seated left, holding laurel branch and resting left arm on lyre
Refs: RIC 302; Cohen 252; Sear --; Banti 72.

Apollo sits in an attitude of comfortable repose, but instead of the martial imagery of a bow and arrow, he holds aloft a laurel branch in his right hand and rests his left arm on a lyre. The iconography on the coin's reverse shares a number of features with this depiction of the Actian Apollo, as seen in a bas relief sculpted on an altar called the Gens Augusta, erected by the freedman Hedulus in Carthage ca 14 CE:



This image is just one of many images on this altar, which was found on the east slope of the Byrsa and now resides in the Musée du Bardo in Tunis. Scholars believe Hedulus felt indebted to Augustus for his rise in prosperity and had the altar built to honor the Emperor. The altar copies many of the Augustan monuments in Rome and many of the images propagated during Augustus's reign (the adoption of Apollo as his patron god following the Battle of Actium and the adoption of the griffin as his symbol are two such examples).[2, 3] This cannot be a direct copy of the cult statue in the Temple of Apollo Palatinus in Rome, because Apollo is depicted standing in that temple.

Note that Apollo is holding a leafy branch in his right hand. Although the left arm has been broken off, it takes little imagination to envision it resting on the lyre to the left of his throne. There are some differences between this bas relief of Hedulus and the reverse type on the Gordian sestertius, to be sure: the orientation of Apollo's legs and the presence of a griffin on the bas relief and its absence on the coin.

Therefore, we cannot definitively state the celator who engraved the reverse die for the sestertius copied a particular statue. Nonetheless, this iconography -- apparently stemming from the reign of Augustus -- seems to have remained in the collective Roman psyche for two-and-a-quarter centuries after the reign of its first emperor.

Notes:

1. Cornelius Vermule. Roman Provincial Coins II: The Statues in the Temples and Shrines. The Celator October 2002; 16(10): p.10.

2. McIntyre, Gwynaeth. A Family of Gods: The Worship of the Imperial Family in the Latin West. Ann Arbor, MI: Publisher, University of Michigan Press, 2016, p. 84

3. Interesting is this Epigram on a statue of Actian Apollo, by an unknown author. Translated by D.L.Page, "Select Papyri" 3.113.

Master of Actium, sea-fighting lord, memorial of Caesar's deeds and witness of his prosperous labours; whose name is on the lips of Time, for in your honour Caesar calmed the storm of war and the clash of shields, andthere he cut short the sufferings of fair Peace, and came rejoicing to the land of Nile, heavy-laden with the cargo of Law and Order, and Prosperity's abundant riches, like Zeus the god of Freedom; and Nile welcomed his lord with arms of bounty, and his wife {Egypt}, whom with golden arms the river laves, received the shower, apart from stress or strife, that came from her Zeus of Freedom, and truly the very name of war was extinguished. - Hail, Lord of Leucas, one and only noble president at the victorious deeds wrought by Augustus, our Zeus the son of Cronus!

Ἄκτιον ἀμ[φιέπων, ἄνα ν]αύμαχε, Κ(αί)σαρος ἔργων
μνῆμα κ(αὶ) ἐ[ὐτυ]χέων μαρτυρίη καμάτων,
Αῖωνος σ[τό]μασιν βεβοημένε· σοὶ γὰρ Ἄρηος
π[νεύ]μματα καὶ σακέων ἐστόρεσεν πάταγον,
Εἰρήνης μόχθους εὐώπιδος ἔνθα κλαδεύσας
γῆν ἐπὶ Νειλῶτιν νίσε(τ)ο γηθαλέος,
εὐνο[μίης] φόρτοισι καὶ εὐθενίης βαθυπλούτου
βρι[θό]μενος βύζην Ζεὺς ἅτ' ἐλευθέριος,
δωροφόροις δὲ χέρεσσιν ἐδέξατο Νεῖλος ἄνακτα
κ(αὶ) δάμαρ ἡ χρυσέοις πήχεσι λουομένη
ἀπτόλεμον καὶ ἄδηριν ἐλευθερίου Διὸς ὄμβρον
ἀτρεκὲς ἐσβέσθη δ' οὔνομα κ(αὶ) πολέμου·
χαῖρε, μάκαρ Λευκᾶτα, Διὸς [Κρον]ίδαο Σεβαστοῦ
νικ(αί)ων ἔργων ἓν πρυτάνευμα καλόν.

 

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good point RC..

 

Interesting hypothesis on one of the ancient world's iconic gods.