Julian and the Apis Bull

While the coinage of Julian is most remarkable for its depiction of the Apis bull, historians are uncertain of what the emperor actually intended to portray through this coinage. Was it an effort to link the emperor to the mysterious power of the bull common amongst the Egyptians? Was it an attempt to portray the ritual sacrifice of bulls that Julian re-instated after decades of Christian-sympathizing rule? Or was it something else, perhaps a representation of the astrological sign Taurus? The chronicler Ammianus Marcellinus is the primary source on Julian's reign and unfortunately never commented on the coinage, whilst mostly praising Julian's actions, personality, and character. [1]

More on the Apis Bull:

The Apis bull was an important sacred animal to the ancient Egyptians. As with the other sacred beasts Apis' importance increased over the centuries. During colonization of the conquered Egypt, Greek and Roman authors had much to say about Apis, the markings by which the black calf was recognized, the manner of his conception by a ray from heaven, his house at Memphis (with a court for his deportment), the mode of prognostication from his actions, his death, the mourning at his death, his costly burial, and the rejoicings throughout the country when a new Apis was found. Auguste Mariette's excavation of the Serapeum of Saqqara revealed the tombs of more than sixty animals, ranging from the time of Amenhotep III to that of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Originally, each animal was buried in a separate tomb with a chapel built above it.

According to Arrian, Apis was one of the Egyptian deities Alexander the Great propitiated by offering a sacrifice during his seizure of Ancient Egypt from the Persians. After Alexander's death, his general Ptolemy I Soter made efforts to integrate Egyptian religion with that of the new Hellenic rulers. Ptolemy's policy was to find a deity that might win the reverence of both groups, despite the curses of the Egyptian religious leaders against the deities of the previous foreign rulers (i.e. Set, lauded by the Hyksos). Without success, Alexander had attempted to use Amun for this purpose, but that deity was more prominent in Upper Egypt and not for those in Lower Egypt, where the Greeks had stronger influence. Since the Greeks had little respect for animal-headed deities, a Greek statue was created as an idol and proclaimed as an anthropomorphic equivalent of the highly popular Apis. It was named Aser-hapi (i.e. Osiris-Apis), which became Serapis, and later was said to represent Osiris fully, rather than just his Ka.

The earliest mention of a Serapis is in the authentic death scene of Alexander, from the royal diaries. Here, Serapis has a temple at Babylon, and is of such importance that he alone is named as being consulted on behalf of the dying Alexander. The presence of this temple in Babylon radically altered perceptions of the mythologies of this era, although it has been discovered that the unconnected Babylonian deity Ea was entitled Serapsi, meaning king of the deep, and it is Serapsi who is referred to in the diaries, not Serapis. The significance of this Serapsi in the Hellenic psyche, however, due to its involvement in Alexander's death, also may have contributed to the choice of Osiris-Apis as the chief Ptolemaic deity during their occupation of Ancient Egypt.

According to Plutarch, Ptolemy stole the statue from Sinope, having been instructed in a dream by the Unknown God to bring the statue to Alexandria, where the statue was pronounced to be "Serapis" by two religious experts. Among those experts was one of the Eumolpidae, the ancient family from which the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries traditionally had been chosen since before any historical records. The other expert supposedly was the scholarly Egyptian priest Manetho, which increased acceptability from both the Egyptians and the Greeks.

Plutarch may not be correct, however, as some Egyptologists assert that the Sinope in Plutarch's report is the hill of Sinopeion, a name given to the site of an existing Serapeum at Memphis. Also, according to Tacitus, Serapis (i.e. Apis explicitly identified as Osiris in full) had been the tutelary deity of the village of Rhacotis, before it suddenly expanded into the great capital of "Alexandria".

Being introduced by the Greeks, understandably, the statue depicted a fully human figure resembling Hades or Pluto, both being kings of the Greek underworld. The figure was enthroned with the modius, which is a basket or a grain-measure, on his head, a Greek symbol for the land of the dead. He also held a sceptre, indicating rulership, and Cerberus, gatekeeper of the underworld, rested at his feet. It also had what appeared to be a serpent at its base, fitting the Egyptian symbol of sovereignty, the uraeus.

With his (i.e., Osiris') wife, Isis, and their son (at this point in history) Horus (in the form of Harpocrates), Serapis won an important place in the Greek world, reaching Ancient Rome, with Anubis being identified as Cerberus. The cult survived until 385, when Christians destroyed the Serapeum of Alexandria, and subsequently, the cult was forbidden by the Edict of Thessalonica.[2]

[1] Lewis, Will. Taking the Bull by the Horns, Ancient World Magazine, March 16, 2018
[2] The Apis Bull, Wikipedia online encyclopedia

 

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Nice write up, and I love the patina on that one, here's mine.

 

For some reason the reverse didn't make it into the article above. So here it is again!

 

I think these hypotheses (being more general) are more likely than the Apis bull. The stars lend support to the Taurus interpretation.

My Julian AE1 is one of my favourite coins. Here's a new photo of it:

 

Great coin AC and interesting write up, love the patina.

 

Nice coin and writeup ACH
SA's example isn't bad either...

My Antioch example :


Julian II, AE 1 - Antioch mint, 3 rd officina
D N FL CL IVLI ANVS P F AVG, Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Julianus right
SECURITAS REIPUB, Bull to right, two stars above. ANT gamma between two branches at exergue
8.73 gr
Ref : Cohen #38, RC #4072, LRBC #2641

Q

 

I agree with the bull sacrifice explanation. Julian was renowned for it.

 

Not going to lie, that is a coin type I really want. So far all I have is this....



Not as cool as the bull type, but it's still an interesting coin.

 

Nice!

 

ancient coin hunter, lovely coin & fascinating write-up. Here is my example for comparison. Sirmium Mint, 2nd Officina, 8.14 gm.

 

Well written @ancient coin hunter . Thanks for the insights.

My Bull from Julian... I captured it because I like what Julian did for the Empire, and that he was a rebel. He was a respite from the Christian rule.


RI Julian II CE 360-363 AE1 maiorina Diademed R - SECVRITAS REIPVB 2 stars Apis Bull stg R ANT-Gamma 2 palms ANTIOCH RIC 217 LRBC 2641

 

Nice coin @Sallent. The Apis bull types vary widely in price. You should be able to pick up a good one for less than $100, though in the top grades they command pretty high prices!

 

Thanks folks for posting your Julians!

After he was speared in the side by a Persian cavalryman and carried to his tent, where his physicians attempted to dress the wound without success, Ammianus tells us the following:

"Meanwhile, all who were present wept, whereupon even then maintaining his authority, he chided them, saying that it was unworthy to mourn for a prince who was called to union with heaven and the stars. As this made them all silent, he himself engaged with the philosophers Maximus and Priscus in an intricate discussion about the nobility of the soul. Suddenly the wound in his pierced side opened wide, the pressure of the blood checked his breath, and after a draught of cold water for which he had asked, in the gloom of midnight he passed quietly away in the thirty-second year of his age." -Ammianus Marcellinus, Liber XXV

According to apocrypha, his last few words were these:

"Thou hast conquered, Galilean!"

 

Congrats on the coin, @ancient coin hunter and thanks for the writeup! It prompted me to read other accounts. Here's another enjoyable article about the type:

https://www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/taking-bull-horns-julians-controversial-coinage/

Big ol' and ♥︎ for Cuke's, Sev's, and Al's gorgeous examples.

 

Thanks @TIF !

 

I'm leaning toward the theory that the bull represents Taurus because of the stars on the coin.

 

I've loved Julian's coins since reading Gore Vidal's novel Julian in 1964. But I can't think of Julian without also remembering the grudging admiration the 4th c. Christian poet Prudentius paid to him in his work "On the Divinity of Christ", lines 449-454 where he says "Yet of all the emperors one there was in my boyhood, I remember, a brave leader in arms, a lawgiver, famous for speech and action, one who cared for his country’s weal, but not for maintaining true religion, for he loved myriad gods. False to God, however true to the world, he would bend the head of majesty before Minerva’s feet, would lick a clay Juno’s sandals..." That line above, "perfidus ille Deo, quamvis non perfidus orbi," touches me every time.

 

Yeah, I read Gore Vidal's book when I was 12, supplemented my burgeoning interest in collecting ancient coins when I was just getting into the hobby.

 

It's been years since I read Vidal, and I've read nothing else by him. Probably to my loss, but there's only so much time. I recently picked up several Julian siliquae from the 19th c. East Harptree hoard, but no time to attach photos.