A Steed or a Packhorse, Equines in the Ancient world

I was not aware that the horse figured so prominently on the early bronze of Rome. For some reason I thought it was mostly ships.

 

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I see your Tarantine horseman managed to keep his head.

 

A truly beautiful coin.

 

Yes, I can't argue with that evidence. Before I made the observation of their uncommon appearance on the imperial coins I checked a couple reference books (with images) and found very few, especially compared to the Republic period but your specimens certainly show that they are out there.

 

Some amazing coins posted... here are a few from my collection..

 

Very good looking coins. Is your top coin from Cartage or one from one of her settlements or conquests? Is that Tanit on the obverse, do you know?

 

Thank you very much. I always enjoy your writeups. Interesting, fun, thought provoking.

 

Zeugitana (Carthage) 4th - early 3rd century BC.
OBV: Wreathed head of Tanit, left
REV: Horse standing right before palm tree with dates.
AE15

 

Thanks.

Thank you for the kind remark. I enjoy doing the background research for the articles. I miss the world of academia but this website is a pretty close second and when it comes to learning more and the new, it's better. Nicer people, too.

 

A couple of more horsies:

 

Amyntas III. AR Stater.(22mm; 8.88 gm, 12h) Aigai mint, circa 394/3-370/69 BC. Obv: Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin. Rev: Horse standing to right, AMYN-TA around, all within linear border within shallow incuse square. Westermark, Remarks, pl. LXIX, 32; HGC 3.1, 828; SNG COP. 512 var. (legend break); SNG ANS 87 ff. var. (same); AMNG S. 159,1 f. var. (same)

 

Very nice!

 

Boy, your looks like a Clysdale.

 

LOL, with forelegs like that, you would have to put him down... they are broken!

 

Amazing write up, and great explanation on why every statue of Castor and Pollux looks like 6 year-olds with a pony in a sketchy petting zoo. May as well show some of my Equestrian coins.

Seleukid Serrate, Demetrios I Soter, AE17, Horse's head left / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTΡIOY, elephant's head right. I got this one for free, charming little bronze.

Roman Republic, C. Plutius, 121 B.C. AR Denarius, Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, X / Dioscuri riding right, below, C. PLVTI; in exergue, ROMA, RRC 410 Crawford 278/1. This one I defiantly overpaid on, but I had a need for one of those fancy Roma boxes.

 

A sturdy horse, for sure!

 

Here's a lil' horsey with rider I picked up a couple of weeks ago as part of a Facebook group coin show.


Dardanos, Troas
AR Obol, 400-300 BC
Obverse: Horseman riding left.
Reverse: Cock standing left within incuse square.
References: SNG Copenhagen 282, SNG Ashmolean 1120
Size: 10mm, 0.5g

 

Sorry, I'm late for lunch, as often. Can't help that.

Things are different here. There's this delightful theory about this type of coin with the horse "grazing", from Troas, that we treated before. It's not peacefully grazing, but joyfully finding! Finding the spot where the town should be built. The horse isn't grazing, but water dowsing. And if you look sharp, you see this horse is not sad at all, not quiet, but glad! It has found the right spot.

 

And here are some other horses from the Ancients stable. This work horse coin I showed before, as atmospheric as it is, minted somewhere along the Silk Route, where tired old horses must have plodded on for many miles, not ridden triumphantly under a great prince, but driven on, loaded with riches for humans in Eastern or in Western Empires. Trudging under the moon...



Sogdia. AE from the Chach oasis (= Tashkent), Kabarna, 7th century. Obv. Horse trudges to the right under crescent moon with dot. Rev. Tamgha nr. 2 (hook flower). 18 mm, 1.86 gr. Shagalov & Kuznetsov 74-76, group 2 nr. 8 (version 1, the heavier variety).



This is my lovely Iceni coin with its jolly jumping horse, and on the obverse a man smelling the mouth of a snake (???) or whatever he thinks he's doing (with his pig's snout ear!).

British Celtic coinage. Iceni (who were living in what's now Norfolk, UK). Uninscribed AR unit, quinar size. Circa 50-40 BC. Bury Diadem type ("Gallo-Belgic XD") type. Uncertain mint in the upper Yare valley. Obv. Diademed head left; snake symbol to left. Rev. Horse leaping left; pellet in ring of pellets above, pellet-in-annulets around. 15 mm, 1.47 gr, 6h.



And number three is a very different piece of cake: developed from a developed from a developed from a developed from a tetradrachm of Philip II of Macedon. A Celtic coin from the East (Northern Carpathia = rough Romania I suppose). As you may observe, a bearded laureated god-king's head to the right on the convex obverse, and a fat duck-billed horse to the left on the hollow other side.

Eastern Celts, mint in the Northern Carpathian region, 2nd century BC. Scyphate AR (no, billon) tetradrachm. Obv. Vague round Zeus head to the right. Rev. Horse to the left, no rider, ‘Entenschnabel’ = duck bill face. 23 mm, 8.88 gr. Lanz 666-8.

I thought coins like these also belong in a thread about horses.

 

That's one majestic horse. A noble beast indeed.