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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 3162041, member: 56859&quot;]<img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/gordianiii-ostrich-hadrianopolis-rt-jpg.559812/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Gordian III </b></p><p>AE 18 mm, 2.59 gm</p><p>Obv: AVT K M ANT ΓORΔIANOC AVΓ; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.</p><p>Rev: AΔPIANOΠOΛEITΩN; ostrich running like stevex6 is chasing it with a basting brush</p><p>Ref: Varbanov 3833, rare</p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>In addition to sometimes being used in fights in the Colosseum, ostriches were kept in aviaries, stocked in reserves for local safaris, used to draw chariots, and- my favorite- occasionally given away as dinner party door prizes by everyone&#039;s favorite wacky weirdo, Elagabalus.</p><p><br /></p><p>From <b>Historia Augusta, The Life of Elagabalus</b>, chapter 22:</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff">At his banquets he would also distribute chances inscribed on spoons, the chance of one person reading &quot;ten camels,&quot; of another &quot;ten flies,&quot; of another &quot;ten pounds of gold,&quot; of another &quot;ten pounds of lead,&quot; of another &quot;ten ostriches,&quot; of another &quot;ten hens-eggs,&quot; so that they were chances indeed and men tried their luck. These he also gave at his games, distributing chances for ten bears or ten dormice, ten lettuces or ten pounds of gold. Indeed he was the first to introduce this practice of giving chances, which we still maintain. And the performers too he invited to what really were chances, giving as prizes a dead dog or a pound of beef, or else a hundred aurei, or a hundred pieces of silver, or a hundred coppers, and so on. All this so pleased the populace that after each occasion they rejoiced that he was emperor.</span></p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, they were also eaten.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/atasteofancientrome-jpg.559831/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/ostrichrecipe-jpg.559832/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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