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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24783324, member: 128351&quot;]The crocodile on reverse was one of the most famous ancient Roman coin-types, as early as the 16th c. By order of the king François I (1515-1547) it became the official coat of arms of the city of Nîmes (but the palm branch became a whole palm tree). In the late 20th c. the industrial designer Philippe Starck redrew it to look more contemporaneous. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585675[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This image of a crocodile raising its tail became emblematic. It is the same crocodile we see as logo for the Lacoste brand since the 1930s : </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585676[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>or we can see it playing with Milou in &quot;Tintin au Congo&quot; :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585677[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But there is a problem: actual crocodiles never raise their tail. If you know a crocodile, just ask it, it will confirm. A crocodile&#039;s tail always rests on the ground, or in the water. Other ancient coin-types representing crocodiles show them with their tail on the ground. For example these denarii of Augustus or Juba II of Mauretania, or this large AE Alexandrian drachm of Antoninus Pius:</p><p><br /></p><p>(not my coins)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585678[/ATTACH]&nbsp; &nbsp; [ATTACH=full]1585679[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585681[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So, it may be interesting to trace the origin of such an unnaturalistic representation of a crocodile raising its tail. </p><p><br /></p><p>On Roman sculptures, paintings, mosaics, crocodiles seem to be always represented with a resting tail. But there are exceptions : crocodiles with a raised tail are figured on two nilotic mosaics, the great nilotic mosaic of Palestrina (1st c. BC) :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585687[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>and the 2nd c. AD nilotic mosaic from a villa on the Aventine, now at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome :</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585689[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Both mosaics, the one of the 1st c. BC from Palestrina and the one of the 2nd c. AD from the Aventine, are obviously inspired by some lost masterpiece of Alexandrian hellenistic art, probably a mosaic too, or a painted picture, representing the flooded Egyptian landscape with plants, animals, buildings, people and boats, etc. The most naturalistic depiction of a crocodile is the one from the Aventine mosaic, and we can see it may not be raising its tail but is just seen from slightly above, like on this photograph:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1585690[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The lost Alexandrian prototype of the Nilotic landscape had been a very famous picture in Hellenistic times, and its crocodile seen from slightly above with a curved tail was probably a striking image, imitated by numerous artists. Some people who had never seen a living crocodile had this image in mind. It was probably the case for the 1st c. AD people who draw the reverse type of the Nemausus dupondii.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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