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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4574763, member: 110350&quot;](If I wasn&#039;t going to risk calling a thread &quot;Republican snakes,&quot; I certainly wasn&#039;t going to do the equivalent with boars and pigs, etc.!)</p><p><br /></p><p>I received this coin today from CGB Numismatics in Paris, and am very pleased with it.&nbsp; Yes, the boar is off-center on the reverse and the tip of his snout is cut off a little, but most of it shows, and I&#039;ve seen plenty of examples of this coin-type with the entire snout missing.&nbsp; (I&#039;ve been looking for one to buy for a while, to add to my little collection of Roman Republican and other ancient coins with animal reverses.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, Marcus Volteius, AR Denarius, 78 BCE (Crawford) or 75 BCE (Harlan). Obv. Head of young Hercules, wearing lion’s skin headdress, right / The Erymanthian boar running right; M•VOLTEI•M•F in exergue. Crawford 385/2; RSC I Volteia 2; BMCRR 3158, Sear RCV I 313 (ill.); Harlan, RRM I Ch. 12, pp. 62-79 at pp. 74-77 [Michael Harlan, <i>Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins</i>, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012)], Sydenham 775. 18.5 mm., 3.96 g., 7 h.*</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132654[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132655[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>* This coin, depicting Hercules and the Erymanthian boar -- one of five coins issued by M. Volteius as moneyer during that year -- relates, like the other four Volteius coins, to one of the five principal agonistic festivals which were celebrated annually at Rome, this one specifically to the Ludi Plebeii, held each year from 4 to 17 November. Hercules had a special relationship with the Circus Flaminius, which was where the Ludi Plebeii were held, and was near the temple of <i>Hercules Magna Custos ad Circum</i> (Hercules the Great Guardian at the Circus).&nbsp; See Harlan at p. 76 for a summary of the legend of Hercules capturing the Erymanthian boar alive, the fourth of the twelve labors of Hercules. (See also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erymanthian_Boar" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erymanthian_Boar" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erymanthian_Boar</a> .) Harlan points out that according to tradition, the tusks of the Erymanthian boar were preserved at the sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae -- perhaps establishing a (rather tenuous!) connection of the Erymanthian boar to the Circus Flaminius (where the Ludi Plebeii were held) and the nearby temple of <i>Hercules Magna Custos ad Circum</i> (which was supposedly built on the advice of the Sibyl of Cumae). This may have been the rationale for the portrayal of the Erymanthian boar on this coin rather than one of Hercules’s other labors.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are my other three Republican coins showing boars, sows, and other pigs, in reverse chronological order:</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Hosidius C.f. Geta, AR Denarius, 68 BCE. Obv. Draped bust of Diana R., wearing crown and stephane[?], with bow and quiver over shoulder, GETA before, III VIR behind/ Rev. Wild boar of Calydon* r., pierced in shoulder by spear and attacked by hound beneath, C. HOSIDI C F in exergue. RSC I Hosidia 1 (ill.), Crawford 407/2, Sear RCV I 346 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 32 at pp. 189-194, BMCRR Rome 3388. 18 mm., 3.91 g. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132659[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132661[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This one might show the dog a little better:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132663[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>* See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calydonian_Boar" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calydonian_Boar" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calydonian_Boar</a> for the story of the wild boar of Calydon, best known from Ovid&#039;s <i>Metamorphoses.&nbsp; </i>See also this painting by Rubens of the Calydonian Boar Hunt, at the Getty. <a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/226430/peter-paul-rubens-the-calydonian-boar-hunt-flemish-about-1611-1612/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/226430/peter-paul-rubens-the-calydonian-boar-hunt-flemish-about-1611-1612/" rel="nofollow">http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/226430/peter-paul-rubens-the-calydonian-boar-hunt-flemish-about-1611-1612/</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Sulpicius C.f. Galba, AR Serrate Denarius, 106 BCE. Obv. Jugate heads of Dei Penates left, D•P•P [<i>Dei Penates Publici</i>]&nbsp; beneath heads / Rev. Two soldiers facing each other, holding spears and pointing at sow lying down between them; S above; in exergue: C•SVL•ICI•C•F. [<i>Indication of undertype on right of reverse, causing loss of detail.</i>]&nbsp; RSC I Sulpicia 1, Crawford 312/1, Sydenham 572, BMCRR Rome 1324, Sear RCV I 189 (ill.) [<i>See Sear RCV I at p. 108: “Crawford’s interpretation of this interesting type seems the most convincing: it refers to Aeneas’ [landing at and founding of] Lavinium (home of the Sulpicia gens) with the Penates, and the subsequent miracle of the great white sow [giving birth to 30 piglets], which foretold the founding of Alba Longa,” where the soil was more fertile, 30 years later</i>.] (<i>Ex. Madroosi Collection</i>).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132667[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132669[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, Ti. Veturius, AR Denarius 137 BCE. Obv. Helmeted head of Mars right, TI. VET (monogrammed) and X behind head. / Rev. Youth holding pig, kneeling left, head right, between two soldiers who touch the pig with their swords, ROMA above. RSC I Veturia 1, Crawford 234/1, Sydenham 527, Sear RCV I 111 (ill.), BMCRR Italy 550. 18 mm., 3.8 g. [<i>First Republican denarius to have head of anyone other than Roma on obverse.</i>]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132678[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1132679[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m afraid that I have no Roman Imperial or Provincial coins depicting pigs of any kind.&nbsp; If anyone has such coins -- I know they exist for Trajan, plus there&#039;s the rare Gallienus &quot;zoo&quot; coin with a boar -- or any &quot;pig&quot; coins of their own from the Republic, I&#039;d love to see them.&nbsp; (I know that there are also plenty of ancient Greek coins with boars, because people have often posted them -- like the obols from Kyzikos, Mysia with the foreparts of a boar on one side and a lion on the other. I&#039;d like to own one of those myself someday!)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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