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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Severus Alexander, post: 3674066, member: 84744&quot;]This is an interesting idea, but I think the use of elephants on coins exclusively by the Caecilii Metelli (except for this Caesar issue) counts pretty strongly against this interpretation.&nbsp; Maybe there&#039;s some more evidence that elephants were used as a generic symbol of power, e.g. in art?&nbsp; There&#039;s no question that elephants were used, in a very limited way, both militarily and ceremonially, but it&#039;s a stretch to say that either Pompey or Caesar &quot;associated themselves&quot; with elephants in any way.&nbsp; As we&#039;ve seen there&#039;s little other evidence of this for Caesar, and the association of Pompey with elephants was primarily a mocking one located in the minds of the populace.&nbsp; The other associations they&#039;d have, of course, would be with Hannibal and Africa (which is where the link to the Caecilii Metelli comes from).</p><p><br /></p><p>On the African link, I came across another hypothesis, from David Woods (Numismatic Chronicle vol. 169 [2009] pp. 189-192).&nbsp; He suggests that the snake represents king Juba, who was allied with the optimates and involved in the final showdown in Africa in 46.&nbsp; The Latin word for the crest on the snake is &quot;iuba,&quot; which is interesting.&nbsp; The timing might seem too early, but he says that Caesar dispatched a force to Africa in 49 so it could represent that; and he wanted to portray the war as being against a foreign enemy rather than other Romans.&nbsp; Another interesting idea, at least.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I know it&#039;s long <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie10" alt=":oops:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> but the OP explains this.&nbsp; The suggestion is that it symbolizes an assault by the optimates (Caesar&#039;s enemies in the civil war) on Caesar and the people of Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Hoard evidence indicates they were struck after the war in Gaul was all over, and rather in the initial stages of the civil war.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Caesar did depict a carnyx a year later:</p><p><img src="https://www.acsearch.info/media/images/archive/47/841/588852.m.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>That’s a very typical Republican depiction, and it looks nothing like the bearded and crested serpent on the elephant denarius and AA’s dupondius, which, on the other hand, does exactly resemble wall paintings of the genius of the paterfamilias.&nbsp; Here are some more examples:</p><p><img src="http://ancientrome.ru/art/artwork/paint/rom/p0004.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Pompeii_-_Casa_del_Centenario_-_MAN.jpg/1200px-Pompeii_-_Casa_del_Centenario_-_MAN.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://www.vortigernstudies.org.uk/vessels6.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="https://l7.alamy.com/zooms/187b7436c6324519a5ea5b2ee5e8d284/italy-naples-naples-national-archeological-museum-from-a-lararium-cem578.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>These images would have been familiar to every Roman family and a part of their everyday lives in their observance of domestic religious duties.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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