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Message:: [QUOTE="Curtis, post: 8248792, member: 26430"]Personally I've always thought it plausible that coin could've been interpreted in multiple ways by different audiences and possibly even intended as such by the designers (i.e. could be seen as snake AND carnyx, alluding both to Gallic and Pompeian enemies and/or poking fun at Pompey's humiliating triumphal elephant incident). Clare Rowan has discussed this more than once but she has a very nice article in the Journal of Roman Studies arguing that such ambiguous messages and multiple meanings were among the greatest assets to a numismatic propagandist. (I don't remember if she discusses this type, but the point is a general one.) And, of course, such punning imagery was considered high wit in the Republic. Available on JSTOR (anyone can sign up for free account, well worth it since they have Numismatic Chronicle and other useful journals):Rowan, Clare, 2016, "<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26346749" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26346749" rel="nofollow">Ambiguity, Iconology and Entangled Objects on Coinage of the Republican World</a>,"The Journal of Roman Studies 106: 21-57. Incidentally, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25651734" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25651734" rel="nofollow">Debra Nousek's excellent (2008) article</a> (cited in the original comment) is also available on JSTOR. (I always recommend it to anyone who has/wants an elephant denarius.) My example won't settle any debates (photo credit: Triskeles/  VAuctions though I bought it later from Kirk Davis when it appeared in one of his FPL catalogs): [ATTACH=full]1452858[/ATTACH] One last detail i find interesting about this type: I have a couple (budget examples!) of the lifetime Caesar portrait denarii traditionally referred to as "the coin that killed Caesar" (the coins with his portrait & DICT. PERPETVO title were so offensive/threatening it was the last straw). Aureo-Calico 353, 32: [ATTACH]1452871[/ATTACH]Grun 79, 1450: [ATTACH]1452872[/ATTACH] Personally, I include the elephant in that category as the first of "the COINS that killed Caesar," since (per Nousek) striking these was one of his first official acts after crossing the Rubicon and taking Rome in 49 BCE, and these ones were likely considered highly offensive and threatening, just like his portrait denarii 5 years later (especially if people recognized that his name was on the front), since he did this without the consent of the Senate.[/QUOTE]

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