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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sulla80, post: 5362497, member: 99456&quot;]<u>As far as I know it is just a control symbol</u> - however, I have the same question: What would a Roman in 96BC have seen in a grasshopper/locust/cicada symbol?</p><p>- a reference to a location?</p><p>- some musical reference, perhaps connected to Bacchus or Apollo?</p><p>- a reference to a plague?</p><p>- a link with grain crops?</p><p>- a metaphor for Roman troops who would swarm and destroy their enemies like locusts destroying crops?</p><p>- other? e.g. reference to a meal enjoyed by weird foreigners</p><p><font size="3">&quot;A short distance from this tribe on the edge of the desert dwell the Acridophagi (locust eaters), men who are smaller than the rest, lean of body, and exceeding dark. For among them in the spring season strong west and south-west winds drive out of the desert a multitude beyond telling of locusts, of great and unusual size and with wings of an ugly, dirty colour.&nbsp; From these locusts they have food in abundance all their life long, catching them in a manner peculiar to themselves.&quot;</font></p><p><font size="3">- Diodorus Siculus,Library of History, Book III <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3B*.html#29.1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3B*.html#29.1" rel="nofollow">29.1</a></font></p><p><br /></p><p>There are Ptolemaic references to locusts in the positive (Egyptian army) and negative (enemy armies) &amp; the time period (305 BC to 30 BC) overlaps nicely with the Roman republic.&nbsp; For more than anyone should ever want to know about locust references in Ptolemaic texts, see:</p><p><br /></p><p>Sayed MR. <a href="https://doi.org/10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00135" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://doi.org/10.15406/jhaas.2018.03.00135" rel="nofollow">Locust and its signification in Ptolemaic texts</a>. J His Arch &amp; Anthropol Sci. 2018;3(4):584‒588.</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="4">[ATTACH=full]1227750[/ATTACH]&quot;make your infantry soldiers as numerous as locusts, and your children as numerous as grains of sand.&quot;</font></p><p><font size="4">- Dendara III 176 ,4-5</font></p><p><font size="4">&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1227750[/ATTACH]&quot;lord of eternity, your circle of protection is behind you, the combatants are like locusts, they protect you every day.&quot;</font></p><p><font size="4">- Dendara IV 18, 4-6</font></p><p><font size="4">&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]1227750[/ATTACH]&quot;numerous of infantry soldiers like locusts, treading the battlefield, to bring an end to one who attacks&quot;</font></p><p><font size="4">- Edfou VII 200, 4-5</font></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s another Roman Republican denarius with grasshopper / locust (also from about the same time period?):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1227809[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="4"><b>C. Allius Bala</b>, 92 BC, AR Denarius, Rome mint</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Obv:</b> Diademed female head (Diana?) right; H below chin</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Rev:</b> Diana driving biga of stags right, holding spear, reins, and torch; grasshopper below; all within laurel-wreath</font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Ref: </b>Crawford <a href="http://numismatics.org/crro/id/rrc-336.1b" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/crro/id/rrc-336.1b" rel="nofollow">336/1b</a>; Sydenham 595; Aelia 4</font></p><p><font size="4">[ATTACH=full]1227831[/ATTACH]</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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