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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 7878661, member: 110350&quot;]Thanks for the new likes. The thread may be more than a year old, but I&#039;ll still accept them! The coin I posted in the OP is still one of my favorites.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are some more coins showing a thyrsos (Gr.) or thyrsus (Latin). (What&#039;s the plural, anyway?) All are associated in some way with Dionysos, Bacchus, or Liber. The first one has the added distinction of including my oldest catalog reference -- from Mionnet in 1809 (available online).</p><p><br /></p><p>The thyrsos is defined at NumisWiki as follows: &quot;The thyrsos (thyrsus) is the staff carried by Dionysus (Bacchus) and his associates; topped by a pine cone or a bunch of ivy leaves and wreathed with tendrils of vine or ivy.&nbsp; It was a symbol of the immortality of his believers.&quot; See <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Thyrsus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Thyrsus" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Thyrsus</a> .</p><p><br /></p><p>My examples:</p><p><br /></p><p>Lydia, Philadelphia, AE 17, Late 2nd/Early 1st Centuries BCE, Hermippos, son of Hermogenes, archiereus [magistrate]. Obv. Head of young Dionysos right, wearing ivy-wreath and band across forehead, [Φ]ΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕ[ΩΝ] vertically behind / Rev. Spotted pantheress [leopard] walking left, with head turned back to right, cradling <b>thyrsos bound with fillet (ribbon)</b> against left shoulder, right foreleg raised; ΑΡΧΙΕΡ-ΕΥΣ above, ΕΡΜΙΠΠΟΣ in exergue. Seaby II 4720 [Sear, D., <i>Greek Coins and their Values, Vol. II, Asia &amp; Africa</i> (Seaby 1979), at p. 430 (ill.)]; BMC 22 Lydia 16 [Head, B.V. <i>A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, Lydia</i> (London 1901) at p. 189]; SNG Von Aulock II 3057 [<i>Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia</i>&nbsp; (Berlin 1962)]; SNG Copenhagen 340 [<i>Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Part 27, Lydia Part 1</i> (Copenhagen 1947)]; Imhoof-Blumer 8 [Imhoof-Blumer, Friedrich, <i>Lydische Stadtmünzen, neue Untersuchungen</i> (Leipzig 1897) at pp. 114-115]; Mionnet IV No. 536 [Mionnet, Théodore E., <i>Description de Médailles antiques grecques et romaines, Vol. IV, Lydie</i> (Paris 1809) at p. 98]. 17 mm., 5.02 g.&nbsp; [With old collector’s envelope.] [Footnote omitted.]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1358396[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Lydia, Tralleis/Tralles, AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm, 78/77 BCE, Magistrate ΠTOΛ (Ptol-). Obv. Cista mystica with lid ajar and serpent emerging; all within ivy wreath / Rev. Bowcase (gorytos) with two serpents (one to left and one to right, heads at top); H [= date = Year 8 = 78/77 BCE, based on Year 1 of the Sullan era being 85/84 BCE*] over ΠTOΛ [PTOL] above, between serpents’ heads, TPAΛ [TRAL] in left field; to right, Dionysos in short chiton standing facing, head left, holding <b>thyrsos in right hand </b>and mask of Silenos in left hand. SNG Copenhagen 662-663 <i>var.</i> [different year] [<i>Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Part 28, Lydia Part 2</i> (Copenhagen 1947)]; BMC 22 Lydia 46-48 (p. 333) <i>var.</i> [different years] [Head, B.V., <i>A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 22, Lydia</i> (London, 1901); SNG von Aulock 3262-3264 var. [different year] [<i>Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia</i> (Berlin, 1962)]; Pinder 159 [same year -- “H”]; see also id. 157-158 [different years] [Pinder, M., <i>Über die Cistophoren und über die kaiserlichen Silbermedaillons der Römischen Provinz Asien </i>(Berlin, 1856) at pp. 565-566]. 24 mm., 12.64 g. [probably = 3 drachms, not 4], 1 h. Ex: CNG Auction 225 (13 Jan. 2010), Lot 144. [Foototes omitted.]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1358397[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, Mn. Fonteius C.f., AR Denarius, Rome Mint 85 BCE. Obv. Laureate head of Apollo* right, MN. FONTEI behind (MN and NT in monograms), C.F below chin, thunderbolt below neck / Rev. Cupid or winged Infant Genius seated on goat&nbsp; right, caps (pilei) of the Dioscuri above, <b>thyrsus of Bacchus</b> below; all within laurel-wreath. RSC I Fonteia 10 (ill.), Crawford 353/1c, Sydenham 724a, Sear RCV I 271 (ill.), BMCRR Rome 2478. 20 mm, 3.93 g.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1358399[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>* RSC I identifies as head of Vejovis; Crawford and Sear disagree and identify head as Apollo.</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Vibius Varus, AR Denarius, 42 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Head of Bacchus (or Liber)* right, wearing earring and wreath of ivy and grapes / Rev. Spotted panther [leopard]** springing left towards garlanded altar on top of which lies a bearded mask of Silenus or Pan,*** and against which leans<b> a thyrsus with fillet (ribbon)</b>; C • VIBIVS in exergue, VARVS upwards to right. Crawford 494/36, RSC I Vibia 24, Sear RCV I 496, Sear <i>Roman Imperators</i> 192 (ill. p. 116), Sydenham 1138, BMCRR 4295. 17 mm., 3.60 g.&nbsp; <i>Ex. Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 83, May 20, 2015, Lot 83; ex. Frank Sternberg Auction 17, Zurich, May 1986, Lot 519.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1358400[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>*The identification of the obverse head as Bacchus or Liber is essentially immaterial. See Jones, John Melville, <i>A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins</i> (Seaby, London, 1990) at p. 33 (entry for “Bacchus”): “For the Romans . . . . [Bacchus] was generally identified with the Italian deity Liber, whose name is probably derived from the same root as the word ‘libation,’ suggesting that in Italy he was an earth or vegetation spirit who could be worshipped by pouring offerings upon the ground. . . . Bacchus appears rarely upon Roman imperial coins (and when he is given a name, he is called Liber). He is shown as a youthful male figure, nude or partly draped, perhaps with a wreath of ivy leaves. He may bear<b> a thyrsus </b>and be accompanied by Ariadne, a bacchant or maenad, or a panther.”</p><p><br /></p><p>** There is little doubt that the big cats generally referred to as “panthers” in ancient coin reference works are actually leopards (or, occasionally, cheetahs), particularly when their spots are visible, as on this coin. There is, of course no such separate species as a panther; even a black panther is simply a leopard (or, in the Western Hemisphere, a jaguar or cougar) with black fur obscuring the spots&nbsp; The classical world was well aware that <i>pantherae </i>usually had spots. See the many ancient mosaics and other art depicting Dionysos/Bacchus with a leopard, such as this mosaic from the House of the Masks in Delos, from ca. 100 BCE, in the Archaeological Museum of Delos . . . . [Remainder of footnote omitted.]</p><p><br /></p><p>***The mask has more frequently been identified with Pan than with Silenus, but because the moneyer’s branch of the <i>gens</i> Vibia lacks the cognomen “Pansa” (a reason for the appearance of Pan on the coins of moneyers with that <i>cognomen</i>, as a pun), Silenus appears to be a more likely identification, given the association of Silenus with Bacchus. See Jones, supra at p, 289, identifying Silenus as “[a]n elderly attendant of Bacchus.” See also id. at p. 234 (entry for “Pan”), noting that “[a] bearded head which appears on [the obverse of] a silver sestertius of T. Carisius [46 BC), with a reverse type of a panther bearing <b>a thyrsus</b>, has been identified as Pan but is more likely to be a Silenus, matching the Bacchic reverse type.”[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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