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<p>[QUOTE="Scipio, post: 7397560, member: 103869"][ATTACH=full]1286955[/ATTACH] With the due permissions, I report an interesting write-up posted right now on the Italian numismatic forum Lamoneta.it:</p><p><br /></p><p>The legendary twins Castor and Pollux are known mainly for their iconographic representation on the first republican coins and which subsequently rarely appear in imperial coinage. In the republican denarii we find the helmeted head of Rome on the obverse and on the back the twins Castor and Pollux on galloping horses armed with spears, with conical hats and two stars above their heads, demonstrating their divine nature. From this classic iconography it is clear that it was born to remember the famous battle of Lake Regillo which took place in 495 BC., when the Consul Aulus Postumius Albinus defeated the Latin League thanks to their help, following the vote to build a Temple in Rome dedicated to them, in case of victory; victory that actually took place. However, there is another representation of the Dioscuri, different from the classical one, present on a republican denarius posthumous to the first, in which the two twins appear on foot with one hand holding the bridle of their respective horses while the other holds a spear, this denarius was issued by Lucius Memmius. A second republican denarius issued by a distant homonymous descendant of the victorious Consul to the Regillus, Aulus Postumius Albino, shows the two twins at the foot of the horses upside down while, having arrived in Rome to announce the victory of Lake Regillus, they drink the sweaty horses for the long run, at the Giuturna spring in the Forum, a beautiful iconography.</p><p>Returning to Lucius Memmius denarius, the one with the two twins on foot and inside the two horses, it would suggest that this new pose was taken from a statuary group of probable Greek art, historical or archaeological evidence lacks. However, since there was a temple dedicated to them in the Forum in Rome, it would seem strange and anomalous that the Dioscuri were missing one of their statuary works in bronze or marble. If this work, probably Greek, really existed, it was certainly performed with the two twins at the foot of their respective horses as it appears in fact in the coin of Lucius Memmius; alternatively we should interpret it as a realization initiative of the moneyer. The fact is that the statuary pose of this beautiful denarius was resumed many centuries later by Maxentius bringing only the inversion of the figures, with the horses inside with respect to the twins, perhaps a modified copy of the original statue. Even in the existing statues in Rome we can see this inversion of the figures: the Dioscuri of the Campidoglio have horses on their left and right, so the twins would be inside the horses if the two statues were brought close together, as in the denarius of Lucius Memmius; on the contrary, the group of the Quirinale fountain presents the inversion of the figures: the horses are internal and the twins external, as they appear in the Follis of Maxentius. In these statues currently in Rome, were the positions of the twins and horses randomly placed or positioned so on purpose? It is a little "mystery" like that of the coins of Lucius Memmius and Maxentius[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Scipio, post: 7397560, member: 103869"][ATTACH=full]1286955[/ATTACH] With the due permissions, I report an interesting write-up posted right now on the Italian numismatic forum Lamoneta.it: The legendary twins Castor and Pollux are known mainly for their iconographic representation on the first republican coins and which subsequently rarely appear in imperial coinage. In the republican denarii we find the helmeted head of Rome on the obverse and on the back the twins Castor and Pollux on galloping horses armed with spears, with conical hats and two stars above their heads, demonstrating their divine nature. From this classic iconography it is clear that it was born to remember the famous battle of Lake Regillo which took place in 495 BC., when the Consul Aulus Postumius Albinus defeated the Latin League thanks to their help, following the vote to build a Temple in Rome dedicated to them, in case of victory; victory that actually took place. However, there is another representation of the Dioscuri, different from the classical one, present on a republican denarius posthumous to the first, in which the two twins appear on foot with one hand holding the bridle of their respective horses while the other holds a spear, this denarius was issued by Lucius Memmius. A second republican denarius issued by a distant homonymous descendant of the victorious Consul to the Regillus, Aulus Postumius Albino, shows the two twins at the foot of the horses upside down while, having arrived in Rome to announce the victory of Lake Regillus, they drink the sweaty horses for the long run, at the Giuturna spring in the Forum, a beautiful iconography. Returning to Lucius Memmius denarius, the one with the two twins on foot and inside the two horses, it would suggest that this new pose was taken from a statuary group of probable Greek art, historical or archaeological evidence lacks. However, since there was a temple dedicated to them in the Forum in Rome, it would seem strange and anomalous that the Dioscuri were missing one of their statuary works in bronze or marble. If this work, probably Greek, really existed, it was certainly performed with the two twins at the foot of their respective horses as it appears in fact in the coin of Lucius Memmius; alternatively we should interpret it as a realization initiative of the moneyer. The fact is that the statuary pose of this beautiful denarius was resumed many centuries later by Maxentius bringing only the inversion of the figures, with the horses inside with respect to the twins, perhaps a modified copy of the original statue. Even in the existing statues in Rome we can see this inversion of the figures: the Dioscuri of the Campidoglio have horses on their left and right, so the twins would be inside the horses if the two statues were brought close together, as in the denarius of Lucius Memmius; on the contrary, the group of the Quirinale fountain presents the inversion of the figures: the horses are internal and the twins external, as they appear in the Follis of Maxentius. In these statues currently in Rome, were the positions of the twins and horses randomly placed or positioned so on purpose? It is a little "mystery" like that of the coins of Lucius Memmius and Maxentius[/QUOTE]
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