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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 24859629, member: 26430&quot;]I love seeing all these bulls and how universally meaningful a symbol it must&#039;ve been in the ancient world (albeit in various different ways).</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s the miniature 11mm, 1.04g version of [USER=44132]@Bing[/USER] &#039;s AE <i>Trias</i> above. There&#039;s one dot in the exergue, representing AE <i>Uncia</i> (Lindgren II 459):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594090[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594091[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s another bronze, one of these decorated Euboian bulls -- similar to the League Drachm posted above.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, there are &quot;fillets&quot; dangling from the ears. I&#039;m curious exactly what ritual they are being prepared for. I assume this is preparation for the sacrifice. Similar scenes are known throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world (<a href="http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Taurobolium" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Taurobolium" rel="nofollow">Taurobolium</a>).</p><p><br /></p><p>From 3rd-2nd BCE Euboia, Karystos (BCD Euboia 587):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594098[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Herakles obverse with dolphin countermark, which I particularly enjoy.</p><p><br /></p><p>(<b>Note [USER=100951]@Mr.MonkeySwag96[/USER] </b>: Since your coin is &quot;<a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7710015" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7710015" rel="nofollow">reportedly ex W.P. Wallace Collection</a>&quot; -- most important scholar of the Eub. League -- it&#039;s very likely one of the specimens <a href="http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan36916" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan36916" rel="nofollow">cited in his book on the League Coinage</a> -- probably under type 92 in the Catalog, where he lists specimens weighing 3.30, 3.31, and 3.28g, &quot;Wallace EL 411-413, Hoard 4.&quot; You can often track these to the specimens described or even photographed <a href="http://numismatics.org/authority/wallace_william_p" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/authority/wallace_william_p" rel="nofollow">in his many hoard notebooks, which are digitized by ANS</a>.)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Staying in Central Greece, but a different League&#039;s bull coins, I love these Phokian League Hemiobols &amp; Obols (BCD 198, 197, Duplicate):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594099[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Moving eastward, here&#039;s Thrace, Byzantion. I really enjoy the double-strike (I think?), which gives the bull six legs, and appears rather like an animation showing it kicking (colección Guadán 1870):</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594101[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Remarkably, there&#039;s another (?) one of these with the same double-strike&nbsp; (or is it just a weird die with six legs?) published from a plaster cast in Schoenert-Geiss&#039; 1970 <i>Griechisches Münzwerk die Münzprägung von Byzantion</i> (No. 561, hoard coin at Istanbul). It&#039;s paired with a different reverse, otherwise I would be certain it&#039;s the same coin. (Some of Guadan&#039;s specimens did appear in that book, so I wonder if she got the casts mixed up and this is actually the same coin? I think prob. not.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594102[/ATTACH]</p><p>Close, but not the same, I guess... (Still considering possible scenarios.)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I never get tired of these jumbo Apis Bulls on the Julian II &quot;Double-Maiorinae&quot;:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1594103[/ATTACH]</p><p>These are very interesting for having been referenced in at least 3-4 classical sources known today. Most seem to have a disparaging tone (at least two authors&#039; histories were purposely biased in favor of the Christian church).</p><p><br /></p><p>Some Provincial subjects were apparently hostile to the design, the citizens of Antioch reportedly complaining about this coin:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>“…the bull, which was impressed upon his coin, was a symbol of his having desolated the world. For the emperor, being excessively superstitious, was continually sacrificing bulls on the altars of his idols, and had ordered the impression of a bull and altar to be made on his coin.”</p><p>-- <i>The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus</i></p></blockquote><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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