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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4487679, member: 110350&quot;][USER=10613]@Victor_Clark[/USER], I think my first question is answered -- at least as to the absence from RIC itself of almost all of these 4th century coins with Egyptian deities on the reverses (which, it seems, weren&#039;t necessarily actual coins, but rather brass [orichalcum] tokens or amulets issued to celebrate the annual Festival of Isis) -- in the greatly updated and expanded version of Alfoldi&#039;s catalogue found at <a href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/intro1.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/intro1.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/intro1.htm</a>, covering both the issues with imperial obverses and the &quot;anonymous&quot; issues with Serapis on the obverse.&nbsp; See the Tesorillo pages indexing the types of reverses (<a href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm)*" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm)*" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/rev/index1.htm)*</a>, the types of imperial obverses (<a href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index2e.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index2e.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index2e.htm</a>), and the types of anonymous obverses (<a href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index1e.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index1e.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.tesorillo.com/isis/anv/index1e.htm</a>).&nbsp; The introduction explains why even though the imperial obverses were issued under every emperor from Diocletian through Valentinian II, the only ones listed in RIC were the ones issued during the reigns of Constantius II through Jovian: the only volume covering these issues is RIC VIII (published in 1981), covering the &quot;Family of Constantine I.&quot;&nbsp; Neither RIC VII (published in 1966), covering Constantine I and Licinius, nor RIC IX (published in 1951), covering Valentinian I through Theodosius, lists any of them.&nbsp; What I don&#039;t understand is why OCRE continues to omit all the imperial obverses other than those listed in RIC VIII, as well as all the anonymous issues.&nbsp; Unless the intent of OCRE is simply to serve as an online version of RIC, without expanding upon it at all. </p><p><br /></p><p>My second question is answered, at least implicitly, in Alfoldi&#039;s article itself, which does focus on the great popularity of the Ptolemaic/Alexandrian deities in Rome at that time, as well as on the apparent fact that these coins (or tokens or amulets) were all issued specifically in conjunction with the annual Festival of Isis.&nbsp; (Some of Alfoldi&#039;s conclusions are no longer generally accepted by modern scholars, such as his attempt to trace the etymology of &quot;Carnevale&quot; back to the &quot;carrus navalis&quot; [the naval float associated with the Festival of Isis].&nbsp; It seems that most now agree that it simply means &quot;without meat.&quot;&nbsp; Alfoldi&#039;s kind of back-etymology, based on acronyms or quasi-acronyms, usually turns out to be false, especially where, as here, there&#039;s no direct evidence for a link, and a gap of about 800 years between the two terms.)</p><p><br /></p><p>* Tesorillo identifies the infant on Isis&#039;s lap on all the reverses showing that type of image (Tesorillo reverse Type 12) as Harpocrates rather than Horus.&nbsp; For anyone who doesn&#039;t know, Harpocrates is simply the Greek version of the Egyptian words meaning &quot;Child Horus.&quot;&nbsp; Harpocrates is usually depicted in Greek and Ptolemaic art with a sidelock and a finger under his mouth, although not in this particular type of reverse. Based on a misinterpretation of Egyptian iconography, he also became identified as the Greek god of silence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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