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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4513064, member: 110350&quot;]Does a satyr count as an animal?&nbsp; Since it&#039;s my thread and I make the rules for it, I say yes -- just as I would for a centaur, a pegasus, a capricorn, a hippocamp, or a criocamp.&nbsp; (Probably not too many of you know what a criocamp is without looking it up!)&nbsp; After all, the satyr on this coin does have a tail. Anyway:</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, Lucius Marcius Censorinus, AR Denarius, Rome Mint 82 BCE. Obv. Laureate head of Apollo right, traces of control mark (unidentifiable) behind / Rev. The satyr Marsyas standing left, gazing upwards, raising right hand and holding wineskin over left shoulder; tall column behind him, surmounted by statue of draped figure (Minerva [<i>RSC</i>] or Victory [<i>Crawford</i>]); L. CENSOR downwards before him. Crawford 363/1d, RSC I Marcia 24d, Sear RCV I 281 (ill.), BMCRR 2657.&nbsp; 18 mm, 3.80 g, 5 h.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1118260[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>A detail of Marsyas:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1118267[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>According to Crawford, the moneyer probably chose the satyr Marsyas as the subject for the reverse of this coin as a play on his own <i>nomen</i>, Marcius, from the <i>gens</i> Marcia.&nbsp; See also <a href="http://www.ancientcoingallery.net/categories?Ruler=L.%20Marcius%20Censorinus&amp;Category=Roman_Republican" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ancientcoingallery.net/categories?Ruler=L.%20Marcius%20Censorinus&amp;Category=Roman_Republican" rel="nofollow">http://www.ancientcoingallery.net/categories?Ruler=L. Marcius Censorinus&amp;Category=Roman_Republican</a>: &quot;The symbolism may refer to the moneyer’s family line, the gens Marcia, who claimed legendary descent from Marsyas. It may also be connected to the Social Wars - Marsyas was regarded as a symbol of political freedom, particularly free speech.&quot; </p><p><br /></p><p>To make the connection between Marsyas on the reverse and Apollo on the obverse, for those not familiar with the relevant myth, I&#039;ll quote from the entry for Marsyas in John Melville Jones, <i>A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins</i> (London 1990) at p. 176:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;In Greek mythology Marsyas was a satyr who challenged the god of music, Apollo, to a [musical] contest in which the loser was to suffer the punishment decreed by the victor. When he lost he was flayed alive. A statue of a satyr with a wineskin which stood in the Forum at Rome bore the name of Marsyas and was regarded as having a symbolic meaning. Reproductions of it were set up in the forums of some provincial cities as a sign that they had been granted the same civic rights as Italian cities.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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