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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8052958, member: 128351&quot;]Post all things Pompeian, he said... I never had in my hand any coin with Pompey&#039;s portrait, but here is a coin minted in 58 BC by one of Pompey&#039;s lieutenants, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (it was offered me as a Christmas gift).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1394756[/ATTACH]</p><p>M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus</p><p>Denarius, 58 BC. Crawford 422/1b.</p><p>Obv.: M SCAVR / AED CVR in two lines above, [EX] S C across field, [REX ARETAS] in exergue, the Nabatean king Aretas III kneeling to right, extending olive-branch and holding reins, before camel standing right.</p><p>Rev.: P HVPSAE / AED CVR in two lines above, CAPTV to right, C HVPSAE COS / PREIVE in two lines in exergue, Jupiter driving quadriga left; below horses&#039; forelegs, scorpion.</p><p><br /></p><p>This was an exceptional monetary emission decided in 58 BC by the Senate (ex Senatus consulto) and entrusted not to the monetary triumvirs but to the pair of curule aediles of this year. Each one could chose the type and legend of one side of the coin. Hypsaeus evoked the capture of the Italian city of Preivernum by one of his ancestors, while Scaurus chosed to advertize his own achievement: in the Middle East, as a lieutenant of Pompey, he had submitted Aretas, king of the Nabataean Arabs, who became a client-king of Rome (officially &quot;Friend and ally of the Roman People&quot;). To symbolize this, the Arab king is depicted wearing long robes, kneeling in the attitude of supplication, extending olive-branch (still today a symbol of peace), just dismounted from his camel.</p><p><br /></p><p>This surrendering ritual was an inspiration for Plutarch many years later, when telling how the Gallic king Vercingetorix surrendered, dismounted from his horse in front of Caesar (Caesar himself and other sources, had not mentioned a horse).</p><p><br /></p><p>This image of the kneeling king surrendering greatly impressed the Romans. 2 or 3 years after, it will be copied by A. Plautius representing the surrender of &quot;Bacchius the Jew&quot;, and by Faustus Cornelius Sylla (the former dicator&#039;s son) representing the surrender of Bocchus, king of Mauretania, in front of his father Sylla. On these coins Bacchius and Bocchus are just imitations of Aretas&#039; image on the denarii minted by Scaurus. The camel, too, impressed the Romans, and became for them the very symbol of Arabia: it was the first time a camel was seen on a Roman coin, and when 169 years later the Nabataean Kingdom was annexed, coins were minted in Rome in 111 AD showing the allegory of Arabia with a tiny camel at her feet. Much later, this image became a prototype for Christian art depicting the three wise men paying homage to baby Jesus...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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