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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2254194, member: 57495&quot;]With Halloween almost upon us, I thought I would show something a little macabre... maybe? <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie95" alt=":vamp:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>This coin has a nightmare-to-photograph obverse (dark+glossy+rough), but the reverse, which is its selling point for me, is really quite nice.&nbsp; Behrendt Pick in <i>Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands Vol I/I</i> (AMNG), calls the figure shown &quot;Eros (als Todesgenius)&quot;, Eros (as the Genius of Death).&nbsp; Many sale descriptions of this coin type just go with &quot;Thanatos&quot;, the Greek personification of Death.&nbsp; What, this little cherub... Death?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]446403[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>COMMODUS</b></p><p>AE20</p><p>4.43g, 19.6mm</p><p>THRACE, Philippopolis, circa AD 180-192</p><p>RPC Online Vol. 4, #7572 var (obv legend and bust type)</p><p>O: AV KAI M AV ANT [KOMOΔO], laureate and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind.</p><p>R: ΦIΛIΠΠOΠOΛЄITΩN, winged Eros, legs crossed, resting on an inverted torch.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The depiction of a winged youth, leaning rather sadly on an inverted torch, as if to symbolize a life extinguished, is a common decorative motif on Roman sarcophagi and other funerary art (as seen below in an early 4th century Roman sarcophagus).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]446405[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But what does Eros, the Greek god of love and desire, have to do with Thanatos, and why would anything as inauspicious as a Death aspect be used as the main device on coins bearing the image of a living emperor or child caesar?&nbsp; For me, the latter question would be the main stumbling block in the identification of the figure as Thanatos.&nbsp; Some think it really is just a case of mistaken identity, and the figure shown is just one of the Erotes, manifestations of Eros who symbolize different aspects of love or sex. I won&#039;t say this is absolutely clear to me, but I think it at least makes more sense than Sweet Baby Genius of Death on a coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re keen on reading more, the matter is explored in an excellent essay <a href="http://eroscoin.blogspot.sg/2011/03/eros-and-thanatos.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://eroscoin.blogspot.sg/2011/03/eros-and-thanatos.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Coins of this type were struck in just a handful of cities in Thrace, Moesia and Asia Minor (most commonly by the Severans and the Antonines), but numerous other cities had coins that unambivalently show Eros in another pose or context.&nbsp; If you have any coins with members of the Cute Collective (Eros, the Erotes, or Cupid), please do share them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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