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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2276147, member: 19463&quot;]I can see the Christian populace of Antioch looking at the figures on this coin as personifications of their city rather than as pagan gods and not inconsistant with Christianity.&nbsp; The US in a time when it was politically correct to call it a Christian nation had lady Liberty on coins not to mention the statues in New York harbor and on top of the Capitol building.&nbsp; We even have a statue of George Washington dressed as a Greek god.&nbsp; These are not idols to be worshiped but symbols of the nation.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Antioch with the swimming figure was a statue which, I assume, still existed in the time of Justin.&nbsp; Copies of it still exist; they may have had the original which has since been lost.&nbsp; There may be a fine line between gods and personifications.&nbsp; The river god was Orontes or the river on which Antioch was located.&nbsp; Placing his image on the coins along with the statue of Tyche representing the city would only be taken as pagan by those who today would object to such things as saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag on the basis that it constituted flag worship.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Wherever it went, Christianity blended with local customs.&nbsp; We got the date of Christmas and the decorating of trees from pre-Christian cultures not to mention a host of more localized traditions.&nbsp; Christian Antioch was proud of their city heritage and their statue.&nbsp; This civic symbol does not strike me as something the Church would have found objectionable.&nbsp; Maybe they did and that is why there are so few such coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>What was the actual last overtly pagan thing on coins?&nbsp; Certainly Julian II&#039;s sacrificial bull was pagan.&nbsp; After that?&nbsp; Victories were signs of winning.&nbsp; Leo&#039;s lion was a personal sign not a pagan beast.&nbsp; Constantine had coins with Mars but the line between that god and the personification of virtus was becoming gray long before Christianity came to prominence so a coin would have to bear his name to be certainly pagan.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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