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Message:: [QUOTE="Al Kowsky, post: 3396765, member: 97383"]I'd like to elaborate on an interesting digression triggered by a post from 7Calbrey, regarding the "leaping ram" motif on Antioch coinage. A friend alerted me to an extremely rare Tet auctioned by CNG in their Triton XXII auction, pictured below. The coin was struck under the reign of Marcus Aurelius & pictures Commodus as Caesar, c. AD 175, 26 mm, 14.51 gm. The reverse depicts Tyche seated on rocks with the river god Orontes swimming below her. Above Tyche is the "leaping ram" motif again. In the CNG description,Michel Prieur is quoted "The ram is said to represent Ares, which was the star sign of the month in which the city was founded".[ATTACH=full]902263[/ATTACH]Other examples of earlier coinage from Antioch also use the "leaping ram" motif like the coin pictured below, courtesy of Marc Breitsprecher. It's an anonymous bronze, dated Actian year 42 (AD 11/12), 20.3 mm, 5.16 gm. The reverse uses the "leaping ram" motif with a star. Bible students have often fancifully attributed this design to the star of Bethlehem, signaling the birth of Christ, who was allegedly born in the month of April (Ares, symbolized by the ram). [ATTACH=full]902269[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]