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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 2885963, member: 75937&quot;]Neat coin!</p><p><br /></p><p>I know you&#039;re joking, particularly as you mention a pile of poop on the reverse, but it&#039;s unlikely a native Greek speaker would ever make a bracketing error such as you propose. This is because Διός is the genitive case form of Ζεύς and there is no word Διo without the final sigma that would make any sense in context,* so it&#039;s next to impossible to take καταιβάτης as σκαταιβάτης, even though a few words begin with σκατ-.</p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, καταιβάτης, meaning &quot;descending in thunder and lightning,&quot; was a well-known epithet of Zeus, being attested in the following texts: Ar.Pax42, Clearch.9, Lyc.1370, IG2.1659b, 12(3).1360 (Thera), 1093 (Melos), BCH50.245 (Thasos), Ἀρχ.Ἐφ.1924.146 (Thess.), Paus.5.14.10, Corn.ND9.</p><p><br /></p><p>Everyone would take the reverse inscription as ΔΙΟC ΚΑΤΕΒΑΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΡΗCΤΩΝ, &quot;of Zeus descending in thunder and lightning of the Cyrrhestians.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>*διό means &quot;wherefore, on which account, etc.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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