These are the same type as fig. 4 in my piece on the Minucii. Should have cited them there.

Still want to think more about this common motif.

wolf and twins, Roma, etc…, birds

 

(or Hermes.)

So I don’t think we should follow Crawford’s hesitation to identify the head on RRC 341/1.   He doesn’t hesitate to identify the youthful head with a winged diadem on a terminal bust as Mercury on RRC 418/2 and we also have a whole slew of 5th century style portrayals of Hermes on what are likely to be Roman Republican glass pastes, some even wearing wings (these are all in Berlin).

 

Update 9/11/22:

I still think Hermes is the most likely identification for the obverse of the above type but I did pause and think about it when I saw this figure on a sarcophagus in Berlin yesterday (Altes Museum).

Just a fun imitation specimen from the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.  It copies RRC 341/1 and 344/1.

It would be fun to see if there are any archival records about how it came to Gonville and Caius College  (acquistion: “loan; 1938-01-11; Gonville and Caius College”)

CF. RRC 548/1

I’m not so sure I think the gem must be the same portrait as the coins.  Could it be?  Certainly.

References and links updated 11.25.25

Working through Zwierlein-Diehl, Erika. 2007. Antike Gemmen und ihr Nachleben. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.

408 is one of two glass pastes in Berlin this motif.    Should have cited this publication in my Fides piece.  Ah well.

Notice that the creator of the glass paste did not use an impression and did not perfectly create negative of the scene which is so clearly modeled on the coinage.   He reverses the standing figures, but the kneeling figure will be rendered mirror image in any impression made by this glass paste.

Update 3/28/18:

Wow here plates are so much better that Fürtwangler.  Here’s his version (flipped to the same orientation):

and here’s the other one:

Clearly same general subject and composition model, but much less closely related to the coinage.

Probably not (but I am always interested in knowing more about Italic/Roman Minotaurs…)

That’s no tripod its a trident.

See newer post.

This important document has disappear from the National Park Service website.  This is the broken link.   I was able to retrieve it using the Wayback Machine on Archive.org.  It was available as recently as May 2017.

Just so it stays hosted the web, I’m archiving on my site.  Copy of Speech. (pdf format)

If you are interested in this speech you may also be interested in the journals from the same time.