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I thought I’d settled my mind on RRC 308/1 previously (two earlier posts).  But now a Berlin glass paste has thrown open the question in my mind again.

The identify of the figure as one single Cantanaean brother seems confirmed by the symbol in the field, the triskeles, a symbol of Sicily.

This then got me thinking about arm and body positions.  The outstretch arm echoes the representations of the father on the coins of Sextus Pompeius (RRC 511/3).

The Sextus coins bear a strong compositional resemblance to these bronze coins of Catana (date disputed).  So strong in fact I might posit one or more pre existing local representations of monumental scale.  The one big difference is that the father is holding a long slender object in his out stretch hand.  No parallel object is held on the Sextus coins.  BUT on the glass paste above there is a similar long slender object in the father’s opposite hand held close to the body.

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On these other coins of Catana (Katane) the mother’s arms are represented identical to the two coin types above, BUT the not the fathers.  He holds his arms close to his body.  There is a strong vertical element which could be the same rod like object seen above or might just be drapery as on the RRC 308/1.

Drapery is a keep design component in RRC 494/3:

The distinctive element of the glass paste illustrated above is the outstretch arms of BOTH father and son.  I would interpret this as a visual reminder of the other brother and the mother, a beckoning gesture.  What that stick thing is I’d dearly love to know…

All in all I’m back to being a little less sure of my reading of RRC 308/1…

Addendum.

 

 

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…)