Cancelleri Relief...Praetorians? How do we know?

[Doc]

Apologies for the later response. Thank you Theor for the information.

I have to agree that so long as the bulk of the important images is on a coin, there would be some variation unless they had a mint as we do today.

[Theodosius the Great]

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The helmets with the scorpion on the cheek pieces comes from the Louvre Relief, the soldier(s) in the background shows it.

You have better eyesight than me. Or Durry. He wrote (about the background figures): "Il est grand dommage qu'on ne voie que les têtes de ces deux soldats, et même qu'on ne puisse distinguer l'ornement particulier de leurs garde-joues." ("It's a great pity that we can only see the heads of these two soldiers, and that we cannot make out the particular ornamentation on their cheek-pieces") Durry wondered if they might have shown "des foudres, des scorpions?" ("some thunderbolts, some scorpions?") but was unable to say. He quotes a study of the relief by E. Michon, who also wrote that "The representation is so indistinct that it is difficult to say anything."

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Thanks for the input, Dr. Campbell. I was unaware the designs were in dispute.
Well, here's a closeup. Everyone can make his own judgement then...



~Theo

[Alexandr K]

Hi,

Thanks for the numismatic research. Indeed, it seems that Rankov made a mistake and the coin was issued under Galba (I have not found any bibliographic reference in his book, Stefano).

Kind regards,
Alexandr