Description:
Obverse: Draped and helmeted bust of Roma, right; ROMA. Dot border.
Reverse: Herakles/Hercules strangling the Nemean lion. Club at his feet, quiver and bow in left field; C POBLICI Q F. Dot border. Coin has serrated edges.

Label Text:
Installed in Art Before 700 CE, Spring 2025 Label Text:

Elephants and African Victory

Elephants were commonly associated with Africa on coinage, as with these examples from Roman generals, a Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, and king Juba II.

Juba II (r. 25 BCE–24 CE), Juba I’s son, was installed by the Roman emperor Augustus as ruler of the kingdom of Mauretania in North Africa. Juba’s coin cleverly combines an elephant with another common image type: winged Victory holding a victor’s wreath. Here, instead of striding forward (2000.2.4.INV), driving a chariot (2000.3.20.INV), or crowning a triumphal emperor (2004.13.81), Victory stands atop an elephant’s head as if riding it (2004.13.621). This imagery could have inspired later imperial Roman coins that placed Victory riding atop a ship’s prow.

Lions, Africa, and Empire

On another coin (2004.13.15), Juba II is depicted wearing lion skin as a cape, intentionally imitating the coins of Alexander the Great as Herakles and Roman numismatic traditions associating Herakles with state authority. In so doing, Juba II claims Greek and Roman legacies for himself and reaffirms the lion as a symbol of African authority. The numismatic connection between lions and empire in Africa has had a long afterlife, as seen on an example of 20th-century British imperial money produced in Kenya (2019.24).

[Displayed with 2000.2.4.INV, 2000.3.20.INV, 2000.4.7b.INV, 2004.13.2, 2004.13.15, 2004.13.81, 2004.13.104, 2004.13.523, 2004.13.621, 2013.24, 2013.L10, 2019.24]

Tags:
ancient; archaeology; numismatics

Subjects:
Numismatics; archaeological objects; Civilization, Ancient

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2004.13.65

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

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