History of Monsters. 280

tatem returns to obscurity. Juvenal mentions this notable insignia marked with the moon when he speaks of Fabius in this manner:

"The fortunate, the wise, the noble, and the well-born man fastens the moon to his black leather shoe."

Indeed, the Arcadians wore this type of footwear marked with the moon to suggest their great antiquity to all; for they believed that when the entire human race was once wiped out by the flood, it took its origin once again from the Arcadians. Therefore, by the sign of the moon, they indicated they were older than all others. To these we might add, as a crowning touch, a beautiful emblem of Florentius regarding vainglory, in which two travelers on opposing paths are depicted under the sun's rays. One shadow seems to follow its traveler, while the other precedes its own, under the inscription *To the Ambitious*.

If we look closely at these figures, one seems to follow his own shadow while the other flees it. The author’s six-line poem ends with this couplet, in which ambition is compared to a lowliness of spirit: "Glory thus embraces the humble; but if anyone feeds it with excessive ambition, it flees." We might therefore introduce Glory speaking thus: "I flee what follows me; what flees, I myself follow."

COINS

We read in ancient records, and have observed on various coins, that antiquity imprinted images of both human body parts and sometimes the whole human figure on currency. Therefore, at the beginning of this section, we will discuss the images of parts, and then the complete human likeness. When a human head is seen minted on many coins, it should be understood as having been imprinted to glorify the excellence of the figure—either in learning or in power. For instance, the image of the head of Virgil or other poets denotes excellence, while those of the Caesars and other princes signify the supremacy of the Empire.

On a bronze coin, the head of Julius Caesar minted with a civic crown is said to signify clemency. On other coins, a man’s head is seen crowned with laurel, its back touched by a quiver and its brow by a star; this perhaps designates Apollo the Savior.

Likewise, a human head is seen covered with a goatskin, with a lightning bolt at the throat and a bow at the back; since the reverse of the coin shows an image of Pegasus and arrows, these symbols, according to Valeriano, indicated the highest speed. Erizzo points out a coin of Antoninus with a female head and chest crowned with towers, asserting that the city of Laodicea is indicated this way.

Elsewhere, the aforementioned head figure combined with a man's head and a caduceus at the back denotes Mercury, while it also designates the city that ordered the coin minted in honor of the Prince. Furthermore, Erizzo shows a man's head decorated with ram's horns; this image signifies Jupiter Ammon, once the tutelary god of the colony of Cosa, commonly called Orbetello.

In the same Erizzo, there is a coin of Antoninus Elagabalus on which a graceful human head is minted, marked with a crown and an added laurel branch; for they believed the sun was signified by a similar icon. To indicate the same, on a silver coin of Mark Antony, there appears a man's head crowned with rays in the middle of a square temple. On other coins, one can see the head of a beardless man with flowing hair and a serpent hanging from each ear, perhaps signifying the rising sun.

Valeriano reports that he observed on some coins a human head crowned with rays and a winged, open right hand, meant to represent the East. Sometimes coins represent a man's head attached to military insignia, which is seen especially on a bronze coin of Claudius Caesar; from which, in the opinion of Erizzo,