History of Monsters. 281

of Erizzo, a victory is revealed which the Romans won over the barbarians. Elsewhere, Pierio Valeriano observed a winged female head on certain coins, her hair gathered in a knot, as a way of representing Victory. A female head accompanied by a Cupid on a silver coin of Julius Caesar is said to represent Venus. Frequently, a helmeted female head is seen on coins, which many assert signifies Rome—either because the Romans overcame all through arms, or because they traced their origin to Mars, or because they proclaimed Rome the "head" of the world. Valeriano even suggests this was a premonition of what Christ would say to Peter: that he would achieve the title of "head" when he founded the seat of the Church in Rome; thus he called him Peter, as if a rock (*petra*), while looking toward the immovable stone of the Capitol. On other coins, one can see individual female heads on both sides, with their hair gathered in a simple knot; according to Valeriano, the ancients used these to designate liberty.

Furthermore, on other coins, two heads appear emerging from a single neck, while the other side of the coin depicts a ship. Enea Vico was of the opinion that this coin was struck to decree eternal honors to Saturn, who had taught the Italians the methods of calculation and pruning. Others, however, believe that the double head represents a lawgiver, while the image of the ship denotes the convenience of a river. Finally, two heads are seen on one side of a coin of the Tenedians, while the opposite side represents an axe. This was their way of indicating severity; for when the King of Tenedos had decreed the death penalty for adultery and struck down his own son along with the adulteress with an axe, the event became the source of a proverb about severity: the Tenedian Axe.

In addition, on many ancient coins, two joined hands are seen, which undoubtedly indicated "faith," as the inscriptions seem to suggest; on some, one reads *Fides Romanorum* ("Faith of the Romans"), and on others, *Fides Exercituum* ("Faith of the Armies"). However, this figure of joined hands is also applied to other meanings. On other coins, the image of an expanded hand was sometimes seen, which served as a standard for the Roman imperial army to showcase the benefit of Concord. But on the coins of Emperor Philip, an outstretched arm with an open hand appears, and Gabriel Simeoni believes this figure indicates liberty. This is better explained by a coin of Titus Claudius Caesar, which shows a right hand holding a cap (*pileus*) and an extended left hand, with the inscription *Libertas Augusta*. Although the cap itself suggested the symbol of liberty, the open hand increases the meaning, in contrast to a clenched hand, which among the ancients signified an impediment. Similarly, on a coin of Gratian, a hand is extended to a kneeling woman with the inscription *Reparatio Reipublicae* ("Restoration of the Republic").

Thus far we have discussed the figures of body parts on coins; now we turn to the complete human figures struck upon them. First, regarding the arrangement of the image, Enea Vico presents a coin of Commodus in which four boys are seen to express the four parts of the year. Others have reported that three of these boys are naked and the fourth is clothed. They add that the first of the naked boys carries a basket full of flowers to denote Spring; the second holds a sickle in his right hand to indicate the Summer harvest; the third carries a basket weighed down with fruit in his left hand to show Autumn; and finally, the fourth, being clothed, carries a staff on his shoulders from which hangs a dead bird, perhaps to reveal Winter.

On certain coins, a crowned youth is seen with a tripod, clutching arrows in his right hand and a lyre in his left, while a massive serpent lies at his feet. There, one also sees a laurel tree with a crow, under which nine girls sit where a bubbling spring of perennial water flows. Erizzo believes these images represent Apollo with the Muses on Mount Parnassus at the Castalian spring. However, the image of Apollo is depicted differently on other coins. Sometimes a standing youth is seen holding a lyre in his left hand, where a naked man is tied to a tree from whose branches a flute hangs; in this way, they demonstrated that Marsyas had been defeated by Apollo. Erizzo also points out a youth carrying a ram and concludes it is Mercury. But he is figured differently on a coin of Hadrian, where the image of a youth holds a caduceus in one hand and grasps the Emperor with the other, with the inscription *Felicitas Augusti* ("The Emperor’s Good Fortune"). Yet, on a bronze coin of Vitellius, there is an image of a man with a rod, a serpent, and