Half shekel with portrait of Hannibal (?)/Melqart [obverse] and elephant [reverse], c.213-210 B.C., Silver
3.46g, 19mm
Burnett Enna Hoard 123; SNG Copenhagen 383
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Unknown Half shekel with portrait of Hannibal (?)/Melqart [obverse] and elephant [reverse], c.213-210 B.C., Silver 3.46g, 19mm Burnett Enna Hoard 123; SNG Copenhagen 383 The figure of Hannibal (possibly pictured on the obverse [front] of the coin above) couldn't be a more fitting halfway point to A History of the Classical World in 100 Objects. The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage (218–201 BCE) is one of the most famous of all ancient military confrontations, including as it did Hannibal's legendary crossing of the Alps with his army and war elephants. On the coin above, probably minted between 213-210 BCE during Hannibal's expedition against Sicily in the wake of his triumphant defeat of the Romans at Cannae (216 BCE), we can see one of those famous elephants depicted in glorious detail. The obverse of the coin shows a portrait head in profile, wearing a laurel wreath with ribbons floating above the nape of the neck. The upwards-tilted eyes, tousled hair and diadem-like wreath clearly look back to coin portraits of Alexander the Great (like the one we saw earlier in the series): Hannibal, commander of the Carthaginian forces in the attempt to overthrow Rome, is quite clearly allying himself symbolically with the great conqueror, asserting his identity in the struggle for imperial control over the Mediterranean. Opinions differ over whether this portrait actually depicts Hannibal himself, or the Carthaginian god Melqart – most likely it is a fusion of the two, a deliberate blurring of boundaries between god and mortal, as Alexander himself had done before.
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Many objects ago on the History of the Classical World we had another dramatic mask – a tragic mask made of bronze, made in the Hellenistic period (i.e. 4th-2nd cents BCE) but imitating classical Athenian models. This mask is quite different. Not only is it made of terracotta rather than bronze – you will notice at once that the facial expression and style marks it as a comic mask. Here the mouth is curved up in a slight smile, the cheeks are tensed in exaggerated jollity, and the eyebrows are raised. However, this is not a classical Athenian-type comic mask – which normally has a wide, open mouth and highly exaggerated features – but represents rather a later style of comedy which flourished from the 4th century BCE on, called 'New Comedy', and which seems to have been especially popular among the Greek colonies of South Italy. This type of comedy, pioneered by a dramatist called Menander, featured stock characters like "The Flatterer" (Kolax, in Greek), "The Parasite", "The Slave", "The Prostitute" and so on, and engaged in formulaic plots often involving situational comedy and character satire. The mask above is typical of "The Flatterer" type, with its subtle smile and lidded eyes – note the holes in the top of the mask, where it would have been fastened to the head, and traces of paint remaining on the cheeks and hair.
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AuthorEmily Hauser is a classicist and researcher at Harvard and author of historical fiction recovering the lost women of the ancient world, including FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL and FOR THE WINNER. Archives
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