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• Apollo Propugnator, Diana Victrix: Erscheint die Militär und Siegesthematik bei den Darstellungen der Götter Apollo und Diana in der Münzprägung der Zeit der Soldatenkaiser (235-284/285 n. Chr.)?

  115–134

  Ferenc Barna

  Views:

  89

  The figures of Diana and Apollo are frequently represented in Roman coinage. Such is the case in the soldier-emperors’ era, when one finds different representations of them both. They are depicted in various poses with altered attributes, while the gods are often named differently in the legend on the reverse. My article focuses on those types where the gods are not only displayed with weapons (bow and arrow) but also with legends connected with fighting and winning: Apollo Propugnator, Diana Victrix. I took a closer look at the figure of Diana and realised that she is represented as the goddess of hunting: she does not fight but protects hunters and ensures the success of hunting. The Apollo Propugnator type is a version known from the local coinage of Eastern Greek cities; this type is appropriated temporarily by imperial propaganda, but does not have an enduring role. In the cases of Diana and Apollo the military theme is impermanent and secondary; nor does it have an important impact.

• King of Kings Ardashir I as Xerxes in the Late Antique Latin Sources

  143-153

  Márk Sólyom

  Views:

  281

  The last ruler of the Severan dynasty, Emperor Severus Alexander had to face an entirely new threat in Mesopotamia, because in 224 AD the Parthian royal house of the Arsacids, which had ruled in the East for nearly half a millennium, was dethroned by the Neo-Persian Sasanian dynasty and the new rulers of Persia were extremely hostile to the Roman Empire. The vast majority of the late antique Latin sources (Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus, Jerome, Orosius, Cassiodorus, Iordanes) call the first Sasanian monarch, Ardashir I (reigned 224–241 AD), who was at war with Rome between 231 and 233 AD, Xerxes, although the Greek equivalent of the Middle Persian name Ardashir is Artaxerxes, as used by the Greek sources. In the Latin textual tradition we can find the correct Greek name of Ardashir only in the Historia Augusta. The paper seeks answers to the question of why Ardashir was usually called Xerxes by late antique Latin sources.