A. Denarius of P. Licinius Stolo (p. 42).
Obv. AVGVSTVS TR POT Augustus, laureate, on horse-back to r.
Rev. P. STOLO Helmet (apex) between two shields.
IIIVIR
Coin.
The forms of the helmet and shields are very archaic and interesting, appearing to point to a very early period. The helmet bears a marked likeness to that worn on Egyptian monuments by the Shardana, one of the races that invaded Egypt about the thirteenth century B.C. The shield seems to consist of two small round bosses connected by an oval boss. It is strikingly like the Mycenaean shield as shown on a number of monuments, and far earlier than the so-called Boeotian shield which was common in Greece from the sixth century onwards. The Roman writers themselves seem to have been puzzled by this shape (Marindin, article ‘Salii’ in Smith’s Dict. Antiq.), and there can be little doubt that it came down from a time when the ‘Mycenaean’ civilization was common to Greece and Italy.
The figure on the coins of M. Sanquinius (Babelon, Mon. de la Répub. Rom. ii. 417), who wears a horned helmet and long tunic and carries a herald’s staff and round shield, has been identified by several authorities as one of the Salii. This, however, is certainly wrong. Both on this coin, and later coins of Domitian, the personage is closely connected with the Ludi Saeculares. Dr. Dressel, in the Ephem. Epigr. viii. 314, maintains him to be a herald proclaiming the festival. This would admirably suit the caduceus; but the decorations of the helmet seem to me to be not plumes, as Dr. Dressel thinks, but horns, like those on the headpiece of Juno Lanuvina. In any case the person is no Salius.