EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



occurs in the Egyptian series. A coin 

 «truck by Ptolemy PMadelplius, the son of 

 Lagus, is, however, of a somewhat analogous 

 character. Philadelphus succeeded to the 

 throne on the abdication of his father, after 

 whose death he caused a coin to be struck in 

 his honour, and also in that of his mother 

 Berenice. On this coin — which may perhaps 

 be termed a " consecratio" coin — like those 

 of the Eomans about to be described, the por- 

 traits of Ptolemy the Eirst, and that of his 

 last queen, Berenice, the mother of Philadel- 

 phus, are represented in profile, one over 

 the other, accompanied by the inscription 

 0EOI, gods, in token of their supposed recep- 

 tion after death among the deities of the 

 Grecian mythology. This is, therefore, a coin 

 of somewhat similar character to those long 

 afterwards struck by the Eomans, at the 

 time of the apotheosis of certain emperors ; 

 for that the " apotheosis " of Ptolemy was a 

 deification of precisely analogous character 

 we learn from the pastoral poet Theocritus, 

 in his 17th Idyl. 



In the year 14 a.d., just 337 years after 

 the death of Alexander the Great, died 

 Augustus Csesar, the first Roman emperor. 

 His successor Tiberius, and a servUe senate, 

 decreed to him a place among the gods, and 

 on a simultaneous issue of the public money 

 were stamped appropriate devices to com- 

 memorate the deification. Alexander of 

 Macedon was stOl the hero-type emulated 

 by more recent rulers, especially by Augustus, 

 though he may be said to have been rather 

 the Alexander of peace than of war — what 

 Alexander might have been, after the con- 

 solidation of his conquests, had he not been 

 prematurely carried ofi* by disease, instead 

 of reaching a ripe old age like his Roman 

 successor in the empire of the world. How- 

 ever this may be, Augustus had evidently 

 wished his name to be associated with that 

 of Alexander, as a ruler over equally vast 

 possessions, and the senate hastened to 

 flatter this predilection of their dead emperor 



and his successor, by causing coins to be 

 issued in commemoration of his obsequies, 

 precisely similar in device to those struck by 

 Ptolemy at the funeral of Alexander. The 

 Roman device was, however, made more 

 splendid; the increased dimensions of the 

 large brass coinage affording more scope to the 

 designer than the limited space of the small 

 gold pieces issued at Alexandria. Instead of 

 two elephants, /o«r were yoked to the car 

 (as represented below), the car itself being 



also of more splendid structure, with a kind 

 of stage on the top. It is, in fact, the pecu- 

 liar kind of car called Thersa, which was 

 only used for the purpose of conveying the 

 statues of the gods to the circus, on the 

 solemnization of the sacred games. The 

 statue of Augustus is in the exact position 

 of the sitting figure of Jupiter, which is 

 found on the silver tetradrachms coined in 

 the reign of Alexander the Great, even to 

 the chair or throne, which is accurately 

 copied in all its details. Above the ele- 

 phants, instead of an inscription, merely con- 

 taining the name and title of the reigning 

 sovereign, as on the Egyptian coin, the fol- 

 lowing legend is placed, divo attgitsto 

 S.P.Q.E., which at length should read, divo 



ATTGTJSTO, SENATUS POPULTJS QUE EOMANTTS. 



To the Divine Augustus, The Roman Senate 

 and People. 



It has been said that the elephants were 

 adopted in this device as being typical of 

 dignity and eternity ; of diguity on account 

 of their size and stately walk, and of eternity 



