FISH ON COINS AND MEDALS 



27; 



an electrum stater with a Tunny upright between two sacrificial 

 fillets, which may signify that this tunny was closely connected 

 with some deity or was itself of a sacro-sanct character. 



Even more remarkable is a coin of Abdera in His- 

 pania Baetica. This carries on its obverse a laureat head of 

 Tiberius : on its reverse a four-pillared temple, two of the 

 columns of which are in the form of fish. This unique repre- 

 sentation has never been fully explained.' 



It is surely a happy coincidence that on some mintages 

 of Imperial date the fish occurs together with the head of some 



LAUREAT HEAD OF TIBERIUS AND TEMPLE WITH TWO COLUMNS IN SHAPE OF 

 FISH, FROM A COIN OF ABDERA. 



From A. Heiss, PI. 45, 9. 



self-styled deities, such as that choice couple, Nero and 

 Domitian. On sundry pieces struck by Nero, the octopus- 

 like and predatory Sepia not inappropriately finds place ; but 

 monstrously incongruous seem the coins which associate the 

 man-serving and man-saving Dolphin with the self-serving 

 and man-slaying Domitian. 2 



With the Jews, although its emblematic employment was 

 scanty, the fish occasionally figured, e.g. as a sign of Judah. 

 In the Talmud it appears more frequently, and as symbolic 

 of some moral quality — e.g. of innocence.^ In Japan the carp 



* A. Heiss, op. cit., pi. 45, 9. 



- See Cohen, Moyinaies Domitian, Nos. 227, 229, 236, and Pitra, op. cit., 

 pp. 508-512. Although writing some sixty yeai's ago he enumerates no less 

 than 156 illustrations from coins and representations of fish association. 



' For the fish-symbol in Judaism there is a good collection of facts in 

 I. Scheftelowitz, " Das Fisch-Symbol in Judentum und Christentum," in the 

 Archiv. fur Religionswirsenschaft (1911), XIV. 1-53, 321-392. 



