The Mountain God Haemus

783401.

Sold For $1500

MOESIA INFERIOR, Nicopolis ad Istrum. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ Pentassarion (26mm, 11.92 g, 1h). Aurelius Gallus, legatus consularis. AVT L CEPT• CEVHP PEP, laureate head right / VP AVP GALLOV NIKOPOLEITWN PPOC ICTP, AIMOC across left field, mountain-god Haemus reclining right on wooded rock outcropping, resting right arm above head and cradling scepter in left arm; below, bear right, chasing leaping stag. AMNG I 1315 ; SNG Copenhagen -; Varbanov (second ed.) 2721. EF, attractive dark green patina with blue-green overtones. Very rare.

Haemus, the son of Boreas, was a mythological king of Thrace. Vain and haughty, he boastfully compared himself and his wife Queen Rhodope to Zeus and Hera. For this vainglorious presumption, Haemus and Rhodope were transformed into local mountains. Sometimes, the Greeks called the entire Balkan Peninsula the CersonhsoV tou Aimou, Haemus’ Peninsula.