Commodus, Phaethon, and Ovid?

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Date
2020-12
Authors
Woods, David
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Royal Numismatic Society
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Abstract
It is argued that the reverse of a newly-discovered medallion of Commodus has nothing to do with Mt Argaeus in Cappadocia despite some superficial similarities between its depiction of a mountain and the standard depiction of Mt Argaeus on the coinage of Caesarea in Cappadocia. On the contrary, it probably depicts Phaethon in the chariot of the sun as he descends too near the earth, an interpretation supported by the fact that the brief reverse legend seems to abbreviate a half-line from Ovid's description of that event.
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Keywords
Commodus , Phaethon , Ovid , Sol , Tellus , Medal , Argaeus , Cappadocia
Citation
Woods, D. (2020) 'Commodus, Phaethon, and Ovid?', Numismatic Chronicle, 180, pp. 133-142.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/14022
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Classics - Journal Articles
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© 2020, Royal Numismatic Society.