Silenus - Silanus

[Sulla80]

My latest coin is this denarius of D. Junius Silanus.  The moneyer plays with his name "Silanus" in featuring "Silenus" on this coin. 

I haven't been adding many Roman Republican coins in the last year, this one a nice strike, well preserved on an imperfect flan.  The coins dates from the start of the Social Wars in 91 BC where Lucius Cornelius Sulla distinguished himself as a general and earned the consulship for 88 BC.

D Junius Silanus, uses images on this coin to connect with several of his ancestors and the two related coins in the series Crawford 337/1-3. 

The 17th century painting (oil on panel, public domain image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art) is unusual in the un-bearded portrayal of Silenus.

My more detailed notes are posted here: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/silenus-silanus

Post your coins of Silenus, Silanus, or anything else you find interesting or entertaining.

Edited August 3 by Sulla80

[Deinomenid]

That's an unnerving but fascinating portrait of Silenos!  Here's a more traditional view of  him, from Katane, at the base of Etna, in an area well-known for  grapes etc.

SICILY. Katane. Circa 410-405 BC. Drachm (Silver, 18 mm, 4.02 g, 3 h). Head of Silenos facing, with full beard, pointed ears and bald head. Rev. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Head of the river god Amenanos to left, his hair bound with a taenia and with a tiny horn on his forehead.

Auction blurb -
This is one of the incredible masterpieces that coin engravers working in late 5th century Sicily were capable of producing. The coin is unsigned but the quality of the head of Silenos makes it one of the very finest facing heads ever to appear on a Greek coin. Katana had a close connection to Silenos because of the vines around the city; as for Amenanos, he was the god of the local river, which flowed in and around the ancient city until the great eruption of Etna of 1669. It was then covered over and, in part, flows under the modern city, being tapped for the famous fountain of Amenano in the Piazza Duomo (built from Carrara marble in 1837 - the actual river flows about 2 meters below the fountain).

And this (ABSOLUTELY NOT MY COIN!) is the most famous Silenos from the same city, Katane (then briefly called Aetna) -

National Library of Belgium, Brussels.

 

I really enjoy your extended  writeups, thank you.

[Sulla80]

51 minutes ago, Deinomenid said:

That's an unnerving but fascinating portrait of Silenos!  Here's a more traditional view of  him, from Katane, at the base of Etna, in an area well-known for  grapes etc.

SICILY. Katane. Circa 410-405 BC. Drachm (Silver, 18 mm, 4.02 g, 3 h). Head of Silenos facing, with full beard, pointed ears and bald head. Rev. ΚΑΤΑΝΑΙΩΝ Head of the river god Amenanos to left, his hair bound with a taenia and with a tiny horn on his forehead.

Auction blurb -
This is one of the incredible masterpieces that coin engravers working in late 5th century Sicily were capable of producing. The coin is unsigned but the quality of the head of Silenos makes it one of the very finest facing heads ever to appear on a Greek coin. Katana had a close connection to Silenos because of the vines around the city; as for Amenanos, he was the god of the local river, which flowed in and around the ancient city until the great eruption of Etna of 1669. It was then covered over and, in part, flows under the modern city, being tapped for the famous fountain of Amenano in the Piazza Duomo (built from Carrara marble in 1837 - the actual river flows about 2 meters below the fountain).

Thanks @Deinomenid - the depth of strike on this coin is just stunning!  Thanks for posting.

[TIF]

Silenus!  My favorite drunken uncle 😄.  He is well represented in my collection but there are always many more to add.

@Sulla80, I enjoyed the writeup on your blog.  @Deinomenid, wowza, that facing Silenos is fabulous.  Want.  😁

Like Sulla's coin, this one also shows Silenus as a pun on the praetor's name:

MACEDON, under Roman rule, D. Junius Silanus Manlianus, praetor
circa 148-147 BCE
AE, 20 x 22 mm, 9.5 gm
Obv: Facing mask of Silenus, wearing ivy wreath
Rev: MAKE ΔONΩN legend In two lines; D above; all within ivy wreath
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 1324

Here's lead tessera from somewhere in Asia minor, showing a janiform Silenus with daddy Pan, or is his father Hermes?  Only Gaia knows and she's not saying.

ASIA MINOR. Uncertain. 2nd-3rd centuries. Tessera (Lead, 16 mm, 2.54 g), Axi.... AΞI Composite head of Silenos on the left and horned youthful Pan on the right. Rev. Blank. Gülbay & Kireç 140-142. Vossen col. 78. Leu Numismatik Web Auction 14 (12 Dec 2020), 1068. 

 

A mask of Silenus pushed back off the face of a young man.  Turn the coin 90 degrees counterclockwise to see Silenus.

IONIA, Phokaia. Circa 478-387 BC. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater (10mm, 2.53 g). Head of young male left, wearing Silenos mask on top of his head; to right, small seal downward/ Quadripartite incuse square. Bodenstedt 70, BMC 43.

My first Silenus, in the form of a countermark.  This is the first ancient coin that reached out and GRABBED me.  It's the first ancient coin I bought fwith the intention to keep (I'm not counting a group lot of prutot I bought for a friend... and never gave him because I decided to start collecting ancient coins 🤣).  From a Heritage auction before they became slab-happy.

CORINTHIA, Corinth
345-307 BCE
AR stater, 8.65 gm
Obv Pegasus flying left, qoppa below
Rev: helmeted head of Athena left wearing necklace; head of Silenus behind
Ref: Ravel 1046. Calciati 408. Scarce variety.
from Heritage Auctions, June 2013
 

Edited August 3 by TIF

[Sulla80]

21 minutes ago, TIF said:

@Sulla80, I enjoyed the writeup on your blog.

@TIF Love the coins - especially the subtly animated Macedonian 😀and the Corinthian Stater.

Edited August 3 by Sulla80

[Deinomenid]

55 minutes ago, Sulla80 said:

especially the subtly animated Macedonian

I thought it was the heat addling my brain at first!

[PeteB]

Not a coin, but a bronze fragment I own:

 

[TIF]

Here's another fun Silenos.  Head in a basket 😄.  Well, mask in a basket. 


PHRYGIA, Laodicea ad Lycum
Pseudo-autonomous issue, time of Antoninus Pius
Struck under magistrate Po. Ailios Dionysios Sabinianos, c. 139-147
Assarion, AE, 20.5 mm, 6.42 gm, 6 h)
Obv:  ΛΑΟΔΙΚEΩΝ; Draped bust of youthful Dionysos to right, wearing ivy wreath
Rev:  ΑΙΛ ΔΙΟΝYCΙΟC; Ivy wreathed mask of Silenus to right, set upon cista mystica entwined by serpent; to left, pedum over which hangs pair of cymbals
Ref:  BMC 96;  RPC IV.2 Online temp. 2114; SNG Copenhagen 532
Ex Vineyard Collection (Obolos 20 lot 389), ex The New York Sale II, 2 December 1999, 151