Moesia Inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum
138-161 CE
Æ 21mm 4.94 gm, 7h
Obv: ΑVΤ ΑΙ ΑΔΡΙΑ ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟС, Bare head right
Rev: ΝΕΙΚΟΠΟΛITΩΝ, Apollo Sauroktonos standing right, left hand on tree stump and holding arrow in right hand, preparing to stab lizard on tree to right
Not in RPC: RPC 4, 4328 (temporary) (var.- reverse legend); AMNG I__; SNG Copenhagen__; Varbanov I (E), 2116, “Unpublished” (Private collection); Rarity 7. HrHJ (2018) 8.6.7.3
The statue of Apollo Sauroktonos by Praxiteles was mentioned directly by Pliny.
“He made an Apollo, at the age of puberty, who with an arrow in his hand is poised to strike a lizard climbing towards him: it is known as the Lizard-Slayer.”
The Roman poet Martial also wrote about this famed statue:
“Spare the lizard, treacherous boy, creeping toward you; it desires to perish by your hands”
Numerous copies exist to this day of the sculpture, and we have roughly forty. Therefore, it was no stretch of the imagination that one existed at Nicopolis ad Istrum to serve as the model for this coin. The most famous copy today resides in the Louvre. The Cleveland Museum of Art claims to own an original, though that is up for dispute.
Of great debate today is what the young Apollo was actually intending for the lizard. Preisshofen suggests that Pliny confused the lizard with the myth of the serpent. Instead, the fact that the lizard is crawling up towards the sun suggests that Apollo actually wanted to heal it by showering it with sun so it can see.