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Gold Stater with hippocampus
| Issuer | Aulerci Diablites |
|---|---|
| Year | 80 BC - 50 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A hippocampus — a mythological sea-horse hybrid with the forequarters of a horse and a fish-like coiling tail — depicted in vigorous motion facing left across the field. Above the creature, a small charioteer or rider figure with outstretched arms is visible, a vestigial element derived from the Macedonian prototype's chariot scene, now highly abstracted. To the upper right, a geometric lozenge or wheel motif and a cluster of pellets serve as decorative subsidiary symbols in the field. Below the hippocampus, further pellet groups and undulating linear elements fill the lower field. The entire composition is rendered in the dynamic, stylized manner characteristic of Armorican Celtic coinage of the late La Tène period. |
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| Edge | Plain (irregular) |
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| Additional information |
The Aulerci Diablintes were a minor Gallic people settled in the territory around modern Jublains — ancient Noviodunum — in what is now the Mayenne department. They struck in their own name only briefly before Caesar's campaigns effectively ended autonomous Gallic coinage production across the northwest. Issues attributable specifically to the Diablintes are far rarer than those of their better-documented neighbors, the Aulerci Cenomani and Eburovices, making secure tribal attributions here genuinely contested among specialists.
The hippocampus reverse is a regional choice with roots in coins circulating well before this type, borrowed and adapted across several northwestern Gallic series over generations of die-cutting.