Dolphins: Human friendship depicted on coins

[guy]

This silver denarius of Titus (A.D. 79-81) shows a dolphin wrapped around an anchor.

 

Ancient Rome highly regarded dolphins in mythology, art, and culture. They were also considered symbols of romance and protection.

Numerous Roman artworks depict dolphins, such as the wonderful mosaic in the ancient Roman city of Wroxeter, Britain.

 

 

 

 

 

Dolphins were associated with a variety of symbolic meanings in Ancient Rome, including love, loyalty, and friendship, as well as life, death, and rebirth.

 

Pliny the Elder, in "The Natural History," Chapter 8, describes the dolphin's friendship with man, as well as the story of a dolphin's long-lasting friendship with a boy, even after he died.

 

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The dolphin is an animal not only friendly to man, but a lover of music as well; he is charmed by melodious concerts,⁶⁶ and more especially by the notes of the water-organ.⁶⁷ He does not dread man, as though a stranger to him, but comes to meet ships, leaps and bounds to and fro, vies with them in swiftness, and passes them even when in full sail.

In the reign⁶⁸ of the late Emperor Augustus, a dolphin which had been carried to the Lucrine Lake⁶⁹ conceived a most wonderful affection for the child of a certain poor man, who was in the habit of going that way from Baiæ to Puteoll⁷⁰ to school, and who used to stop there in the middle of the day, call him by his name of Simo, and would often entice him to the banks of the lake with pieces of bread which he carried for the purpose. I should really have felt ashamed to mention this, had not the incident been stated in writing in the works of Mæcenas, Fabianus, Flavius Alfius, and many others. At whatever hour of the day he might happen to be called by the boy, and although hidden and out of sight at the bottom of the water, he would instantly fly to the surface, and after feeding from his hand, would present his back for him to mount, taking care to conceal the spiny projection of his fins⁷¹ in their sheath, as it were; and so, sportively taking him up on his back, he would carry him over a wide expanse of sea to the school at Puteoli, and in a similar manner bring him back again. This happened for several years, until at last the boy happened to fall ill of some malady, and died. The dolphin, however, still came to the spot as usual, with a sorrowful air and manifesting every sign of deep affliction, until at last, a thing of which no one felt the slightest doubt, he died purely of sorrow and regret.

 

 

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK IX. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES. (tufts.edu)

 

Here is an excellent article from NGC Ancients that describes many Roman coins depicting dolphins.

 

NGC Ancients: Dolphins on Roman Coins | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Edited October 2 by guy