"Barcid coin depicting theuros shield" Topic

This lovely coin from Gades, Iberia circa 237-228 BC is on auction this week. It's detail is very crisp.

The obverse probably depicts Hamilcar Barca, the reverse shows a galley with two shields. One is clearly a theuros. The other is also oval shaped but lacks any defining feature on the surface, unless its slight concave facing was intentional.

I know Duncan Head has raised the pre-Second Punic War adoption of the theuros shield by Carthage, and this may be a possible route of transmission of the theuros/scuta to Iberia (Slingshot 272). This is possibly a crisper example than the one in that Slingshot issue.

So some support for fielding your Liby-Phonecians with theuros even before they loot the Romans at Trebbia.

link

A good picture, and indeed the coin is one of the reasons for believing that some variant of the thureos/scutum was already in use before the Italian campaign.

What do you make of that topmost shield @GurKhan? The detail didn't take or it's deliberately plain faced?

I am not that I see the coin in the same way you do.

I can clearly see the stem post with some sort of fluttering banner. The ram and the eye on the prow are also identifiable.

Are the oars in 3 or 4 banks? The leftmost set looks like 4, the others 3.

I also see what I take to be two human figures, which would then be in scale with the rest of the ship.

Above that, I see a rectangular shape which I think is above the rail… I would think this might represent the sail. To right of that is a fish-scale pattern. What is that?

Superimposed on the rectangle are two overlapping ovals, one with a "tail" are those the shields in your interpretation?

Or the detail wore off?

Rob-

The two ovals are the shields under discussion. The 'tail' is the central spine of the thureophoros

The detail on the foremost shield has probably worn off.

Why would they be representing giant shields in this picture?

Druzhina
Ancient Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I see what looks like a stingray or horse-shoe crab.

It might be worth checking other coins to see if they depict shields in this place on a galley.

db

Here you go:

1. A very distinctive theuros boss

2. Two clear pairs with the same scalloped-edged boss

3. A slightly different boss on the next two, somewhat resembling the Green Lantern's logo (or maybe there's just sharper detail)

4.

Also, the auction notes for all items describe what we've been talking about as "shields". link

Has anyone seen a similar shield boss design anywhere else?

Very nice collection of coins! Interesting "circle-on-a-square" boss on the last shield, which reminds me of Imperial Roman examples.

They're not "giant shields", because I don't think those little protuberances are meant to be human figures as Rob suggested – which ether drake's other coins make clear. Not sure what they are – supports for the oar-box, perhaps?

There are some other non-coin ships with thureoi/scuta on the gunwhales that are thought to represent Carthaginians, but as far as I can recall are not so clearly dated so may post-date the Hannibalic "re-arming" and be of no relevance to the date of introduction of the shield. I may remember to dig out the reference.

I'm not sure why the second shield on the first example lacks the rib, either: it may just be wear as Bill suggests, there does seem to be more wear on one side of the shield than the other. But if so it's very localised. Or imperfect striking? Again, very localised, though compare the lower edge of the coin. But there's a clear longitudinal division between two halves of the shield: could that have been one edge of the midrib?

Superb.

I stopped putting time and money into my coin collection a few years back.

My only two Cartho coins are modest bronzes.

David F Brown

There's a difference between the coin in the first post and the 4 others and that's there appears to be 2 oars beneath and to the left of the shields.

These two oars would be from the banks on the far of the ship and this would give a slighty different view of the angle of the ship itself placing the large shields of the latter 4 outside of the ship.

After the date, this would be a Five, the usual prestigious warship of the time.The three rows of oars and the presence of a proembolion – the small ram-head above the main one – point to this.
The little men are bollards/cleats standing on the epotis beam where the oarbox or outrigger starts. The hull has a pronounced wale – maybe reinforced – running forward to the ram. The focsle is covered-in and open to the rear.
This coin does not appear to be a 3/4 view as some are. The small lines in the space behind the focsle are supports for the deck based on the gunwale or oarsmen in action. The shields are fastened to a balustrade on the deck's edge. Maybe they would be there during a sailing or for show as per viking era ships, then taken in use in a fight.

@Plasticviking That's very enlightening. Wasn't it common in that period and region for crew to sling their shields on the deck side?

Is the size of the shields to scale with the rest of the ship?

Very interesting find indeed. I would guess that the shields are not entirely to scale, mainly due to artistic license or to be able to fit the detailing.

There is another depiction of a thureos on a Carthaginain stele:

There appears to be a helmet and possibly a curved sword on that stele- very nice.

If the thureos was in use by the Carthaginians, might we guess that Hannibal's Libyan spearmen were, more or less, thureophoroi?

It's quite possible they were, with the possible exception of javelin use.

Fernando Quesada-Sanz makes a pretty good argument here that the Barcids likely introduced the theuros/scutum to Iberia, which links up well to the shields on the coins above. Quesada-Sanz argues furthermore that the Barcid reforms converted the Iberians they recruited from troops using a large round caetra to the theuros/scutum, retaining their traditional armament of thrusting spear, javelins, and swords.

PDF link

So, if the Carthaginians introduced a theurophoroi-style mode of combat to Iberia it seems likely that they employed it themselves as early as the Barcid colonisation of Spain. Duncan Head already presented the evidence for a theurophoroi-style citizen infantry by the third war with Rome.

I think its reasonable to look at an earlier date of inception. The Carthaginians were very receptive to Hellenistic currents and Hannibal was a broadly Hellenistic strategos. If they were a reality, the Libyan theurophoroi of the late 3rd century BC would have had a different route of evolution from the Hellenistic one (which came from the light peltast), and one similar to the Iberian route (line infantry reforms).

Thanks, that's interesting. Makes mental note- must buy the Quesada-Sanz book…

It occurs to me that the theuros in the Barcid era could have been just the armament of the Carthaginian marines, who may have relied on javelins as the earlier Phoenician marines did (paired with a light round shield).

The equipment for land and sea combat could have converged since the First Punic War and the Roman use of the corvus turned naval engagements into a form of land battle. The Romans seemed to have employed the scutum along with their usual panoply for naval boarding, so it seems reasonable that the restored Carthaginian fleet under the Barcids may have developed a response in kind.

Maybe Duncan has some additional insight?

The shields are just about to scale. – The balustrade would be a bit less than waist height. This kind of shield could be quite heavy – cf the Fayum shield – up to 10 or more kilo.Marines would not want to lug thier shields around on deck all the time and so they would be fastened to the balustrade – also for safety. Fixing shields this way was a Phoenician characteristic from 700 bc or earlier. The Præneste Roman ship 31bc ( also a five?) has symbolic shields fitted to a solid wooden balustrade.
link
The shields on the balustrade must be the shields of the marines on board because rowers would be unarmed and ships would not carry excess weight just for show. Other coins show an open balustrade or none and with a solid balustrade which is sometimes crenellated.Roman marines are shown with long shields. In the Republic legionaries supplemented any troops in the ship's establishment.
The ship on the coin is a) a capital fighting ship and b) any doubt of it being a fighting ship is removed by showing the shields. Morrison thinks there are only two rows of oars and the ship is a trihemiolia(a two-and-a-half) but I clearly see three which makes it a five at this period.

@Plasticviking3 – very very informative. Thank you.

It will be interesting to see other examples of that marine scutum/theuros. The boss is unusual.

Do you think this is a case of 'imitation legionaries' after the advent of the corvus in naval warfare?