troubled with these specimens as other numismatists and archaeologists, and is inclined to think that what we have designated horse-shoes are intended to represent fetters (entraves) for slaves, supporting this opinion by several references to the practice of manacling these unfortunate creatures. He does not, however, attempt to describe the fetters, or account for the presence of holes in these supposed examples.
As I have just said, I am willing to believe that they are horse-shoes, and that Eckhel is not far from the truth in ascribing the origin of the coin to victories in the hippodrome.
As tending to confirm this opinion, it is worthy of note that quite recently, in a German work on farriery,[1] a tail-piece to one of the chapters shows a serpent encircling a well-arranged and characteristic group of objects (fig. 142), consisting of a horse-shoe (modern German pattern), nails, hammer, pincers, buffer, rasp, and 'boutoir' or 'hufmesser.'
 |
It must not be forgotten that the serpent is the emblem of the metempsychosis and eternal renovation of Oriental mythology, and held a prominent place among the superstitions of the Druids. The egg of that creature was looked upon by them as a most potent talisman, and Pliny [2] describes how these articles were
