06-13-2007, 07:23 AM
Just guessing as I type at this point: it probably was made up just as you say, live horses look snazzier on coins than dead horses, or it is foreshadowing: they weren't supposed to stop until they found a live horse under a tree, and when they decided that a dead horse was good enough (no point beating a dead horse after all) they doomed their city to eventually be destroyed and they put the live horse on the coins because that is what their original prophecy or what-have-you said.
On a more serious note - if the horse is supposed to be sacred to Baal then perhaps the tree is sacred to Tanit? She was their version of the goddess of the harvest etc and the patron goddess of Carthage. A palm tree with coconuts is a very bounty of the land sort of image which I think would be appropriate for a goddess of the harvest type goddess. If that is acceptable then it might be enough to feel safe in using a palm tree as an shield emblem or, even better, the tree and the horse as a shield emblem...maybe...
The horse alone would make a good shield emblem, but I think the tree and the horse would be more interesting and perhaps portray a more uniquely Carthaginian appearance.
On a more serious note - if the horse is supposed to be sacred to Baal then perhaps the tree is sacred to Tanit? She was their version of the goddess of the harvest etc and the patron goddess of Carthage. A palm tree with coconuts is a very bounty of the land sort of image which I think would be appropriate for a goddess of the harvest type goddess. If that is acceptable then it might be enough to feel safe in using a palm tree as an shield emblem or, even better, the tree and the horse as a shield emblem...maybe...
The horse alone would make a good shield emblem, but I think the tree and the horse would be more interesting and perhaps portray a more uniquely Carthaginian appearance.
Dan Zeidler
Legio XX
Legio XX
