1st-3rd century AD. A round lead plaque with the figure of a goddess in the centre, horsemen to either side trampling bodies, two facing busts above; a fish, moon, cockerels, candelabrum in the upper register, lower register with various animals; rope border to the edge. 80 grams, 70mm (2 3/4"). From an important English collection; acquired in the 1990s. The Danubian Riders were associated with a mystery religion of the Getae and the Dacians, peoples of Thracian stock who lived in ancient Dacia (roughly equivalent to modern-day Romania"). The cult of the Danubian Riders began to spread among Roman soldiers soon after 106 CE, when Dacia was conquered by Trajan and made a province of the Roman Empire. Traces of the cult have been found as far away as the Roman provinces of Gaul and Britain.The plaques are found in both stone and lead and depict two horsemen, a goddess with a fish, as well as prostrated characters, attendants, and various symbols, such as the sun, the moon, stars, and numerous animals (including the ram, dog, lion, eagle, peacock, raven, cock, snake, and sometimes even the bull"). Scholarly identifications of the goddess are widely divergent. The two horsemen have been identified with the Dioscuri by some scholars and with the Cabiri brothers by others. The Greek iconography of the Dioscuri has had a particular impact on that of the Dacian Riders, though a local identity is more likely and that they developed from a earlier hero figure who is identified as Sabazios.

Fine condition.