Herodotus[1] vero eos ait primos galeis cristas imposuisse, et clypeis signa adiunxisse, et lora scutorum excogitasse. Hinc praeterea factum est, ut Persae Caras omnes ἀλεκτρυόνας dicerent, id est, Gallos, διὰ τούς λόφους , id est, a conis, quos in galeis portabant, ad quod lepidissimus fortasse Aristophanes[2] allusit, dum Gallos quandoque imperitasse Persarum gentibus dicat: quo argumento etiam Persica appelletur avis Gallus, atque eo item nomine cyrbasiam, et tiaram gestat, quod regibus tantum licebat, tradente Clitarcho[3].

In truth Herodotus writes that they - the Carians - first placed crests on helmets and applied emblems on round shields and conceived shields’ leather straps. Hence it also happened that the Persians called all the Carians alektryónas, that is roosters, dià toús lóphous, that is because of crests they brought on helmets, a thing to which perhaps the wittiest Aristophanes alluded when saying that once the roosters reigned over Persian populations: for this reason the rooster would also be called Persian bird, and likewise, as Clitarchus of Colophon reports, for the same reason it also carries on head a tiara called kyrbasìan - a pointed Persian turban, which was permitted only to kings.

In Apollinis Delphici celeberrimo templo, ut Plutarchus[4] author est, eius Dei imago erat, quae manu Gallinaceum tenebat, ut horam matutinam, et tempus instantis ortus designaret. Gallum in foro Romano depictum fuisse ex Plinio[5] habemus: deinde video, inquit, et in foro {positus} <positas> vulgo. Hinc enim ille Crassi oratoris lepos agentis sub veteribus, cum testis (alias reus) compellatus instaret: Dic ergo, Crasse, qualem me reris? Talem, inquit, ostendens in tabula pictum inficetissime (alias infacetissime) Gallum exerentem linguam. Quod forte Plinius ex Cicerone[6] transcripsit. Quintilianus tamen id factum e C. Iulio narrat. Illum enim obstrepenti Helvio[7], ac saepius instanti qualem se tandem ostensurum esset, digito monstrasse imaginem Galli pictam in scuto {Mariani Cimbrici} <Mariano Cimbrico>, cui tunc Helvius simillimus videbatur.

As Plutarch reports, in the very famous temple of Apollo in Delphi there was a representation of the god holding a rooster in his hand so that it should indicate the morning and the moment of imminent sun rising. Through Pliny we can know that a rooster had been depicted in Roman Forum, and he says: And then I see that paintings have been placed everywhere also in the Forum. For hence arose that wisecrack of the orator Lucius Licinius Crassus discoursing on shops of money-changers located in the southern area of the Forum, when an accused observer (that is the litigant) pressed him: Then tell me, Crassus, how do you think that I am? Thus, he replied, pointing out on a panel a painted rooster thrusting out its tongue in a rather silly way. Perhaps Pliny transcribed this from Cicero. However Quintilian tells that this was carried out by Caius Julius Caesar. For he showed with a finger to Helvius, who troubled him by cackling and who rather frequently was pressing him by asking that once and for all Caesar would show to himself how was the image of a rooster painted on a shield that Caius Marius had attained from Cimbrians, to which Helvius at that moment seemed to look like a lot.

Notissima insuper historia est apud Pausaniam[8], et Suidam[9] (variant tamen nonnihil inter se) Athenienses Anterotis aram constituisse, in qua pueri nudi, et formosi signum erat, in ulnis geminos sustinentis generosos Gallos, et se in caput {impellentes} <impellentis>, quibus Timagoram, et {Meletum} <Meletem>[10] qui amore perierunt, significabant. Gestat autem puer Gallinaceos: quod una cum duobus Gallis, quos a {Meleto} <Melito> sibi dono datos ulnis gestabat, ex arce Athenis se praecipitasset<.>

Furthermore in Pausanias and in lexicon Suidas is very well-known a story (they differ somewhat however) that the Athenians erected the altar of Anteros on which there was the representation of a naked and handsome little boy holding in his forearms a couple of purebred roosters, and who was jumping down headlong, by which they were indicating Timagoras and Meles who died for love. For the little boy carries the roosters: since he would have thrown himself in Athens from acropolis along with both roosters he was carrying on forearms and which had been given him by Melitus as present.

Gallinacei icon in excelsarum turrium {ex}[11] apicibus ex orichalco conflata, et inaurata plerunque, imponi solet, lamina ad ventum versatili. Monzae in Gallia Transpadana Gallina videtur una cum pullis ex auro Theodorico rege ibi facta. Paulus Morigia[12] hanc auream Gallinam cum duodecim [septem[13]] pullis pariter aureis Theogillae[14] reginae Christianarum rerum studiosissimae iussu confectam testatur[15], eamque ab illa in templo, quod Monzae D. Io. Baptistae voverat, inter alia regia dona memoriae consecrasse. Mirum, quod scribit Georgius Agricola, lapidem Eislebanum aliquando Galli effigiem referre.

On the tops of highest towers the image of a brass-cast rooster, and mostly gilded with gold, is usually placed, applied on a vane turning in the wind. At Monza in Transpadane Gaul a hen can be seen with her chicks here made out of gold by the King Theodoric. Paolo Morigia testifies that this golden hen with seven equally golden chicks was made at behest of Queen Theodolinda, keen student of Christian things, and that she consecrated her to memory along with other royal gifts in the church she devoted in Monza to Saint John the Baptist. It is outstanding what Georg Bauer writes, that sometimes the stone of Eisleben shows the image of a rooster.

Quod modo ad numismata attinet, in quibus imago Galli Gallinacei conspicitur, statuendum est ea vel in Galli, vel in Deorum, quibus consecratus erat, honorem, {cusa} <fusa> fuisse. In Mamertinorum in primis numismatibus Gallus figura erecta, ita ut velut cucurrire velle videatur, apparet cum astro prope eius collum: inscriptio est talis. {ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΑ} <ΜΑΜΕΡΤΙΝΩΝ>[16] ΒΡΕΤΤΙΩΝ. In altera nummi parte est figura erecta, pectus, ventremque duntaxat velata, dextra baculum cum flagello, sinistra hastam tenens: humi prope eam a dextra thorax, a sinistra parma iacet. Asis (regio puto sic dicta. Nam et Ovidius[17], teste Abrahamo Ortelio, ita Asiam vocat) puerum delphino insidentem numis {insculpebant} <insculpebat>[18]: Dardani<s> Gallorum pugnam: author est Pollux[19], quod ideo fecisse eos Pierius Valerianus recte existimat, quoniam magnum pugnacitatis decus sibi antiquitus usurparent. Hinc honoratum semper apud Maronem Dardaniae nomen, cum secus Phryges fere semper ceu imbelles notentur.

Now, as far as coins is concerned on which the image of a rooster can be seen, it must be established whether they were minted in honor of the rooster or of the gods to whom it was sacred. First of all in the coins of Mamertines a rooster is visible in upright stance as if seemingly about to crow, with a star near its neck: the inscription is the following: mamertinøn brettiøn - of Bruttii. On the other side of the coin there is an erect figure, with a veil only at breast’s and abdomen’s level, holding with right hand a stick endowed with scourge, a lance with left hand: on the ground nearby this figure at the right side a cuirass is lying, at the left a small and round shield. The Asians (I think that Asis is the so called Asiatic region. For also Ovid, as Abraham Oertel testifies, thus calls Asia) impressed on coins a boy setting on a dolphin: the Dardanians - the Trojans - portrayed a fight of roosters: Julius Pollux writes this, and Giovan Pietro Bolzani - alias Pierius Valerianus - thinks that they did this by right since in ancient times they were ascribing to themselves a great reputation of aggressiveness. Hence in Publius Vergilius Maro the name of Dardania - Troy - is always esteemed, while on the contrary the Phrygians are almost always branded as cowards.

Hubertus {Goltius} <Goltzius> {Selenontinorum} <Selinuntiorum> numismata, in quibus icon Galli conspicitur, depicta exhibet: in quorum primo viri nudi in adversa parte imago est, pateram dextra, sinistra lauri, vel olivae ramum tenentis: a dextra eius ara est, supra quam ignis, et ante eam Gallus tanquam festinanter currens, a sinistra cippus, cui insidit taurus, seu bos caput declinans, et cornibus suis incursum minitans: supra tauri tergus folium selini[20] herbae (quam Latini apium nuncupant) a qua {Selinontis} <Selinuntis> urbs nomen obtinuit, item Selinus fluvius, qui haud procul ab eius urbis moenibus praeterlabebatur. Inscriptio numi est {ΣΕΛΙΝΩΝΤΙΩΝ} <ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ>[21]. Ab altera numi parte biga est, cui duo insistunt viri nudi, quorum alter qui est a dextra, lora equorum sinistra tenet, dextra sagittam tensi arcus: qui vero a sinistra stat arcum iam dictum dextra retinet, sinistra baculum, quo equos regat, et in hac parte nulla erat inscriptio, contra ac in altero eorundem {Selenontinorum} <Selinuntiorum> numo, in quo praedicta inscriptio est in parte bigae, in adversa vero istaec ΣΑΨΥΗ[22], caetera eodem fere se habebant modo, nisi quod hic in ara focus non adsit, et taurus in cippo elaborato consistat. Tertium a primo differebat, quod ab utraque parte numi eadem inscriptio est {ΣΕΛΙΝΩΝΤΙΩΝ} <ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ>, item in eo quod ab utraque cippi parte lauri ramus dependet.

Hubert Goltz supplies reproductions of coins of Selinus' inhabitants on which the image of a rooster is seen: on the recto of the first coin there is the figure of a naked man holding a cup with the right hand, with the left a branch of laurel or of olive: at his right side there is an altar with fire on it, and in front of the altar a rooster running almost at breakneck speed, at his left side there is a cippus on which a bull or an ox is sitting, with the head bent down, and threatening an attack with its horns: above the back of the bull there is a leaf of celery (called apium by Latins) from which the city received the name of Selinus, as well as the river Selinus which flowed not far from the walls of that city. The inscription of the coin is selinontion. On the verso of the coin there is a two-horse chariot on which are two naked men, and that at the right is holding the reins of the horses with left hand, with the right the arrow of a drawn bow: the man at the left is grasping the aforesaid bow with right hand, with the left a stick by which to be able to rule the horses, and on this side there was no inscription, and on the contrary on another coin of the same Selinus inhabitants, on which there is the above-mentioned inscription, on the side where the two-horse chariot is present, on the obverse the inscription is this, sapsyh, the other things were arranged almost in the same manner, except that in this coin on the altar there is no fire and the bull is on an elaborate cippus. The third coin differed from the first because on both sides of the coin there is the same inscription selinontion, and likewise because at both sides of the cippus a branch of laurel is hanging down.

Quartum numisma ab omnibus diversum est. Hic enim nuda illa imago, quam Herculis esse remur, dextra pateram, ut in superioribus, sed sinistra clavam gestat aculeis armatam, et a parte dextra altare quidem astat, sed sine foco, ac magis quam in illis elaboratum, praeterea ante id serpens est capite erecto: a sinistra parte Gallus, atque demum supra eam Selini folium cum inscriptione ut in secundo, sed transpositis literis, nempe hoc modo ΗΥΨΑΣ. In aversa numi parte eadem imago taurum cornu prehensum retinens, sinistra erecta clava minitans: fuerit autem haud dubio taurus Eric<h>t<h>onius, quem Hercules [306] superasse dicitur: inscriptio {ΣΕΛΙΝΩΝΤΙΩΝ} <ΣΕΛΙΝΟΝΤΙΟΝ>.

The fourth coin is different from all others. For here that naked figure we think to be of Hercules, with right hand carries a cup, as in previous coins, but with left carries a cudgel endowed with stings, and this figure is standing at the right side of the altar, but without fire, which is more elaborate than in the others, moreover in front of the altar there is a snake with its head high: at left side of the altar there is a rooster and finally, on above, a leaf of celery with an inscription like in the second coin, but with transposed letters, and, that is, in this way, hypsas. On the recto of the coin there is the same figure holding a bull seized by a horn, and with left hand threatening by holding the cudgel aloft: without doubt it would have been the bull Erichthonius - the furious bull raging in Crete island - which is said to have been defeated by Hercules: the inscription is silinontion.