Africa

The innermost figure, with the elephant headdress, is Africa. This headdress first occurs in Ptolemaic royal iconography, on Alexander the Great or the Ptolemies themselves; it then passes to Sicilian coinage, which first uses it for personifications; from there it passes to Roman coinage.^[11] During the Republic this type appears as Africa, starting in 71 B.C. (RRC 402); thus Africa should be the bust trodden by a heroized Augustus on a Vienna gem.^[12] This headdress can later denote Egypt, and many so name the spectacular emblema dish in the BR hoard,^[13] but a contemporary, similar bust definitely has Africa's attributes.^[14] As Africa, the BR cup figure is (unlike Egypt) a Roman possession of longer standing, like Gaul or Spain; the Republican evidence and the nature of the other two personifications mandate the figure's identification as Africa.