up so as to face east, towards the Persians, as a sign of the emperor threatening them. The connection of this statue with the triumphant emperor on the Barberini ivory is also justified in that the former was part of a sculptural group in the Augustaion which also included statues of three barbarian kings offering tribute to the emperor, as in the lower panel of the ivory. The drawing of the statue from the Augustaion may be linked to another equestrian representation of Justinian on one of his medals, left. The medal in question is a gold one weighing 36 solidi (164g), discovered in 1751 and now lost after being stolen from the Cabinet des Médailles (now part of the BNF) in 1831, although an electrotype of it survives. On the obverse is a nimbate bust of Justinian as a general, armed with a lance, wearing a cuirass and crowned with the diadem and toupha. The inscription reads Dominus Noster Iustiniianus Perpetuus Augustus (Our Lord Justinian, Perpetual Augustus). The reverse shows Justinian, again with a nimbus, riding a richly-dressed horse whose harness recalls that of the horse on the Barberini ivory. In front of him is a Victory holding a palm and a trophy under her left arm. A star is shown on the field, the exergue inscription gives the mark CONOB (indicating a mint in Constantinople) and the legend reads Salus et Gloria Romanorum (Safety and Glory of the Romans). The portrayal of Justinian in three-quarters profile allows the medal to be dated to before 538, after which he was systematically only represented full-face (right). The particularly sumptuous celebrations at the triumph in 534 marking the reconquest of Carthage from the Vandals could have been the occasion marked by the minting of this exceptional medal. Another equestrian statue, of which only the dedicatory inscription remains (again in the Anthology of Planudes), could be seen in the hippodrome of Constantinople. This time no drawing of the statue survives, but its location in the hippodrome (the main meeting place in Constantinople and thus the best place for exhibiting imperial propaganda images) leads us to think that it must have been one of the most famous equestrian statues of the emperor, and thus likely to be imitated in ivory and other media. The inscription certainly suggests a monumental composition which cannot fail to evoke the central motif of the Barberini ivory: Behold,