File:Bucephalus (Musgrave).jpg

English: "Penates (Household Gods) Dug Up at Devises in Our Belgium in the Year 1714, Table 9."

17. Bucephalus. Length: 3 in. and a fourth. Weight: 3⅜ oz.

XIII. MUCH did Aelius Lampridius compile, this Author selected to good effect, by which he showed that Alexander of Mammaea [i.e., Severus Alexander] followed that Great Macedonian in many things and also imitated him so studiously and diligently. "With thanks he accepted his name of Alexander. He designed his multiple coins with this appearance. He studied his life. He consecrated him in the better Household Shrines among the Divinities & Best Men. He heard his praises most willingly. He often drank in his honor." (This was done in the manner of the Greeks, who consecrated and drank little cups in the honor of their Kings, Princes, and Gods.) He created in the Macedonian manner Khrysáspidas and Argyráspidas and he created a Phalanx in imitation of Alexander the Great", from which it is abundantly clear that almost all things would have been done by the Roman Emperor of the same Macedonian name (homōnýmou) with care and it should not be seen as strange if—with other men famous for their learning—I thought this Horse to be Bucephalus.

Notes: "To the Most Noble Prince Frederick, the destined Royal Heir, Great Britain's hope, Delight, and most yearned for Spirit, son of the Most High George and grandson of the Most August George, William Musgrave, Fellow (?) of Exeter College, Oxford, of his own will and in Obedience to his Oath wished these here Penates, hidden by the Earth for 1500 years, to be dedicated.

"These Penates [found] by William Cadby, Gardener at Devizes, engraved on Brass and printed on Imperial Paper, are available for sale at the Booksellers Knapton in London, Clements in Oxford, and Yeo in Exeter. 1717."

The 2nd figure from Musgrave's 6th illustration of the Southbroom Hoard discovered outside Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1714. This statue is now lost, while others from the hoard are held by the British Museum. Durham categorized it as #381. Musgrave inexplicably identified it as Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander, but modern scholars have found that votive statues of a horse or a rider and horse were instead part of Romano-British and Gallo-Roman religion. On the Continent, statues of horses were commonly associated with the goddess Epona while those in Britain are thought to be connected to a local god considered equivalent to Ares or Mars via Interpretatio Graeca or Romana. Two separate Mars or British Mars statues were recovered at Southbroom.

See also:

• Emma Durham, "Depicting the Gods: Metal Figurines in Roman Britain", Internet Archaeology, No. 31, 2012.
• Emma Durham, "Style and Substance: Some Metal Figurines from South-West Britain", Britannia, No. 45, November 2014, pp. 195–221.