King Clovis, France’s founding father, has left us no portraits of himself

“Although, like Claudius, Clovis carried the Roman titles of Consul and Augustus … nobody understands why he didn’t issue coins of his own”. Gunnar Heinsohn Remarkable, I (Damien Mackey) find, when some of the most mighty rulers of early history seemingly leave us with precious little, to no, portraiture. Beginning with Shalmaneser so-called V, and Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’, I went on to find the same situation occurring again with Ashurnasirpal so-called II, and with the ancient Pharaoh, Djedkare Isesi: More ‘camera shy’ ancient potentates (4) More 'camera shy' ancient potentates | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu These were generally mighty and long-reigning kings. And, more recently: King Lugalzagesi joins the list of ‘camera-shy’ ancient potentates (4) King Lugalzagesi joins the list of 'camera-shy' ancient potentates | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu In most cases, the problem can be solved simply by finding an alter ego for that particular ruler; an alter ego not deficient in portraiture and statues. For example, in the case of Nebuchednezzar: Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar (5) Esarhaddon a tolerable fit for King Nebuchednezzar | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu My certainty that this is a list that will just keep on growing, even into ‘AD times’: Henry VIII’s palaces missing (4) Henry VIII's palaces missing | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu receives strengthening from what professor Gunnar Heinsohn (RIP) wrote briefly (2018), but fascinatingly, about King Clovis, Claudius, and the Nibelungen saga: https://www.q-mag.org/gunnar-heinsohn-siegfried-found-decoding-the-nibelungen-period.html SIEGFRIED FOUND: DECODING THE NIBELUNGEN PERIOD Professor Heinsohn tells (emphasis added): …. We have not yet talked about Theuderich I, successor of Clovis in 511 AD, who Ritter-Schaumburg (1982) declared as Dietrich von Bern. Tetricus (271-274), our candidate for Dietrich of the Nibelungen saga, was successor not only of Victorinus (Siegfried) but also of Marcus Aurelius Claudius Valerius Augustus (260-270), called Gothicus. Claudius had conquered Aquitania, which was taken over by Tetricus. Claudius Gothicus is well documented by coins, sculptures, and medals. He was also honored by a sella curulis, a seat upon which only magistrates holding imperium were entitled to sit. An even more famous conqueror of Aquitania than Claudius was Clovis/Chlodovechus (509-511), who also founded the second Gallic Empire. Although Clovis is almost a quarter of a millennium closer to us than Claudius, there are no portraits of this king, whom France adores as its founding father. His dynasty, like the line of Claudius, became famous for an imperial sella curulis, held in the highest honor as the oldest throne of France. Although, like Claudius, Clovis carried the Roman titles of Consul and Augustus 25 (Becher 211, 236), nobody understands why he didn’t issue coins of his own. The same is true for his successor, Theuderich. However, Tetricus, the successor of Claudius, is richly represented with milestones or coins that became the most frequently imitated prototypes for barbarous radiates, barbaric imitations of Roman coins. Yet, Theuderich, the successor of Clovis, is surrounded by darkness, with one possible exception. It is an ivory carving depicting the baptism of Clovis by St. Remigius (437-533). However, it has no inscription. Interestingly, this piece is not a work from Clovis’s Late Antiquity, but from the 880s of the Early Middle Ages (ending in the 930s), which would at least bring us closer to the first tangible sources of the sagas from the 10th/11th century in the High Middle Ages (beginning after the cataclysm of the 930s [Heinsohn 2017]). ….