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A STYLISTIC COMPARISON' OF COIN ISSUES

FROM. THE MINTS OF SYRIA-'PHOENI CIA. .

UNDER CARACA~LA

by,

Michael ~armaise

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Submi tted to th ~Faul ty of

f' GEiaduate StUdies

and Research

In partial ful'fllment of

the requirements for J:he degree of

Master of Arts

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Department of Classics

McGil1 uni versi ty, MOr}treal

September, 1986 . 0 Michael Garmaise, 1986

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P~r;mission has been granted to the Na tional. Library of Canada to microfilm this thesis and to lend or sell copies of the film.

The author (copyright, owl'ler) has "reserved other publication rights, and neither the thesds nor extensi ve extracts from i t may be printed or otnerwise reproduced without his/her wri t ten permiss ion,

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A COMPARISON OF COIN ISSUES -OF SYRIA-PHOENICIA UNOER CARACA~

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ABSTRACT -During the.-reign of t'h emperb: Caracalla, many coin

issues emanated from various Mic!dle Eastern m'fnts, in

particular the bronzes which circulated locally and the

s}lver tetradrachms struck primarily to meet the payroll pt ' ..

the troops passing through Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine on

Caracalla's eastern expedition.

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-+. . Several aspects of the coinage are examined with a vie~ ,

to illuminating the often unfathomable administration of .

provincial mints. The surface f~ature~ form the ba$is for

comp~rison and 'nalysis~ These include the imperial

pprtraits' iconography and facial features; the wordir'tg,

spelling and language of inscriptions, with emphasis on ,the

emperor' s t i t u~ture; an'd the reverse types, espec ially the

tetradrachms' ea~e. l'

'The evidence suggests that little interactfon took /1' ,

pl~~e between,the bfonze and silver minting facilities.

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Plusieurs monn~ies furen~ mises 'par.divers ateliers , , ,

des monna ies du Moyen Or ient lors du rgne de l'empereur

~, Caracalla, en pa rt icul ier des bronzes qui ci rcuiren t . localement et des ttrqdrachmes d'argent ~u'on frappa

essent iellement pour dfrayer les soldes des troupes qui

t rqversren t la Syrie, .l Phn ic i e et 'la Palest i ne lors de 1>'; . .~ ....

l'expedltlon orientale de ,..t.

Caracalla .. ,;, ~

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Plusie~rs aspects'des mqnnaies seront tudis af in de . -

; faire la lumire sur l'administtation difficile cerner Ge

ces ateliers provinciaux des monnaies. Les caractristiques

de surface serviront de base la comparaison et

l'analyse. Ceci,inclut l'iconographie et les traits du

visage des portraits impriaux, la formulation, . ~ . l'orthographe et la langue,des inscriptions, o une

attention particulire sera accorde 'aux titres dsignant , . l'empereur, et les emblmes des revers, spcialement l'aigle

t des ttradrachmes~

Le matriel laisse prsumer qu'il y avait peu

d'in~eraction entre les ateliers frappant les monnaies de

bronze et ceux produisant les monnaies d'argent. Nanmoins, 0

les deux ensembles de monnaies tmoignent par leurs n~s

d'une certain polarit qui s'illustre surtout par les

formules d'Antioche et de Tyr des inscriptions de .

~ ~~tradrachmes, mais qui se manifeste aussi par d'autres

'attributs. \.

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... . ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

... . ~ -This thes~s is the outgrowth O'f a suDlmer studying at'

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- the American Numismatic Society

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" Museum Fr Mynt Medalj och Penninghistoria, Stockholm. My . special gratitude is extended to" tnose who were abla to mail , . photographs' and ~asts ot" coins which ar~ded in my

cat;lo~ue: Cabinet des Mdailles, Bibliothque Royale Albert

l, Brussels; Dr. Cathy E. King, Heberden Coin Room, o ..

Ashmolean Museum, _Oxford; and Dr. J. P. A. van der Vin, o

Koninklijk Kabinet Van Munten, Penningen en Gesneden Stenen, the Hague. Prof. Franziska E. Shlosser, my supervfsor; deserves many

thanks,for overseeing.the completion of this project. She ~, ,

has steered me .. toward grcater precision- in thought and in ) J , 4 ' - ,

w~itten expression. For this discipline, l offer my sincere . ~

appreciation.

The earliest stage of my work vas supervised by Prof.

Michael Woloch, to whom-I ove ~ special debt for his

encouragement and support, 'but perhaps most important ly for: - '*

introduqing me to the fascinating study of numismatics. Th~s

led to my assistance vi th classifying the McGill Univer'sity

Collection, participati~~ in the seminar at the American

Numismatic Socity, and, ultimately, this thesis. '

l . h" "lS to thank Robert. Lamarche, head 'Of photography

service in' the Department of Biology, for the splendid jOb ,

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, 1 of phopographing and printing the plates from a very

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dif~(cUlt set of originals. ( McGill Interli~rary L~an cheerf":11ly managed to obtain .. , . \ ., . some very eluslve mat~rlal after a trylng search. L have.

had to rely 'on their thorough and friendly service over a

number of years, and l am 'glad finally to have the , 1

opportuni ty to thank them in print. " 1

l wish to acknowledgea number of indi viduals who have , '

been ,heipful and suppor,ive in various ,waYf3 ~ These include ~ ~

Anne Bernstein, Sarah Himmelhoch, Edith A~ Lockhart (for \

remindipg me of my own wisdom), Elaine MacCormack, John O'Meara, Rosally Saltsman,\ and Elin C. Schilling . The

,

earliest ~nd penultimate drafts ot this work were read \

respectively, if not respec\fully, by Kerry Burns and Andrew

J. Smith. ~r. Smith tirelessly.reminded me that one uses either American English or the Queen's English, but not both

at once.

Fina11y, l would 1ike to thank my family for their'~

inexhau~t'ible patience, .and for not overstating a-ny anxiety

, or be"i Idermen't over my field of endeavour- ...

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\ TABLE OF CONTENTS - .

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Abstract. 1.' .... ii Resum. 90., i~ .... iii Acknowledgements . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... iv Table of Contents . '_'!" .... vi i Index to Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . , ........... . .... vi i i Abbrevi\..t ions .................................. .X CHAPTER ONE------INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 1 CHA~R ~----THE

'Note on 9ra~hical

, LIFE AND RErGN OF CARACALLA S

Terminology. ................. .23

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CHAPTE~ THREE-~--SYRIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . " ......... . .25 CHAPTER FOUR-----PHOENICIA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .78 CHAPTER FlVE-----Po\LESTINE . ~ .. .112 HAPTER SIX--~---INSCRIPTIONS . . . . ',' ~ ....... ~ .. .125 CHAPTER SEVEN.---CONCLUSION ........... \' ... . 150 BI BLIOGRAPHY.

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Plates.

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. INDEX TO PLATES

---1. No,s. 2, 4, 8, 12, 21, 23, '41, 48, 56, 62, 69, 73,

76, 83,- 88, 90, 91, 92. (Antioch, tetradrachms) Nos. 94, 102. (Antioch, bronze)

II. No. 103. ( " ") ,Nos. 108, 110, 119. (Beroea, "tetrad~chms) . Nos. 121, 123, 127. (Carrhae, tetradrachms)

Nos. 136, 137, 144. (Cyrrhus, tetrad'rachms) Nos . 51, -103. (Damascus, tetradrachms) NoS. 165, 168, 169. (Damascus, bronzes)

Nos.~' 174, 176, 179, 180. (Edessat: tetradrachms)

III. No. 188. (Emisa,;-teeradrachm) Nos. 209, 216. (Emisa, bronze) No. 219. (Gaba1a, tetradrachm) No. 231. (Gabala, bronze) No. 234~ 241, 245. (He1iopo1is, teradrachms) No. 266 . (Hel i opoli s, bronze) , Nos. 274, 276, 278, ,285, 28~ 292. (Hi erapo1 i s,

tet radrachms) - -. Nos. 295, 300. (Hierapolis, bronzes)

'" " Nos'. 304. (Laodicea ad Libanum; 'bronze) Nos. 309, 310, 311, 318. (Laodicea ad Mare,

tetradrachms) ,

IV. Nos. 329, 34-1, 343', 361. ( ft

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" ) Nos. 364, 373. (Laod icea ad, Mare, bronzes) No. 388. O( Raphanea, bronze) .. No.,395, '39. (Rhesaeria, tetradrachms) No. 401.' (Rbesaena, bronze) _ }los. 404, 405, 407. (Se1eucia Pieria, .tetradrachms)

-- No. 411 . (Seleuc ia- Pie!'ia, bronze) . No. t429. (}eugma, tetradf.,achm) . No. 449. (Aradus, tetradrachms)

No. 454, .459. (Berytus, tetradr,chms) .. -

Nos. 475, 485, 486, 487., (Berytus, bronzes) Nos. ,492, 498. (Byb1us, tetradrachms) Nos. 505, 509. (Bybl us, bronzes) Nos. 519, 521. (Orthosia, tetradrachms) ~

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Nos. 539, 540. (Ptolemais-Ace, bronzes) Nos. 543, 549, 553. (Sidon, tetradrachms) Nos. 568, 578. (Tripolis, tetradrachms) Nos. 581, 583. (Tripolis, bronzes) ,

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VI". Nos. 596, 601. ( " "-) Nos. 603, 605., 606, 608, 613, 620, 621, 625. (Tyre,

tetradrachms) No. 645. (Tyre, bronze? No. 66.0, 665 .. (C"yJ;5I'\ls, tetradrachms)

"Nos. 677, 682. (Ae1ia Capitolina, tetradrachms) Nos. 691, 692, 693. (Ascalon, tetradrachms) Nos. 699, 703, 705. (Caesarea, tetradrachms)

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VII. Nos. 712, 713. (Caesarea, tetra"rachnrsJ' No. 715. (Caesarea, bronze) Nos. 719, 721. (Caesare~. Panias, bronze) No. 724. (Eleutheropolis, bronze) No. 725, ~730. (Gadara, t-etradrachms) No. 735. (Gadara, bronze) No. 742. (Gaza, tetradrachm) Nos. 749, 753, 758. (Neapolis,. tetradrachms) No. 761. (Neapolis, bronze)

VIII. Above, bust of Caracalla. (Gisela Richter, Roman Portraits, frontispiece.) .

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Below, left and right, bust of Caracalla. (Heinz Bernhard Wi99~rs~ Das Romische Herrscherbild; plate 18.

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A.N.S.

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ABBREVIATION,S ,.

American N~ismatic Society

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Aur. vic. Aurelius Victor

Bell. -

B.H.C.

B.N.

J B.'R.A. -

C.l.L. -"'-

Alfred ,R. Bellinger, The Syrian Tetradrachms of

Caracalla and Macrinus

British Museum Catalogu~

Bibliothque Na~ionale catalogue

Bibliothque Royale Albert l, Brussels

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

Dio. Casso Diodorus Cassius , ~

Gil. 1982 - Peter Gilmore, "AR unpublished' Tetradrachm fro~_

. AFadus." Numismati Circular 90 '(1982)

.'Gil. Mar.1984 - Peter Gilmore, "A Fresh Look at Caracalla's,

Syrian Si1ver." Numismatic Circular 92 (1984)

Gil. June 19~4 Peter Gilmore, "Radiate and Laureate ''.

Portraits 00n Imperial Syrian Si1ver."

N~ismatic Circular 92 (1984)

Gfl. P'eb.1985 - Peter Gilmore" "Crescents and Stars." "".

Numismatic Circular: 93 (1985) .,

Gil: 1986 - "Tvo Syrian A1tar Reverses." Numismatic

Circular 94 (1986)

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Hdn. =

Kon. =

Mesh. =

MM =

Over. =

pf. =

Sear =

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Herodian of Antioch

Koninklijk Museum, the Hague

Ya'akov Meshorer, "A Hoard of~Coins from

Migdal." Atiqot Il (1976)

Mnzen und Medaillen AG (November 1983). Other

issues of MM will include the mo~th and year of

i'Ssue.

Bernhard Overbeck, "A Hoard of ~yrian

Tetradrachms from Israel."

'Photofile at the A.N.S.

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Coin Hoaras~4 (1978)

D~d R. Sear, Greek Imperial Coins and their

val ues, LonBon, 1982.

SeYe 1949) = Henri Seyrig, "Ant'iquits Syriennes. 40. Sur'

une idole hirapolit~in " Syria 26 (~949f

Sey.-1971 Henri Seyrig, "La Culte du Soleil en Syrie

l'Epoque Romaine." Syria 48 (1971)

SNG = Spi j. =

Sylloge Numorum Graecorum -Augustus Spi j kerman, "A Hoard of Syr ia.n .. Tetradrachms and ,Eastern Antoniniani From

Capharnaum." Liber Annuus: Studium Biblici

Fr~nciscanj (1958~59) - .,

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The following short list reflects standard numi~matic

usage:

r. -= right ;,

1. left

o. obve(je ('heads')

R. reverse (' tails 1 ) \

laure laureate (laurel wreath crown)

rad. cadiate (crown with ray-lik~ projections)

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Tpis thesis is a deve10pment of.~ project undertaken by

the writer at the American Numismatic S~ciety in New York

City' during the summer of 1983, whe~e h partfcipated in the , (>

thirty-first annual Graduate Semi~ar in Numismatics. The

Society has a fai~ly representative collection of Syrian

Greek imperials ,from the reign of Cracalla, and the

writer's intent was to exa~ine the output of the difterent

?yrian mints along the lines of a study published in 1972~by J

the late Konrad Kraft, Das System'der kaiserzeitlichen . ' Mnzpragung in Klei.nasi en (Ber lin,: l stanbuler Forschungen,

v. 29)."

Dr. Kraftts research was restricted to Asia Minor,

where, during the imperial period, dis were occasionally

shared by neighbouring cities. He concluded that sharing \

minting facilities was more than a local, informaI affair

and that on1y a doz"en or ~o mints pt:'ovided coinage. for the ~

entire province. He fur.ther suggested that the peak of ~ ~

production occurred during the third century, and that the ,

system operated to a "les$er extent ear1ier in imperia~ times

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Since a die-link study in emulation of Kraft 'seemed . ..... ~ ~... -

--unworkable at that juncture~ another appro~ch was taken

whereby variations in style wo~l_d b~ carefully.identified ~

and subjected to interpretation,. These variat\ons include

the style of portraiture, the wording and spelling of __ t~~ . imperia~ titulature, and the direction faced by the eagle ., found on nearly aIl the te~tadra~hm reverses.

Taking aIl these in~o 'consdet;.ation, then, this thesis ~

attempts to shed sorne light on t:e political and'mint

administration 'of the different mint sites, 'based on the

affinities and discrepancies between their respective

product~; It is expected that geographical proxtmity, which

'in turn facilitates trad and other communication, is an

overriding factor.' In other \words, ,sites are more likely to

strike issues of s~milar appearance if they are situated .. . ' near each other, even if they lie on either side of a

pol i t ical boundary

The responsibility for the style of each issue's

portrait is perhaps ~ared between the' die-engraver and the

senior mint official-. As Alfred R. Bellinger writes, "To

compare these simultaneous portra i ts leads one to think

caref,ully of what is meant by style. Ei ther a great number

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.of different models are followed or the artists display

the most extreme individu~1 differences" (Be11inger,

1956: 143) . Unfortunately 1 the answers to these and other . , .

\questions must still remain speculative, as the

establishment of ".- the o~,9anization and technique of,

J'nints, and how governments put the coins they struck into

circulation" (A.H.M. Jones, 1956:67) is as temote nOwas it

was thi rty years ago.

The coins whicn form' the basis, of this study come from .p

a number of sources. The American Numismatic Society has " been extraordinarily helpful i~ granting generous access to ~

its vau1ts, photo files, 1ibrary and photography service.

For other unpublished coins, the writer ~rote to many of the ..

large European museums, and was very fortunate to receive

. replies from most of them and, in several instances, casts

and photographs of relevant coins in their collections. The

single most important published's~urce was Alfred

Bellingec.' s 'recently repr i n.ted st udy The Syrian Tet radrachms

of Caracalla and Macrinus (NeW'.York, 1981). "i'"'

Occasionally,

other coins were described and illustrated in the

literature. Of the large number of coin and auction

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catalogues commonly available, Mn~en und Medaillen and

David R. Sear's Greek Imperial Coins and Their"" Values

(London, 1982) were most useful . Others were rther ,

, disappointing. The British Museum, for example, has

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publ i"shed compara ti vely few relevan t coins. These were

occasionally useful for their ve~bal ~escriptions, but the

rare i llust ra tion s were not wholly !:Sui ted' to the thes i s'

purpose. , The catalogue found at tl;te end of this paper

descr ibes those coins, 'casts, PhotOgraphS~ and other relev~nt material studied bl' the writer himse'lf. 'No attmpt 'waS made

to compi:Pe a corpus, since such an unoertakin"g is beyond the

~~ope of this thesis. With rare exception, the coins

referred to ln the text are cited by their catalogue

numbers. A star bes ide the ca talogue number ind icates that Il

the coin is illustrated 'in t~e plates found at the back.

The second chapter deals with Caracalla's life,

administration and character. The ancient sources identify

him as a psychopathie, dangerous individual. It becomes

quite clear that his megalomania, espec~~lly his morbid ,

identification with Alexander the Great, was a crucial

influence on his foreign policy and strongly determined the

image he wished to cultivaf withthe population.

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. Cha~ters Three,' Four and Five present descriptions.and

st,yli st ic interpreta t ions 'of th~ coins in thi s stady. Each chapter covers a different section of Roman Syria, which

extended ~hrough modern-day Syria, Leban9n, Jordan and

Israel~ The emphasis is p~aced Qn the obverse portraits "

but, where appropria~e, the reverse types are- treated as

weIl. \ t is to the, reverses that scholars have usually

turned when attributing the various tetradrachms to th~ir . ,

individual'mint sites. At first glance, the reverses look

very much alike, each with the characteristic eagle .,..

dominating the field. However, betwee~, the eagle's feet is \

found a symbol - a thunderbolt or an alta'x-',' for example -

and this mark identifies the mint site frotn which -the cpin " ~( . "., -

emanates. It is found that the reverse symbol can usually

be related to types found on earlier or contemporary bronzes 1 "

of th~ same town. Since a study of this nature will yield

distorted findings if coins are'attributed to the wrong

sites, the writer will draw attention to the academic

disputes that 'still rage around the tetradrachms of

Heli~polis, Orthosia,' and a number of other mints.

hapter Six presents the different styles of

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inscriptions of the bronze and silver coins, and the left~

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r- versus right-facing character of the reverse eagle . A , .

correspondence between the inscriptions and the ~ay the .. . eagle's head is turned can be shown, and these in turn aIe

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linked to the configuration of 'the sites.

It is hoped that in the future, rigorous study will be > ,

, ' undertaken of the Greek, imper ials' from other regions in. ,

order'fo determfne if the phenomenon described by Dr. Kraft

applied as well to areas outside of Asia Mindr, or whether "'"'

each province follo~ed its own peculiar minting practies. , , ,

Only through .such research will a better und~~s~anding of "

the administration of central and local mints in the Roman

Empire. firially be achieved. . ,'" .

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THE LIFE AND REIGN OF CARACALLA

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In analyzing Caracalla's adminisiration ~f S,iia and

its neighbouring areas, the writer wishe~ to establish the

importance of the emperor",s personal i ty 1 and how he exerc ised

his caprice~ and idiosyncracies in a w~y that created the

circumstances under study.

The ancient sources of greatest value 'are H~rodian and

D~o Cassius because they were contemporaries of .Carac.alla .

Of course one may expe~t an inevi table bias in -t~~~ "_. . writers' testimon.Y. As a senator, Dio might not ,describ'

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the"~mperor with complete fairness sinee the latter's' ,

schemes for acquirin~ money inclu?ed the blatant . o

misappropriation of senatorial estates (78.9)~ Theiefor~,

while Dio is reasonably accurate in recording ~ontemporary

events, his comments on Caracalla waver between objectivity

.arl-q. ne'gative .exaggeration .. . . " As the eldest son of the emperor Septimius Severus,

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Caracafla was brought up with a view to his eventual

suece~sion: Becau~e his father was a wealthy po~itician "

whose responsibi.lities divertd his"attentidn from ~he

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household, Caracalla g~ew up ~o be somewhat,wayward and ,

inconstant . Septimius dealt with this by engineering a .

marriage b~tween his fourteen-year-old son and Plautilia

(Hdn. 3.10.5). ~he was the daughter of Septimius' cousi~,

Plautianus, the praetorian Prefect, and was probably an

equtlly unwilling participant in the disastrous xperiment;

the hapless girl barely escaped with her life. (Plautianus . hi~~elf was killed because his growing i~fluence with the

emperor, aided by the union 9~ th~jr offspring, was regarded 1 ~ ... ~ 1 ....

alLa serious threat tci security.) ,

Another attempt to steady Caracal.~a was Mad. 'in A.D.

208 when Septimius launched an expedition against the

British. This was not. a politica1 necessity but rather an . -excuse for th,e emperor to, exercise his own f1agging military

mettle and to get his sons out of Rome where' they were

pu~suing the dissipating pleasures of entertainments and

l1igh living (Hdn. 3.14).t .,

Unfortunately for Septimius, i1lness overtook him and

he died in York in February of 211. Caracalla and his '~

'younger brother'-Geta were left to shar.e the emperorship,. In

the seqwel, Caracalla gained sole rule after murdeting Get. , ..

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century after the fact, makes a curious reference to

. ." \ lnsan 1 ty: '\ He killed his'brother Geta, 'for which crime his penalty was to suffer fits of madness, pursued relentlessly by .the Fur ies ~ven tually, however, '" --he was cured of this frenzy. , . .

(Epi tom~ 21)

It is uncertain just how confdently on~ may infer a

clinical mental disorder from the savage deeds, bizarre ....

stl'tements and twist~"sense ,of morality attributed to him. '.

At the very ~east, however, from Dio emerges a character.

sketch of a vry immature man. He appear.s w'ilfur" selfsh,

and'malicious1 having been brought up with too much .freedom ,

and not provided with the trairring to xercise rscraint and

decorum. He is described as posses~ing "the fickle~ess,

cowardice and recklessnes.t. of Gaul the harshness and \

cruelty of Africa, and the cr'ftiness of Syria" {78.6.1~.

Fu'rtryermore r -"he was most' bold with his threats and most

reckless in his undertak~ngs~, yet h'e was t,he w-reatest coward

in the face of danger and the greatest w~akling "n- -the . . " !,

-presence of hardShips" (79.3.1).' There is probably an

el~ment of truth to these charges, "but ,Dio presents them in ,~

a contradictory, confusing and unsubstantiated manner. He , ~. . overstates his case such that eVen if it is acc~rate, its

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c redibi li ty i s, dimi n i shed by its tattling tone. ,

The onl~ positive comment that Dio has to make 4bou~ .4_

the emperor .is that -he "sbowed a very' shrewd understanding , ,

of most matters and talked very r~adily" (78.11.4). This is

~~nsistent with Caracalla'~ habit of trying local legai

case,s during his peregrinations. - - -". Even 50, Dio cannot resist

adding ~t Caracal1~ would speak recklessly, b1urting out

th~ first thing that came into his he~d, and airing aIl his

thoughts without inhibition (78.11.4). <

a ~he mostinteresting manife$tations of Caracalla's

personality, in terms of historical re1evance, inv01ve his

relationship with t.he military. The enthusi,astic. 1engths to

".which he went i~ remunerating' the soldiers - e.mptying the

natioft, s treasury, g't>ugi'ng his subjects east and west,

ex~ending citizenship as a key to extra tax revenue, etc. -\..... '

deri~e from his feeling of camaraderie with the military

which Caralla acquired fr6m his 'soldier-emperor' . , progen i tor, ,Sept iJl\i us Seve rus: No doubt. he- ta ugh t hi s -son, . '

"

weIl, it one may judge by Severus' death-b~d dictum:

" . enrich the /'..diers, and scorn aH' other men" '(Dio.

- -Casso 7~.15.2). Of course it may also be assumed that there "

were mo!:~\tangible reasons for keeping the military hppy. .,

"-""-

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When one keeps lions as pe'ts, to draw an ana!ogy, they must

be kept adequately fed or they will turn on their owner as

soon as on anyone else.

Further to Caracalla's military fixation was his

identification with'Alexander' the Great; which spurred him

on to duplicate th latter's feats of con~uest. This - .

hero-worship culminated in the eastern expedition that

consumed s much of Caracalla ',s ,attention. The expenses

i ncurred by thi s ra thr pointless e"Xerc ise of 'mi ght 1

'combined with the staggering sums being heaped on the

mi.li tary, created the need for Caracalla to make sorne less

-than honourable moves in his quest for money.

How Caracalla developed this morbid fascination and

identification with Al~xander cannot be precisely' explained,

althougn'his choice of the greatest general in antiquity as

a logical role modl cannot be censured. Caracalla hardly '\,

\ Q possessed the extraordinary character of Alexander, but- he

did what he could to regenerate the physical trappings of

Alexander' s world. Dio alleges that Caracalla used certa ....

weapons and cups which he'believed had once belonged to

Alexander, set =Up likenesses of Alexafider in Rome and in the

camps, and established a special "Alexander'~.phalanx"

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compri sed of Macedon ians and armed wi th weapons tha t had

been used in Alexander' s day (78. 7.1)

Caracalla trie as well' to 'model his physical feature's

aft'er Alexander. The,re were two traits that he rioticed in

great h'eroes generally ande Alexander in particular: a . ' menaing l'ook and a head tilted .toward' the left shoulder.

, a

He was prompted to this by the f latter:y of hi s court iers w.ho

took the'''occasion of Caracalla's viewing of the body of "

Alexander of Mac~don to convince him of how c losely he

resembled the dead pr ine (Au'Ue vi. Epi tome 2l). Dio

cites Patrocles ThurAus who recounts an example of the ,

aonscious effort made by Caracalla to project the menac,ing

aspect of his hero: .

Antoninus, sending for permitted him to write sorne yerse~ against himself. No'w this man was an artist in jestinq., fo~ he said that Antoninus looked 8111 the time as if he wer~ in a rage; he said this as a ~st, but he thereby' flattered the emperor greatly,

-Slnce he always ~ished to appear terrible,. fierce, and abrupt. And Antoninus accord ingly him < f ive and>

. twenty myriad$ (one million sesterces). (78.11.1(2).note 2).

.For more-material evidence of this persona favoured by III ,

Carcalla, we may also turn to,surviving images of hi'm in

',sculpture and coin, images sanct ioned and .encouraged by the ~

off ice of the Emperor himself. Plate VI II provi4es cltar ~

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exmples"" of how Caracalla' s emula t ion 'of Alexander' s

appearance, w i th the l1}enac i ng gaz and leftward t il t of the .

head, has been effectively rendered in sculpture. \ Those -

works appear contemporary with most of the c9ins in this

study. Th.ey help to derllonstrate tnat in spi te of. the wide.,

variations in rlocal portrait styles, there was a deliberte

ef fort made to achieve' thi s certa in look s~ hi.9JlY favoured, by the emperor.~

" '.-.......- -~ . The identification between Car-pcalla and Alexander,

though .made manifest on a physical plane, may have .

penetrated his mind to the extent that the line between l"

merely emulating and actally being Alexander was somewhat " blurred if it were true, as Dio reports (78.7.2), that

Caracalla wrote to the Sen~te on one' occasion "that .

Alexander had come to life' again in the per'son of the

Augustus that he might live on ,once more in

him. "

At this' point, i t is well to remember that whi i.e

"Alexander" was boisterously ro'cking the ~ast with his

If ' sprawling, expensive mili"tary machine, t;he all:t.oo-human

Caracalla was ~ealing wi~h problems of another nature. Dio

informs us that Caracalla, in the later part of his regn, .

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-, ,became impotent afte'r'which "he satisfied his' lewd desires

ITEPov T{lIeJ TP6"o,," (78:16.1-2). Assuming that thre. is an

element of truth in' Dio' s contention, then it appears likely

thpt his unus_ually early marriage is significant. - , Caracalla ". was oply fourteen years old when he wed Plauti1la. The

,

writer sees th,e event as a cause and an effect. On the one

hand, Caracalla might already have bee,n di spi'8ying ~

peculiarities which impelled Severus to take this step.

Conversely, to be forced at the onset of ado1escence i nto \ .:> \"'1 --'- ~.

assuming the responsibilities and obligations of marriage, , ,

especj:ally the physical ones, can b eno'gh to drive any,

youth away from ~normal" relations, particularly since ?

Pla ut i lIa was a total' st ranger to Ca r'acalla and he detested

her. It wou id a'ppear likely, then, that.Caracalla's

mi,serable attempts at self-deification, Ihis legendary" - '\ -,

cruel tt and obsession w1i th money and mi 1 i tary power can -be

, .,. seen 'as ways to clmpensate for the i nsecur i ty and

. frustration caused by partiular inadequacies.

Whereas most other people's deflciencies and deviations . are consign~d to obli~ion, personages of pOlitical and

financ ial power, "'h as Caracal.l~1 are more li kely . to

indulge their peculiariti,es in a more"ostentatious wa~4

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"" . sometimea to the detriment ,of millions.

The adqlinistration of Caracalla begins properly with f

his sole rule in A.D. 213. Ouring the two years between the

death of Septimius Severus and the murder of Geta, .

Caracalla's younger and more popular brother, the energies

of the two co-emperors seemed largely devoted to keeping as ~.

safely beyond each other's re~ch as possible, since their ., relationship floundered in mutual hatred and fear JOio.

"Casso 77.1.3; Hdn. 4.3.2-3}.

According to Dio, Caracalla arranged a meeting of .

reconciliation presided over by hi"s mother, \ but inst~ad took

the opportun i ty to have his .centurions rush" in "and cu't down

Geta (77.2.3). Caracalla, followed the situation through'in

a predictable manner: he mai~tained that he himself had just .

escaped a murder plot and ensured the allegiance of the,

sola.iers by bribing them with the considerable treasure that

his father had taken years to amass (Dio. Casso 78.3.2).

This accomplished, he embarked on a wi1d murder rampage,

exterminating not on1y his brother's sympathizers, but

virtually anyone who had had the slightest acquaintance with

Ge~a (Hdn. 4.6). All told, twenty thousand men and women -.,

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perished in the bloodbath (Dio. Casso 78'.3.4).

Ca~aGal1a remained in Rome for only about a year

'. following Geta's murder. It is difHcult to imagine

c

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the year. According to Herodian (4.9.1-3), Caracalla was

pi~ue~ by reports that the Alexandrians regarded him as a

laughingstock because of his !Alexander' pretensions. He

made hi s wai down to the city, ostens i bly to pay hi 5

. respects to ,serapis and to the memory of Alexander. Once he' .

arrived, however, he massacred the youths of the city so

swiftly, we are told, that

the wide mouths of the Nile and the entire shore around ' the city were sta ined red by the streams of blood flowing through the plain After the monstrous deed, Caracalla left Alexandria and returned to Antioch.

. '( H~n 4 9 8 ) ; -

In 216, the worst of the aggression against the

Parthians was launched. Caracalla ravaged as much of the

country as he could, down into Mesopotamia. He spent the f

winter of that year i:n Edessa .making preparations for

another powerful offepsive.

.. While Caracalla was thus occupied, he became the target.

of an assassination plot masterminded by Opellius Macrinus,.'~

who was the Praetorian Prefect as well as one of his two ,top

'" generals. On April 8, 0217,' while on his way back from Edessa to

Carrhae, Caracalla stopped to "ease" himself. Once he was

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away,"from the rest of his retinue, the conspirators "

approached and stabbed him to death. Following the shock of " p

the assassination and the restoration of order, Caracalla's I!'

body was cremated and his bones deposited in the tomb of the

Antonines in Rome. Dio reports that it had to be done

surreptitiously at night because

absolutely e~erybody, both senators and the~rest of the population, men and women alike, hated~'m most violently, 50 that they treated him like the bitterest foe in aIl that they said and did in re ation to hi,m.

__' (:79.9.1)

Opellius Macrinus, whose part in the plot was not made

obvious because he instigated rather than performed the .

deed, bec~me emperor until June 218 when he was briefly '" succeeded by his son Oiadumenianus.

....... ------------~-----------~--- --

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self-9ratifying wars because it kept' the, army too busy ~o

'work mi schief on the state i tsel f.

His financial demands on the public took two forms:' (il)

fO,rcing.it to spend money sometimes without direct benefit te

himself, an4 (2) delibera~e exploitation in order to acquire

revenue. l,

In the f9rmer category, Dio described the requisition

of expensive accommodations, for the emperor, even when he

was on short journeys. However, Caracalla did not even

always use them (78.9.6). Dio's testimony is reinforced by 1\

inscriptions from Bithynia honouring loaal magistra~es who

had borne the cost of supplying Caracalla and his army on ~

'their way east (Millar, 1967:211).

with regard to the latter c~tegorYI Caracalla demanded

~gifts" from wealthy citizens and communities, appropriated

large quantit~es of provisions from aIl and sundry, and used

the ploy of demanding gold crowns from his subjects as

traditional congfatulatory gifts for speeial military

victories (Dio. Casso 78.9.1-4). He undoubtedly laid claim

to many more' victories than were actually gained.

One of Caracalla's more notable achievements was the

issue of the Constitutio Antoniniana which extended Roman

citizenship t~ aIl thos~ inhabitants of the empire who had

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hi therto been ine,ligible for c-i tizenship stat-us, except for

the dediticii. Up to that point, Roman citizenship had been f>

rare in the Gre~k east. However, the adv.a~tages a t tached to

being 'a citizen of Rome were somew,hat diminished in outlying

az:.eas li ke Syr ia where many local magi'strates and advoc:a tes ,

did not know or Rractice Roman ~aj (Sinnigen ~nd Boak,

1977:177). Furthermore, there were obligations: every Roman

citizen was required to pay inheritance tax .on estates,

which Caracalla conveniently doubled from five to ten - ,

percent. Pay~ent of this tax was, of course, not a

responsibility of the many non-citizens in the empire.

Therefore, by upgrading their political status, Caracalla

secured a tremendous and instant source of badly needed

revenue.

Roman Syria provides ~n interesting example of how

Caracalla's problems in maintaining an adequate cash flow

affe~ted the areas where his troops' presence was felt the

mo~t. The authorities' difficulty was to obtain money to

pay the troops and then to distribute it effectively. to the

legions. Caracalla's solution involved setting up a system

of mints at various towns within the region, each of which

was to strike tetradrachms to supplement the bronzes ~lready

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circulating locally. Interestingly, ~he fact that some of

---the sites selected were not minting bronzes at the time t,ells us that prior i ty was gi ven to geographical si tuation J

ra~ther than automatically to' towns already equipped with

minting facilties and expertise. After aIl, exp'rtise could , .

always be acquired through borrowing or training. 6 One would

like to know the degree to which the mi nt sites participated

in the imperial decision-making. Generlly it was a coveted

~onour to gain the right to strfke coins but under these

-sp~cial ci~cumst~nces, it ~annot be a~sumed.

. This survey begins with the coins of the northern e

reaches of Syria and concludes two chap.ters later with tpe \

min'ts of Pal'estinian Syria. , ,

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l. .' .. - r~ _ ~i,},,:", ,"-_-~II', "--' ... ~ J

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NOTE ON GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY "

, The geographical boundaries of this study are

necessarily li~ited to the regions: in which -ll Caracalla' s

tetradrachms were minted. The writer follows Beliinger, who , . .

includes these in h~s Syrian Tetradrachms. In fact the term

Syrian is used so~ewhat freely since Any standard coin ,

catalogue will group ~ome s~tes' in "Mesopotamia," others in

"Phoenicia," "Samaria," etc.

Most of the cities examined are, located in Syria, the

Roman province, as the boundaries stood at Pompey's ,

annexation of Syra 'to the Roman' empire in 64/63 B.C.: from . ~

the gulf of Issus and Zeugma 'on the upper Euphrates in the .' \

nortli, to the Egyptian frontier in the south,. and to the

Arabian des,ert in the east (Jones, l~40:56). _ The exceptions

are C~prus; Mesopotamia, whose wstern boundary was the

Euphrates ri'Ver 1 and Commagene, ,8 kingdom which wa& ~ 1 1

incorporated into Syria uoder the emperor Vespasian . ~ 9

. The' southern part' of Syria, which corresponded to the'

kingdom of Judaea, was ~de into a consular proviryce by .

Trajan and was he~ceforth known as Syria-Palaestina. The

,J'rit/er abbrev~ates this, to PlIl'estlne an4 devotes Chapter

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rive to the sites. contained therein.

Septimius Severus split the rest of Syria into two

smaller provinces, Syria-Coele in the north and

Syria-Phaenicia in the south. (This division is dated to

1ate 194 or ear1y 195 by In90l~ (1932:278-289) and bowney \ ,

~ (1961:239).) Syria-Phoenicia inc1uded the'coastal cities

1

classified as Phoenicia by Most authorit~es, including

Barclay Head, the'British Museum Cataloguel and .Bellinger

himse1f. Chap~er Four, then, deals with cains of Phoenicia, . as a simplification of the term Syria-Phoenicia.

Siria-Coele included the northern and central regions

of, Pompey's origina)l Syria. For the writer's purposes,

Syr ia-Coe1e w'i 11 be referred to as Syria because the term , \

Syria-Coele ~s also ~ommonly used as one of the-smaller

regions int~ which Syria is div~ded, and C~apier Three shows

that this restricted usage, followed by Head, Bellinger, an9 . l ,the British Museum, will be retained

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25

CHAPTER tr~REE

SYRIA

" "- "" "" "" " --. -~" "'" """ "-, " '~ ... ::" -:';';

1

COMMAGENE is the most northerly district of Syria,

bordering onCi~icia. Formerly an independent kingdom, it, - lo'

was incorporated into Syria in A.D. 72 when V~spasian

suspected its ruler, Antiochus IV, of Parthian sympathies

(Jones, 1971:263).

The chief city of Commagene was Samosata, birthplace of , "

the noted satirist Lucian. ' Oddly .. enough, a city of

Samosata's status is not proven to have minted tetradrachms. " The'bronzes as well reveal nothing; for the emperor's

)

features are,~oo mutilated to describe or evaluate. "

___ The other ac~ive mil1t in Commagene was at Zeugma. The

latter's foundation is attributed ~o Seleucus Nicator, who

planted Se~ia-on-the-Euphrates at the western end of a

new bridge which he bU~~~,over the Euphrates. Th city became

,known as Seleucis-on-the-Bridge, an'd, later simp1y as the ,

Bridge (1 Zeugma') '(Jones, 1971: 243) "

Zeu~m~'s tetradra~hms are chara~ter~zed by long headl

-- -,

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w"ith the hair arranged in tuft!. The features are fair1y ,

regular and finely eut, in eontrast to sorne of the grotesque . -

renderings foun elsewhere. The majority of the portraits

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only in Cyrrhus nd Hierapolis. "More representative of

Edessa are No. 174* or 176*. ,

These faces exhibi t a stern,

impatient glare with slightly unproportione.Q, features: long,

liddd eyes under heavy supraorbita1 ridgesi a t iny, crude

~ose; full bu~ firm lips. The mint signature for Edessa i's

a smi11 squarersurmounted by a gable. As a center of

worship of Zeus Hypsistos, p1a~ues topped wi th gables and .

'dedicated to him have been discovered her~ (Cormac~

1941:19-23)

Rhesaena lies a1most si'x~y' '!Ibes south-east of Edessa, . . "'.

and about forty-f_iye miles east of C.rrhae. ,The nine

tet'ra-drachms i1lustrated by Be~linger shar a remarkable

uni formi ty of style., Any of the coi os cou~d serve as a "

p"rototype for,the rest, but we will turn to Bell.XIII.7 and

Il ('No. 395* and 398*). The Rhesaena Caracalla genera11y

appears imbeilic rather than fierce, with a, peculiar smile

or look of puz.zleme~t; a stra,ight, p,rominent nos.e; a droopy ~

eye with a pouch underneath it; a heavy br.ow that begins

above the ~ye and then' sharply descends downward beside i t;

and lipg'whose p~otruping effect is heightened by

crooked line extending from the no se to the . ,

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CYRRHESTICA, is a district which extended from the

tEuphrates westward and was border,ed on the nOrth by .

, 1 Commagene. Its a.ctive mints in ~aca~la's day were

--

. --Carrhae, Cyrrhus, Beroea and Hlerap9lis. ,

Carrhae, the town outSide of wWich-Caracalla was

murdered, produced tetradrachms -whose reverses were

characterized by either a sta,r and~crescent, or a bull's , ,

'bead~ These ate perhaps symbolic of Selene, "the goddss

whom the n'atives particularly' adore" (Hdn. 4';13.3) whose . ,

, Temple of the Moon is located outside ~f Carrhae. (

Nine examples are studied, of which five' show the \, ,~ ..

"

l

emperot radia te. In .g~ner,al; the .coins from Cyrrhestica'

indicate that the ~hole .region produced a disproportionate.

pexc..en.t~ge of radiate and militarily-attired busts. Since , '

the tetradrachm seJrles was minted solely on account of the" (

campaigning, and Cyrrhestica witnessed more intensive ,

mi 1 i tary act i.v i ty than' the other areas. spawn ing

tetradrachms, we May regard th s as a' aeliberate phenomenon.

The money came into the hands of a concentration of army

people whose morale m~st have been boosted by coins ~. "

depicting their emperor as military leader. ln fact, -when

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the emperor appeared on -a coin in his pal'udamentum and

cuira5s, he was 5peeifically being represented "in his

pro-consula r stat us, leading an :arnl'y in tampa igns outs ide

th city 1imits of Rome" (Whitehead, 1974:161).

, 0

Ther,e appear to be two i ss/es; one (No. 120, 121 *) ,

shows the emperor 1aurea te w i th a r,everse symbol of a bui l' s '

head, and the second (No. 123*) shows the radiate portrait

associated with the star and creseent reverse symbole This ., could be a later issue,' struck when the tr90PS were marching

. through in full 'force. All the Carrhaean tetradra,ehms and

, ,

the overwhe1ming majority e1sewhere in Syria-Phoenieia were 1

. minted in Caraea11a's fourth consu1ship. Over this span of

four years (213-217), dating can someJimes,be further

refi ned on st Xli 5 t ie grounds. The fi rst, 1au,rea te, issue

shows a rather fine-featured man, one ~ho did not resemble

the tradi~iona1 ta~rean'Caraca11a; the later, radiate, , issue o *

. shows the more ehafaeteri,stie pugi1istic attitude. No. II"

,.. 127*, however, i5 an e~ception. Its features are c105er to

those of the 1aureate issue and, significant1y, its reverse

eag1e is facing left with the star over its 1eft shoulder,

while the other four radiates show ,the head right with the

star over i ts right ~hou1der. ,Thi s' oddi ty could conce i vably

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be explained as part of an issue that ame between a

postulated first and second.

Peter Gilmore, however, has come up with 'an original

way of dealing with this: he leaves Carrhae with the star

and crescent group and reattributes the bull's head

elsewhere (Gilmore, 1980:90'). His decision is based on the

notion that any tity requiring two mint signatures wou Id

have' produeed an output larger than that of Cart'hae. 1

\ ' Besides, he adds, whereas the star and crescent could be

< 1

assoe iated wi th Carrhae ~gh the goddess Selene, hft Isees no association for the bull. Therefore, he decies to

reassign the bull issue to ano~her mint, narrowing dow.n.. the

possibilities to the vicinity of Carrhae. After all, he

.reasJns, there is ~nough similarity of style between

Carrhae's star & crescent coins and the bull's head to

wairant their reattributions to neighbouring towns, a~though

he prefers not to leave them together at one site.

The communities he dealt with are Anthemusia and

Rhesaena. Both were striking bronze coins under Caracalla,

th~ latter silver as weIl. Gilmore proposes moving the . ~ bull's head issues to Rhesaena, and Rhesaena's rectan9l~ to . \ Anthemusia, thereby effeting a nice symmetrical,

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, arrangement. He states that the rectangle of Rhesaena does

not have Any association with the city concerned .or with any

Other, so "the proposed allocation should not offend."

"

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Actually, there i5-a

which, although very , .

bronze piece from,Rhesaena (No. 401*)

wori, see~s to bear ~~pr~file similar , ~\ "1.'( :'1 "

to that found on its tetradrachms The reverse type is

. rectangular and thtis- a possible prototype for the rectangle

mi nt s~gnature, which May reprsent the vexillum (military

banner) of, Legi'o III Parthia (Bell inger, 1981: QO). '

G~lmore, however, insists that the 'mint signature is not a

.lIexill um, and that tl:1ose coins are still mQst likely from

Anthemusia (Gilmore, 1985b:39-40).

Gilmore furtner wishes to resolve Anthemusia's lack of

tetradrachms on the grounds that it is in the position of

strikin~ bronze coins for Caracalla alone, with no imperial

oins 'befor~after (Head (1911:814), and BMC A(abia,

et., p. '1xxxvii agrees t'hat all verified coins are of the

. reigt10f Caracalla). However, Gilmore's is not a conclusive

argument because there were a number of other mints in

Syria-Phoenicia that only minted bronze'at t~e time, such as

Sam~sata. Carrhae- and Beroee themselves only minted

tetradrachms" which hardly should be less 8nomolous. The

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sites chosen must'ultimately have been determined by

exigeny and-geographical convenience.

While'one cannot state categorically that Gilmore is ..

wrong either, he declares that "this article cannot usefully

be taken furthe'r if pure speculation is to be avoided." In

the writer''S opinion, the artic)e ~has already been ta ken far

enough.

AS with the coins from Carrhae, those from Cyrrhus, the

capitaI of Cyrrhestica, must be studied from published ,

sources. Out of eighieen tetradrachms, nine show the

emperor's head facing left. Five of these are radiate,

~mong them a military issue displaying the bust l-,f' rad., in ~ "0 1"

cuirass, shield.~>n 1. a,rm, r. hand holding spear over

shoulder (No. 144*). This is the type found otherwise only

in Edessa and Hierapoli5. Most of the portraits snare a

certain likeness characterized by a'relatively smal~ head v

placed on a long, thick, massive neck. The hair and beard

are short~se and lips spare and me'an, and his eyes per

out from underneath fine long overhanging brows.

The common reverse type i5 the thunderbo1t but one

exception shows the eagle surmounted by a bearded male,

0

o

/ "') ,

d {> . .

33

seated, 1. hand holding sceptre and eagle perched on r.

This is an example of an "introductory" reverse, which

differs from the usual eagle and is sometimes though not

exclusively explanatory of the subsequent mint signature -.

(Gi,lmore, 1979a-:287). In this instance, the eag1e supp'orts l'

Zeus on his back, and therefore the symbol beneath the

eaqle's feet is Zeus' main iconographica1 association, the

thunderbol t (No. 136 * ) . Two bronze coins in the A.N.S. collection are

identified with Cyrrhus, but- this poses an uncertainty - ",

because Be11inger attributes no imperial bronzes to Cyrrhus.

The obverses, in very poor condition, are probab1y linked

and show a young emperor's portrait. The deterioration even

creates difficu1ty in determining which direction he is

facing! However, the obver,se inscription, incompl-ete as it

is, reads AVTKAMAVPANTO{?)N ... , which at least gives us

either Caracalla or Elagabalus, with whose coins the "young" \

Caracalla's ar often confused. The reverse type, a temple -' .

~ith a seated figure, bears the word KVPPHCTWN. This .

contradicts Bel1inger's contention, inasmuch as Head cites

this legend in reference to imperial silver from Cyrrhus and

S. Icard also connects the two (Head, 1911:777; Icard,

\ ---------_.~.~. ~~--------=----

o

,

o

\

.. 34

1968:261). Also~ it is c~rtainly possibl& for a site to \

produce tetradrachms and not issue bronzes simultaneously \ .

we may look no f.urther than Bero.ea, also in Cyrrhes.t ica -

but Cy~hus was the capital, and it would be odd if the

capital itself did not issue bronze money even while its

~ ," neighbour and presumed political subordinate, -Hierapolis,

..did.

,

Beroea's history extends centuries back when it was a

native town called Halab. A military'colony was plaDted

there by Seleucus Nicator, a particularly avid Helleniser

( A pp i an 9. 57 ) . BerO'ea gives the indication of\being one of tho,se mints

hast i ly set' up to produce a short series of mi 1 i tary

inspired coins. In ~bsolute terms, "the relative abundancie

of coinages today is usually a pretty good guide to thefr

relative abundaQce when th~y'were issued.' We can very often

tell with a considerable de9ree of confidence whether the

issue was extensive, very smail, or something between"

(Grant, 1956:97). Of the twelve obverses stugied, there is

one three-die ~inkage (Nos. 100, 101, 104) and two two-die

linkages (No. 108* and No. 109; No. 118 a~d No. 119~). In a '

. ~. 1

o .. '

o

1 ~

1

35

sample of this size, it is highly unusual to find so many

links if the over-all site output is large, but it may be

expected when only a few issues are ;truck~ This appears to

be Beroea's situation. r .,._

Therear.e no known bronze coins from'

this town, so itO wasapparently commandeered as one more

center f rom whi.ch th.ese predomi nantly miB try coins we're

diSpensed. The tetrad,rachms from' Beq>ea 'Show Caracalla with . \ natural, sma11ish features and a' rather impassive

expression. They share.a common li~eness# such that they,(

could. woell be the work "of one man. These are o "

~e1l-r::epresented' by Nos . 108*, 110*, and 119*.. Li k Zeugma, ."

another mi nt with no-bronzes and only a sma11 output of

tetradrachms, the mint signature consists of the first

letters of its name (BE). In adtion, though, _ th~r~ is a

symbel between the eagle's legs which has nev~r been

.adequately described. In 1983, it was referred to as t

"oiseau(?) de face" (No. 119*) and Peter Gi1more admittd

that the figure,is~nidentif~ab1e. He sugg~st'ed the fron,t' o

view of some fantastic bird such as a grffin, or pe~haps a

~i~ged baety1 (Gilmore,' 1978:77. The Random House

. Dictionar:.y defines a baety1 as "a meOteorite or stone held

sacred or believed tq be of divine origin.~). , t , , f

, n

"

.'

..

..

'0

/

Q

. ,

..

\.'

, )

/ /

36 01 h

~Hierapolis~ the ancient Bambyce, was loca~ed fifty " \

'-,

. ~.

miles northeast of Beroea. Her 10n9-estahlished mint, 90in9

back to 4 B.C., produced bath silver and hrtfze coins at

intervals. Antioch satisfied the need for imperial money in

nQrthwest S~ria until Trajan's reign, when Hierapolis (alon9

with Cyrrhus, Beroea, Zeugma and Chalcis) reeeived the right ",

to strike .on its own. {Six, 1878:118}. Conveniently, this

may he linked vith Trajan~s prepatations for his P~rthian

war, which created a precedent ,for C~racalla's use of local ,

sites as short-lived mints for mi1itary purposes .

(Rey-Coquais, 1978:'54). In Hi~rapolist own case, howe,ver, .

'coins continue to he ~minted right throgh to Philip (Head,

1911: 777.) \ Cracalla's tetradrachms do not p~sent Any majo~

1

difficulties. oniy four of the twenty-four coins examined

be~r a portrait which i$ not military or radiate. This.is

t~e same phenomenon,observed among the oins of other towns . ,in ~he region, and presumably for ~he same reasons. The

typical ~ierapolitan Caracalla's features, adequately . ..

rendered, by No. 274* and 276*, are smalle,r, meaner and even

more regular than ~hose of Zeugma. A different cast of

fe.ture, epitomized by No.285*, is found on six coins, all

,

J

..

'0

,.

..

o ;

, , ,

37

military busts, 1.

There .. !re no links to be found among the twenty-fou,r \

obverses, which may indicate a significantly large output of

cain' of various issues. The table below organizes the,

portrait characteristics into categories:

____________ ... ____ ... ________________ :.. _______________________ 1

LAUR. RAD. ' . 1. r l." r.

______________________________________________________ 1

" ,

bust o . 4 .. 2 o , ,

------------------------------------------------------bust with -sh.~~~/ o o o

-~--::--~---,l--------.- .... --------:-------------,--------""---pal ud. Mi th cuir ss

1 cuir. sceptre shield

2

3

5

o

\. 3

'0

3

.0

--""'--------.-----------------------:~----- ... ----7--------Eight separate combinatioAs are represe~ted among

,1

twenty-four coins, pointing to a lively and prolific mint.

'" The reverse symbol of Hierapolis;.in Bellinger's

catal09ue~ is a figure of a lion walklng right. It commonly

.JI ~.

..

. ,,'

'0

Ata the Good, ,venerate~ a1so unQer the name Bona Dea, and in

Greek ,A,T &,.cs91'1 1 hence Atargatis (Six,' 1878:118).

T~e eight Hierapo1itan-bronzes fa11 into three reverse ~

types: the goddess with lion(s) 'and the inscriptio~ in

wreath: eEACCVPIACIEPOnOAI~. There is m~re than a passing

resemblance betwee~ the bronzes and tetradrachms, whic~ seem

to be contemporary. (Cf,. ,No. 295* (A) and 274*' (AR).; 300*

'(AE) aner 285* (AR). These stylistic s'i1lfilarities ,must be , .'

, explaind by a different mehanis.ID ,fr'om that (which operated

at ~ome. There, issues- were struck of gold, silver and

bronze denominations which succeded each other in a regular , "

sequence. AlI were Roman imperial' issues"and,emanated from "

the same set of officinae (workshops) (Hill, 1979:39'). The '.

, bi~etallic sitds of Syria were not in the sa~e sit~tion

because the tetradrachms anp bronzes are not struck by the

sa me uthorl ty. Die linkages are never found between the

two. ' Because the inscriptions on the bronze and silver

, coins usually differ radic~lly, 'it' is more efficient to keep

/

..

o

..

o

39 / ~ tH 1

their respective dies isolated ratner thari to mix and match 1'" . . ,

s~ra~elY-tooled punches for the in.criptions, merely for

th,e sake of rendering the same head in bronze and silver.

Bronze-tetradrachm stylistic simil~rity, where it occurs, -

can be attributed to: the very situation of coin workshops

operating in the same town, perhaps the same building; the

copying by different die-tutters of the sa me officia~ model

(Sutherland, 1950:5); or s~p_arate dies being cut by the same

hand.

-, .'

..

. '" \

:. l'

-. ,

.' ( G,

.. .. 40 ..

Sometimes, what appear to be stylistic links, as between l,

Edessa (No. 179*) and Zeugma (No. 429*), must ultimat~ly be

discounted if they- are restricted to the odd coin ot of

sveral, especially if these coins are merely deviatiqns ,( -----

from the characteristic' ldeal of the.ir mints. However, we ;

find.a legitimately close resemblance between the

tetradrachms of Beroea and Hierapolis. As the two

Cyrrhestican towns were only f ifty miles apart, there was

ample opportunity for .interaction through trade or military

Illovement,. along with influenc::e on each other' s cQins, a

ciusali~y, however, ~hich cannot be'univers.lly applied .

. Alternatively, the products of the two towns are $0' siniilar

that the same craftsman might have been cutting dies in both

cities. . / ~fter all, how did Beroea, with no acti"e'mint at

the time, suddenly develop the expertise to strike such ." .

,

technically competent and artistically pleasin9 -portraits? --:

It is sugges~ed ~hat a town cannot start .minting such

ref ined pleces wi thout an outside agency to he,lp establish J

and organize the mint. While local artisans could be trained

, in the engraving- of dies, 0 i t might have been easier simply , . , , l '

to allow an outsider to ~ischarge the task, especially wh~n;:

"

, .

" "

! ......

: . , ' , ,

"

1 \.

f

. , ..'

"

, .

, "

:J .... ' '" .., 1

, '

, . , ..

, '

~.. \ ",

, ,

, "

. ,

\ '

< '

(

. \

41 , , that' Be.roea recei ved out s ide ass istan~e ~n' iinperia l

auchority in s~tting up-h\r mint.

'The di st riet of SELEUCIA-PI ERIA i ~~ iu~ed the 's i ste r

cities of Antioeh, Seleucia (Pieria), Laoqicea-ad-Mare and , 0 Q ~ g )

tq .. ~ ,"

A,Pamea, a,U founded by Seleucus I. parnea did flot 1iiint ~ ~ \\~ .JI ... ~ . ,

under Caracalla but the others produced bronze and silver-. Among other mints in ,the distr ict were Gabala, Emi sa and

q' , , 0.,. ,

'Ra,phanea. "

. The eitY' of sle~,ci'a 'Pieri oecupie'd, the '~it~ of an

1

, .

ancient .fortresS on '~he Medi t~rranean coas,t, at the ~ foot of " I!. ~ " 'i 1

,Mbunt Pi:eria about .twe'lv,e "miles, west of Antioeh.Contrary tQ

Barclay l;Iead' S statement that tetradrachms are' not minted ~ .

past 'Aug1Jstus' rei gn' (1911.: 78~ ) l ,the're su~v.i ve bronzes and " .

't,etradrachms dating to Caracalla ',s re ign.. ' , .

The te'tradracbms have 'a omjnon family profi le, and , '

pr"Obbly be'long to th~ same 'l'S'sue. No. 404* shows mature, 1 ~.. ... ~ ~ ,.

weU':c6nstrdted features ,on' a bus-t 'r., laure Carae,alla has l"" P -..." _.... : ~.. ...

J.at'g~ ,eye' with well-~r\tic,ula'td pupil, irJs an! l,owe:t.,lid.' .. ,. ::II

The 'neck 'is" not no~tably m~s~ivC!/' no,r the brows heavy and

, " ,

, "

, 11,. r

. "

.-

, . fo ' ..;

,\

" , ~ - .... .. , r

___ .. t __ ~ __ .~~'_--....: _______ .... _ .... __ .... _ ...... ______ _

"

\ '.

42,

protruding, as on the' cruder variations of Emisa. While . . ,

none of the obverses ,from Seleuc ia are li'1ked, aIl shafe a

" " remarkably un i form cast of. expresslon, a somewha t blank

.\stare.

The reverse eagles, stand on thunderbolts. The British

~sem Catalogue 'n~t,es that' "the aUbonomou_~ and imperia~ ,

'c.oins relate almost e~elusively' to Zeus Keraurrios (K EPvv6s . Q , '

translates as 'thunderbolt')and to Zeus Kasios:, a Semitic

deity ident,ified with Zeus ", (BMC Galatia, etc., p, ...

lxx~). The thunderbolt 'worshipped at Seleuc ia and

\ imm~r.~al.ized. on coi ns }s. tire symbol or incarnatiQn of Zeus .' Kerun ios. Appian relates Jth~t when Sele\ucus Nica tor was

about to bui ld his two Seleuias, na portent of thunder o

preeeded th'e foundation of the one by the sea, for which

reason he eonseerated ,thunder as 'the di vini ty of the place"

and accordingly the inhabi tants . worship thunder ahd sing i ts

1)rafs s t 0 't hi s da y ft ( ~ y r 9. 58 ) "

The bronzes of Seleuc ia are represepted -in tl)i 5 st udy ...

by two co~ns f rom the A~er''can Numisma t ie Soc iety, seven , t .

casts from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and one ln Sear' s ~

catalogue (unillustrated). Thes~ 'may b~ subdivided as r ;' 'i

<

follo,ws:

. "

-',

, .

"

..

..

. ,

. '-

,

(everse: J obverse:-

thunderbolt on throne temple of Zeus Julia Domna

43

young Caracalla

3 3 o

mature Caracalla

2 o 1

For the purposes of this study, there is little to be

leqrned by comparing young bronze and mature silver

portraits. As for the mature );>ronzes, we discover that at

Se~.e,~~ia, Caracalla bears a similar but not identical profil~ t~

his ~etradrachm counterparts. ~Cf. No. 411* (AE) and 40'*

(AR) ) 1 nterest ingly, the bronze head i s ntuch more , . ---- --------~

, -~

'y realistic, but this effect is often'produced Qy_-t-he--wear and. ~----

",

. --corrosion of the surface of _~~:--

Antiocheia ad Orontem, the largest active mint in th

Rom~n East, began as .one of the four principal foundations ,- . of Seleucus l ,(Nicator) in northwestern Syria. Orig~nally

1 equal in rank flnd size to the others, 'she soon became the' '. -

capital of Syria and pne of the greatest cities of the .' ,. ancient world. She minted imperiai silver a~d bronze; most

of the latter was e~ported to other Eastern regions of the

empire'becaus~ the mint of Rome could not keep up with the 1

dema~d. From the reign of Augustus.onward, more coinage was

\ A .<

, :

\

.-

44 .

issued 1rom Antioch than from any other city in the Empire.

Howe~er, she su~fere a temporary reverse of fortune

under Septimius Severus. During his struggle for the -;

;

thr~ne, she supported his rival, Pescennius Niger, the

governor o~, Syria. After Niger's defeat, Severus punished 1

Antioch by stripping her o.f the title metropolis (see p.99)

and of her position as the capital of Syria. Severus a1so

tr~nsferred the privilege of minting imperial money to

Antioch's neighbour and rival, Laodicea-ad-Mare~ It is

believed'that Emisa became a temporary au~i,liary mint d'..lrina

his reign as well. (By 'imperial' money, we mean the

denominations and legends characteristic of, and sanctioned

by, the Roman mint. None-of these appeared at Antioch

between- A.D. 195-217 but did emanate from two nearby mints

.,

1

for several years starting in--193-., These ~ere most proba~ly

Laodicea-ad-Mare and Emisa (Robertson, 1977: xlv), - ,

In-addit~on, Antioch was'made a k9me (village)

of Laodicea-ap-Mare, and, as, a final humiliation, Severus

removed the local Olympie festival from the eity and

combined 'it with the games that he had instituted at I~su~

in con~emoration of his victory Over Niger.

After Severus' death, earacalla took the earliest

, -

0,

'.

. ,

/

, '

45

. ~

opportuni ty to restore Ant ioch to favou'r. Hirs generosi ty was

probably ~rompted by sentimental memories of earlier visits .

to' the city. He restored the Olympie games, in 212, the fi r st ,

occasion under his reign that they could be h,eld. Civic , 1

pride was restored with his bestowal on Antioch of the title

colonia. The honour was politically meaningless, but it pt

Antioch bck on par with Laodicea (D~wney, 1961:239-245)

A mint as prolific as Antioch's provides us with many

issues, types and stylistic variations, with very f~w

linkag~s a~ong them. This ~tudy treats the ninety-one

tetradtachms under ten major groupings based primarily on'

style:

"

Gp. One. Severus' third consulshlp

Gp. Two. Second consulship.

Gp. Three. Third cQnsulship.

Gp. Four. ~rotesque, curly'hir.

Gp. Five. 'Diluted' variation of Faur.

~p. Six. Seleu~ia resemblance.'

Gp. Seven. Overhanging face.

Gp. Eight. Huge eye, curly~hair.

Gp~ Ntne. Mili~ary, left~

Gp. Ten. Military, right.

r

Ci

..

o

,-

46

Gp. One represents what are consideted Caracalla's

.. earliest tetradrachms, mi n ted oetween A'. D. 202-204 (See No.

2*; No. 3 falls into the same category). The reverse o

inscription indicates vnATQr which could easily be taken for

Caracalla's own third consulship. However, other .

indi~ations suggest that this refers to Severus' third

consulship. There is no trace o-t--Caracalla's title rEI3~cr1'6s

(the Greek rendering of Augustus), which appars elsewhere

as C, CE or CEB. Since he had held that title since A.D.

198, when he became co-emperor with his father, it must have

been deliberately omitted. It does not appear on

Caracalla's own second cons~lship tetradrachms either, but ~

it invariably occurs on his thi,rd and fourth. Frof(\ the

styli;tic aspect, the obverse portrait is per~aps slightly

bearded but it still clearly depicts an adolescent face.

'Bellinger (1981:22) states that on the reverse, the size of

the eagle is sufficiently larger than that on later

tetradrachms to connect it with Severus' issues rather than

Caracalla' s.

G-p . Two. Caracalla' s output for his second consulship '--

is represented by No. 4*. The features are still even and,

o

o

~ -- v ~ i '."f ..

..

.. -

47 1

well-executea, as Gp. One. The beard has grown in a little

further,. and there i s no r E _ ~dT6s 1 as we ,expe t The mint

sign~ture, again as Gp. One, is the leg an~ thigh . . , Among the five ~ther ,coins from Anti'och which date to

the second consulship (VnATOCTOB) are A.N.S. 1-4 (Nos. 6, 7,

, -'*, 9). The trays _ in which these coins reside ident i fy tne emperor as Caracalla, but in fact, they were struck during

,

th~ reign of Caracalla's cousin.El~gabalus (A~D. 218-222). ,

They depict the emperor, r. laur., with a youthful head much

closer to Elagabalus' than Caracalla's in appearance. The -

reverse displays an eagle, head 1. (Nos. 6-8) and r. (No.

9); between legs, star. These may be checked against

Bell.IV.ID (No. 92*). The obverse insc'ription aiso

differentiates these from Caracalla's coins. They aIl bear

the title AVTKMAAN~EINOCCEB. This is inconsistent with

Caracalla's tetradrachms on two counts: ~he occurrence of

CEB and the'rest of the inscription form itself, which,

Chapter Six demonstrates, is not used at Antioch before

Caracalla's fourth consulship. Finally, the star mint

signature was used only at Laodicea-ad-Mare in Caracalla's

time, but was adopted by Elagabalus and used at Antioch at

the time when he closed down most of the mints and

.,

o

/,

)

centralised mueh striking et Antioeh again (Gilmore,_

19~5a:9).

\

. Gp. Three. The output pf Caracalla's third consulship,

minted while Severus was still alive, shows a young man

whose features hange little from coin to coin (See No.

12*). His hair and beard are rendered in large thick curIs,

in contrast to the clipped style he affects on later coins,

and the facial features are rather soft, bland, and fairly r

well-proportioned, unlike many of the later portraits which

~ appear menacing and grotesque. It is probably no

coincidence that only after S~verus' death and Geta's murder

does Caracalla assume the mantle of the truculent soldier

and translatesthis new persona to hiscoins

. With Gps. Four through Nine, we are now in the

fourth consulship. The leg and thigh mint signature on all of

Gp. Three is replaced by a sta~ and cornucopiae. Gp. Four

,is similar to Gp. Three with respect to hair and beard. The

most significant change is found on the emperor's face. A

startling transformation from soft to cruel and vicious is ,

readilyapparent (See No. Zl*). One cannot declare with

certainty which of

o

o

,

49

Caracalla's fourth consulship issues came first.

However, the style of hair and beard, considered along wi th ' . hi s eagerness to use }Ti s newfound author i ty, to 'let the

people know just who he really was, may place this issue ~

~arly on in the Antioch series.

The Gp. Fiv~ coins are all busts, r., laure They are

not as warped ~s\ the Gp. Four features but nevertheless

displaya cruel, unnatural glare, e.g. No. 23*. yet, these.

faces do not represent the classic bull-like Caracalla: the

heads are too long and the noses not sufficiently misshapen.

Gp. Six. A strong resemblance is noted between this

series and the tetradrachms from Seleucia Pieria. The two

ci~ies shared a close economic relationship. Every manner

of communication must have pa5sed back and'forth since

Seleucia was Antioch's port, and there i5 an unmistakable

stylistic influence exerted on Seleucia. We cannot declare

with certainty that die-cutters from Antioch ever took a

hand to die~ used for ~triking Seleucian coins, but the

close family profile encourages the possibi1ity {Cf.

Se1eucia's Nos. 405* and 407* with Antioch's Nos. 41* and

f"

o

..

o

" , ,

,

50

Mo~t~f the Gp. Six coins share features a1ready

- described for Se1eucia: ther~ is'~he standard b1ank gaze,

although variants manage to capture a pointed stare. The .. ' ~yes are not as-large as Seleucia's but nonetheless ~etain

, , ,

the well-'elineated pupils, irises and lids. The ra.ther

large noses and over-all proportionality a1so remain

, consistent.

,.

In Gp. Seven, Caracalla's features are somewhat ..t

dis~orted and intimidating. He achieves a pugilistic

expression with a nose whose slope is almost vertical; heavy , Q

supraorbi ta 1 r idges ~omet imes set of f ,by a' deeply furrowed

forehead; and a brow that characteristically rises from the

bridge of the nose over the eye and down the other side of \

the eye. Nos. 56* and 62* illustrate the look.

Wi thin each groupi n9, there wi 11 sometimes be' coins 1

which do not conform to the pr'ototype point for point ., Tht!y . . may defy straightforward classification because of

stylistically ambiguous features. When this occurs, one

should look beyond such features as fac\, ~airstyle and

beard lengt~, and observe that the portrait bust bears -

. -. t,

o

\

5~ . anoth~r uSeful criterion for comparison: tbe fillet or

modius often seen at the back of the emperor's head. It is

not tied the same way on every coin: it depends on how it

was' tied on the prototypal imago from which' the craftsmen

cut their dies. Note the following examples , .. 'f~ -

~ Gp. S.ix: Gp. Seven: 0 ., By examining the fillets, it was.deter by the wr i te'r

that No. 69, whicn he originlly assigned(to Gp. Six, should

have been placed into Gp. Seven .,

Another useful aid in style classification is counting

the number and type of "lobes" which jon the nape of the

neck to the throat or chest of the'emperor. These lobes

often differ from issue td issue and city to city, yet

usually remain consistent when seen with fillets tied in one

particular way. Therefore, the fillets and lobes,.when

examined together, tend to reinforce elch other and enable

one to classify uncertain coins with greater confidence

The qp. Eight coins are easily'ident~fiable because of

certain'distinctive features. These include the huge, long

eye with its heavy upper lid; an eyebrow that rvns more or

." .'

A _ rH'

..

'. ... ~~ ... ~l ... - ->.."1-'"1.". .... ... ~ ., ... ~

1

--- l , . , . . '

~-----~

..

52.

less horizontally; an unusually deep forehead furrow; ve~y

full lips; and very thick, curly hair and beard (See No.

73*)

No~e that the curly hair generally does not occur on

tetradrachms nearlY,,,as frequently as the thinner', shorter,

tufted haire The writer suggests that the "curly" coins,

being many fewer, must have been struck early on in rhe

fourth consulship, before th~re ,were huge numbers of troops -~, ~

",

o

t

- -

..

. ~

t' .. ".,. l~ .. ~ ~-,::" ' .. . ' 1

, . , , 53 . ' . "

military ~arh. There ar~ four discernibl issues in Gp. Ten: '. . ~ ~

( i) Nos . 83*, 84 r 85: smaIl head; regular but not a ,

overly fine features; a long eye ,of so~ewhat "easterrt"

aspect, 'perhaps the work of B, local utt,.,er. . " ,/ ". ..

(ii),NOS. 86,. ~7, 88*: an attrac~Jve por'trait whic,rr

conveys' f iercen'ess~ wi thout be i ng, grotesqueo

:

"

(iH) No. 89,90*: similar. feature~ to PU exce,pt that f.l " .J '

the fil,l:et ,is depit~d di'fferentiy, with the r;bb:oP$ ~ " ~ , ! ~ 1 l ,.' 1

ca~cadin9 in t~o sloping' parallel wav~s, behind' t-he' .n'ck, .

instead 'of 'one' ~i ldly zi~zagging ang th o'the,r. comi.ng do~n ... ~ " 4 ..

the front' as (ii)'s do. AIso, ~h~.bod~ ~ee~~'t~ he 'more in

pr~file whereas (ii)'s chest

while the head faces right.

is oriented~to.ward- t~e viewer' 0 '. 1 ,

Thus, th~ head'is dir~cted " ,

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towards the 1eft shoulder, a feature "that Caracalla

appr.ec iated a~ the ,mark of a great ,conqueror .( See p~ 13-14). >i/I

.( iv) No. '91*: an odd Oln, the sole representative f "t. .... ~..... ' .. ~ ~ ,

another issue. The mint signature,'a~ best as could.be '''' ~ l , . .

determi,ned, is a lo.ne st~r. Every, o.ther ,A'nt io~h coin wi th' ao ~ l ...-

s-tar has been associate~' ei-ler w'it:h a ~,iut), a ~crescen.i: or a c~rnucopia. T~ereforei a ~ubsidiary symbol, has .pr~bably

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~orn away. We wi l~ see .. ~h.at coins of Laodicea-ad-Mare ar'e . t k ~ i

~~acterlZ~d by a J;7tar .mint s,ignature, but , ,

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confusion can be

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'ea811y avoided because Al?tioch's eagles' heads turn=ri'ght

and Laodicea' s fae ~eft ~

: It should be observed', having surveyed Antio'ch' s . . "

tetradrachms, that styli~tic comparisons with,'oth~r towns

"coins are di ff ic~l t and, should be ,done carefully . Other

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si tes minting' in m,ore 1 imi ted quanti tes could sOlpe'times rely "

.pn one, ,imago and ve'~y ,few die'-ct.ltters', e. ~. Rhesaen~.,

Antioch, vith its tremendous output, many stylistic ", ,

va~iations, .army of die-cutters, and high 5tatu~; cold ;.

mistakenly loe given m~re credi t than, i t deserves fOI;

i.,flueocing o~her coins because of 'th greater ,chances of 1

matching its ovn tetradrachm with one str'lck elsewhere,

The majority of bronze coins from Antioch are readfly

id,entifiable by the SC designation on the reverse. S(enatus.) \

\ C(onsult~m) belies Caracal;a' s disdainful attitde towa,rd ,

the senate. Tl)e, bronzes.. often bear a subsidiary '~~ 'as

"Well~ Th, meaning o~'this i5 still debated but it probably

stands for ~PXIKHC ~~OYCIAC. Despite the limited

mat,erfal:, there ls a range of variabi lit y that makes the

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,.55' , .. ~. , ,bronz,es will' go a long way towatd repre~-errt-in9 .tne, bronz!.s as

a whole. ., ,1> ,

,-No. 103* is far earliE;r than mo-st of.the otheOr coin.s,

as t.he emperor is st~ll a child. He Is show~ wlth the Tyche ,

,{-Fortune ~ of the c Hy,.

'" No. 102* js obviously' later. Caracalla is shown _,~.ith,

ol,d-r ~et uno~trusive fe.at,ures .. The reverse is inscribd

with.~C and ~E within a 'wreath ... 1 J '\ . -

~p- the 'Ant'ioch" bronzes ~xcep't No. 103* bear SC on the

reverse ~ Another 'SC type (NO. 94*) has the let ters above an, ~ , rI '" ~ 10

eagle, an~ no 4~~ Th~ cla~sic,mature ~aracalla Is seen more ~ ,

)~"often with ~his reverse ,type t-han with the othe'rs . .

. .

1 In ontrast wi th Ant ioch, Ga-bala was not a ve'ry., , -,

. prol if ic mi~t,. jU,dging .by the 'few, coins in thi s stud~. ,:rhe _1 J,

three tetradrachms (No. 219*/ 220" 221) are not actually cE' , "\li

1 the same i ssu.e, for two are busts; the other i s ' . \.

mi l i tqry-styled. .... ~~ Ir

How~vez:; the'face"is the,same. 'It displays

,8 con~inc i ng~ sneer wi th bulg ing eyes; rmi Ss.i~81?~n ~ose . . , hea'vy !ipso The, beard and tfted 'ha,ir ar~ 'short' and

cl ippd.

and

neatly -- f

: ,The qual-ity of all twelve bronzes'. s distinctly,poor!

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, Many of the images are,almost obliterated and useless as far "

asstylistic examination is concerned. No. 231* is in

bet ter ,condi t on than most, and .depic ts a youngi sh

Caracalla, r., rad., with paludamentum and cuirass. Had it

b~en minted at'Rome, it would ~ave come closest to'Philip

Hill!~ Mi or Mii (1979:41), ce~tainly earlier than any ,

Gabala tetradrachm. There appears then to be little

~tylistic 'relationship between the bronzes and tetradrachms

from Gabala, however the quality of the material is too

Inadequate for a fair judg~ent.

"

, ~aphanea was onl~ founded und~r Caracalla, pthaps as,a . ,

garrison town, and so its output ls 6mall. The site under ~

Augustus might have been occupied by the capital of the

tribal community of the Hy1atae (Jones, 1971:267).'

The A.N.S. collection lncludes two coins from"'Raphanea, o

bronze and obverse-linked, which depict Caracalla, T., rad.,

wearing paludamentum and cuirass. The profileris close ~

enough to the young bronze portra~ts from Antioh to

~ establish their contemporaneity. In general, the younger

Caracalla has a stralght, even nose, a wel~-shaped chin,

little or no beard, and a Galm, often!ben~volent,

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- expression.

~mis~, is known"as the birthplace of the

He~ iodorus as well as the cul t centre of the , , Elagabalus. Caracalla's mother, Julia Domna, was born into

, the priestly family that served the gode Perhaps for this

reason, Caracalla graciously gr~nted to Emisa colonial

status, including the ius Italicum ('J6nes, 1971:267). The

tetradrachms of Emisa all' share a common likeness with the

well-defined Gp. Seven from Antioch, do~o the fillets and

lobes e.g. No. 62*. Thus, two hOmogeneo~groups are being

compared: a.distinct subdivision of Antioch'~ output and the .

whole of the Emi sa ser ies (See No. -188*)