Numismata hellenica: a catalogue of Greek coins; with notes, a map ...

Metal
JE
M M
JE
M
JE
JR
JE
M
JE
M
Size
4
I
6i
H
H
2
4i
4
u
Weight
53-4
ASIATIC GREECE. 101
Same type. R. Half gryffon to I. ; legend defaced.
Bearded head to r. B. Fore-part of gryffon to r. ; before it, trident.
lePA CYNKAHTOC. Diademate beardless bust to r. B. eil. G(rparj)yov) M. AYP.
©eOAOCIANOY *aK. Pallas standing to I.; in right hand, patera; in left
hand, spear and shield.
Note.—The temple of Minerva at Phocfea was among the most ancient in Greece (Pausan.
Corinth. 31). In the sixth century B.C. it was burnt by Harpagus the Mede. M. Aur. Theodosianus
was Prsetor of Phoc^a in the reign of Severus Alexander (see the coins in Mionnet iii. p. 183, Sup. vi.
p. 293).
PITANE Mysiffi.
Note.—Pitane is described by Strabo (p. C14) as a town with a double harbour, as watered by a
river named Evenus, and as situated at a distance of thirty stades from the right bank of the Caicus.
In all these particulars it agrees with Sandarlik, which now gives name to the gulf formerly named
the Elseatic. Vide Admiralty Chart, No. 1665.
Head of Jupiter Ammon to r. R. Pentagon, or figure of five points, joined by six
between the angles, the letters niTAN.
lines ;
Another similar, but without letters.
Head of Jupiter Ammon, adv. R. niTANAmN. Serpent twined round cortina,
and raising its head to r. ; in field, pentagon.
Note.—The head of Jupiter Ammon on the coins of Pitane leads to the suspicion that it may have
been one of the cities on the .lEolic coast called Egyptian, though Xenophon has named only
Cyllene and Larissa. We have seen that on the coast of Caria there were two cities, Myndus
and lasus, which had Egyptian types {vide supra under Larissa and Myndus). The pentagon was a
symbol of the worship of ^Esculapius. Lucian (de lapsu inter salutem) calls the pentagon a
KiVTaypaftfiov, describes it as a TpnrXovv Tpiywvov, and adds that among the it Pythagoreans was
named 'Yyt'eia. It is probably with reference to Pythagorean doctrines that it is found on coins of
Nola and Nuceria. In later times it became an amulet of the Gnostics.
PLAEASA Cariaj.
Note.— Plarasa, by its plural termination in ea, like Mylasa, Bargasa, and other places in the
south-western quarter of Asia Minor, is thus associated with the ancient cities of Caria, and was probably
for ages an independent state, though it has not left us any coins when in that condition. In
the second century prior to the Christian sera, Plarasa had declined so much, as well as its neighbour
Aphrodisias, that they agreed to form one community under the name of that of the nXapaaeie
and 'A^po^ifftttf, of which joint community many coins are now extant. Probably the site of Plarasa
was then abandoned, for it is evident that the joint people dwelt at Aphrodisias. Ruins of the temple
of Venus, which in an edict of M. Antonius, of the year 34 n.c, confirmed by a decree of the Senate
three years afterwards (ap. Chishull, Antiq. Asiat. p. 152), is styled "the temple of Venus in the
city of the Plaraseis and Aphrodisieis," are still in existence, and have been described in the Ionian
Antiquities of the Society of Dilettanti, ii. c. 2, together with many other proofs, fully confirmed by
the coins of Aphrodisias, of the great importance of this city during the whole course of the Roman
empire. About the reign of Augustus, the name of Plarasa became obsolete, and is never found
on coins or insariptions after his time.
Veiled female head to r. ft. HPAIOS HPAIOY [nAAPASE]iiN KAI A*P[OAI-
SIEiiN]. Eagle on fulmen to I.
A cuirass, within a linear circle. B. IIAAPA. A*PO. Bipennis.
Head of Venus? to r. B. HAAP. A*POAI. Eagle on fulmen to r.
Same type countermarked with a bunch of grapes. B. Same legend and type.
riAA. Bipennis. [A*PO]. B- Cuirass in quad, incus.
PBENASSUS Cariffi.
Note.—This name, written Prinassus in a fragment of the sixteenth book of Polybius (c. 11),
appears to have stood on the coast of Caria, between Miletus and lassus.
2 c