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

24
Metal
M Size
6
M
M
5-
5
5+
7-6
M 8-7
Weight
ASIA.
Turreted female head (Aradus) to r. ; behind, pahn-branch. R. Female (Astarte ?)
seated on prow to I. ; right hand extended to crown small figure of Pallas
Promachus on the extremity of the ; prow below, Phoenician letters.
Head of
Trajanm.
Trajan to r. R. Victory? on rudder to I.; APAAiaN.
1
below,
Female head to r., with platted
tresses hanging over the neck (Astarte ?) ; before it,
small head of Trajan to r. R. Gibbous ox running to I. ; above, BNT (352) ;
below, APAAIilN.
Another similar, but the date EOT (375).
AYP. KOMOAO
Commodus,
Head of Commodus to r. R. APAAIlUN. Female
in long drapery adv. ; head to I. ; in extended right hand, crown ? in left
hand, ?— standing between two columns, on the top of each of which ? ; in field
to I., HMY (448) r.
Note.—In Pellerin (MiJlange, p. 28, fig. 6) a similar coin is represented, but the legend of the
obverse is different ; the female is turreted, and is crowned by a Victory standing on each of the
columns.
Elagahalus.
AYT. K. M. AYP. ANTllI Head of Elagahalus to r. R. APAAIIDN.
Cypress between lion to I., and bull to r., beyond each of which, military standard ;
below, SOY (477).
Note.—On some of the coins of Viminacium in Moesia Superior are the bull and lion, similarly
disposed on either side of a female, who holds a hand over each. On other coins of the same city a
vexillum behind the bull has the number VII. upon it, and another over the lion the number IV. As
these two animals were respectively the symbols of the 7th and 4tli Roman legion, it appears that at
the time when this coin was struck portions of those legions were in Aradus. The year 477 of the
Aradian sera, which commenced B.C. 259, answers to a.d. 218, the year of the accession of Elagahalus
to the imperial dignity.
ARGOS Cilicise sive Cappadocise.
Nate.— That this city was a colony of the Pelopunnesian Argos appears from the types of Perseus
and the peacock common to both (v. Eckhel, iii. p. 50. Mionnet, Sup. vii. p. 195). An approximation to
its geographical position is derived from a comparison of Strabo (p. 537) with Philostratus in his life
of Apollonius of Tyana (6, 30). After the capture of Jerusalem, when Titus was about to return to
Rome, he invited Apollonius to meet him at Argos, which is described by Strabo as a lofty fortress
at Mount Taurus (tpv/xa v^/ti^bv Trpof ry Taupv)- I' '* ^ ^^ supposed that Apollonius at this time
was in his native city, as the route of Titus must have led him through the Pylae Ciliciae, which
descend into the plains of Cappadocia about thirty miles to the westward of Kiz-hissar, the site of
Tyana. It is probable that Argos stood near the exit of the passes; its lofty position and the finding
of its coins may some day, perhaps, determine its exact site. Stephanus describes this Argos as in
Cilicia (rfTapri) KiXiKi'at, >) vvv 'ApynoiroXis) ; it stood, in fact, on the borders of Cilicia and Cappadocia,
the kingdom of which latter had, under Archelaus, comprehended all the adjoining part of
Cilicia Tracheia, as far as the sea, where Archelaus had founded or augmented Sebaste, and where
he possessed the adjacent island Elieussa, now a promontory named Ayash. After the death of
Archelaus (a.d. 17), Cappadocia became a Roman province (Strabo, p. 534). On some of the coins
of Argos, of the reign of Valerian, occurs the date lA (11) ; and the same date is found on coins of
his successor Gallienus. It would seem, therefore, that the sera of the Cilician Argos began eleven
years before the succession of Gallienus, or in the reign of Gordian III. No coins, however, have yet
been published of this city, except those of Valerian, Gallienus, and Salonina ; all these bear the
legend APrtlQN, so that it was probably after the time of those sovereigns that Argos obtained the
name Argeiopolis.