I received this coin in a bulk lot that I won in a recent auction, and I have some questions, (despite the nice notes that came with it). Here's a photo: Here's the information that came with the coin: "Caracalla AE24 Prize basket for Asklepeia Soteria on table with 3 rows of dots below Obv: ANTΩONINOC [AYΓOY] CTOC Rev: MHTPO ANKYPAC IΣOΠYΘ/IA (similar to Pythian games) Ancyra Galatia games around 217 AD" Can anyone confirm that this coin is from Ankyra in Galatia? Is there a reference for this coin that I can use to verify the obverse and reverse inscription and the reverse image? Finally, does anyone know what the significance of the letters IΣOΠYΘ/IA [Isopithia? Isoputhia?], assuming that they are accurate? Thanks for any additional information that you can provide.
http://ancientolympics.arts.kuleuven.be/eng/TB029EN.html The above link explains this as a way of saying the contest at Ankyra was not THE Pythian games but LIKE the Pythian games so the ISO prefix (meaning same as) is a bit like we now have Para-Olympics and Special Olympics for games that are not THE Olympics. This might bear some more research since the link says the Pythian games were music contests while Wiki says there were contests in sports, art and music included. Since the games honored Apollo, that makes perfect sense but is not something I have researched before.
Thanks, Doug. So apparently the coin was issued to coincide with some city games that were sort of like the Pythian games. Interesting that there was also a Ankyra in Pythian. Sister cities, perhaps? I also Googled "Asklepeia Soteria" but the only reference I could find was in Latin. https://books.google.com/books?id=c...6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=Asklepia Soteria&f=false It appears to be discussing Caracalla and the games.
I did a little more poking around. It appears that poets and playwrights did compete in games (festivals? poetry slams?) in Ankyra, Galatia.
It describes the coins bearing the keywords. Rather than sister cities, I suspect it was more like what we wold have today if the Olympics were not protected by their copyright of that term we would have all sorts of contests using that term to indicate a high level contest. I never understood how the IOC was able to register rights on a name they lifted in the 1890's from the original Greeks who abandoned the idea in 393 AD on the order of Theodosius I who found the games to be too Pagan for refined Romans. I guess if you abandon something for 1500 years you can't claim it as intellectual property unless it is a coin.
BMC Galatia page 13 #25 plate III #1 https://books.google.com/books?id=Jr8tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=Jr8tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA349#v=onepage&q&f=false
