Never have read that the Senate was a god; definitely a first for me. When did the Senate become a god and who was the ruler who decided it? Haven't measured the coin yet, ~ 17 mm, ~ 3 g; it came in a group lot I won at AMCC3. Æ Drachm, Mysia, Pergamon, 40 – 60 AD; some references say the date is from approximately the Claudian rule (41-54 AD), others say Time of Hadrian Ref.: BMC 205; RPC I 2374; SNG France 1964-71; Sear: Greek Imperial Coins, 4910; SNG von Aulock 1385 Ob.: ΘƐΟΝ ϹΥΝΚΛΗΤΟΝ (Theos Synkletos = God Senate), draped bust of the Senate r. Rev.: ΘƐΑΝ ΡΩΜΗΝ (Goddess Roma), turreted and draped bust of Roma r. Please post your God Senate issues or anything relevant.
Here's my Senate from Attalea, Lydia. Senate is shown here as very youthful and almost Dionysus-like. Apparently this coin is R5, for what that's worth.
My idle speculation. Latin has both deus, a literal immortal god such as Jupiter, and divus, a divine status conferred to mortals by human agency. Julius Caesar and Claudius Gothicus are examples. Divus could also be recognition of a divine element in nature or elsewhere. Greek, on the other hand, makes no such distinction. There is only θεός. Zeus is θεός. Julius Caesar is θεός. In the case of the coin here, I take the meaning of θεός as more like divus than deus, recognizing the divine aspect of the Senate. I suspect that θεός has been conferred by the authority of the city, elevating worship of the Senate to civic cult status.
Who was the "authority of the city"? The authority was the Senate who had to approve the divine status of a deceased at a request usually of a Senator or the emperor, e.g. Octavian requested the declaration of Caesar as divine and the Senate granted this by vote in 42 BC. Unless this was not anymore how it worked in 40 - 60 AD, the Senate approved its own deification / divine status?
Coingrats! Always a cool coin type Later, under the Flavians, the senate was even portrayed as a goddess (complete with the Flavian ladies bangs beehive!): Time of Titus to Domitian Lydia, Apollonis Æ16Pseudo-autonomous issue, circa AD 79-96. ΘEON CVN[KΛHTON], draped female bust of the Senate right, with the features of Julia Titi or Domitia(?) / AΠΟΛΛΩ[ΝΙΔEΩΝ], tripod. RPC II 950; SNG von Aulock 2900; SNG Copenhagen 21; BMC 17-8. 2.51, 16MM, 12h.
See https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004352179/B9789004352179_014.xml for a book chapter mentioning on its first page that in the Graeco-Roman East, "the corporate body of the Roman Senate, or rather the personification of its genius, was collectively worshipped in a cult." So perhaps more a personification/"genius" than a deity in the strictest sense. The Genius of the Senate appears even on Roman Imperial coins, notably under Antoninus Pius. See these two coins, which I've posted before, of Pupienus and Balbinus, both depicting the Genius of the Senate on the reverse (see footnote quoting @curtislclay for that identification): Pupienus, AR Denarius, April-June 238 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, IMP C M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG / Rev. Bearded Genius of the Senate, togate, standing front, head left, holding olive branch in extended right hand, and short transverse scepter in left hand, PM TRP COS II PP. RIC IV-2 5, RSC III 29 (ill.), Sear RCV III 8528 (ill.). 20 mm., 3.42 g. (Purchased from Herakles Numismatics, Dec. 2020.) Balbinus AR Denarius, April-June 238 AD, Rome mint. Obv. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, IMP C D CAEL BALBINVS AVG / Rev. Bearded Genius of the Senate, togate, standing front, head left, holding olive branch in extended right hand, and short transverse scepter in left hand, PM TRP COS II PP. RIC IV-2 5, RSC III 20, Sear RCV III 8489 (ill.). 20 mm., 2.65 g. (Purchased from Kirk Davis April 2020; ex: Kirk Davis, Cat # 74, Fall 2019, Lot 83). *[Applicable to both the Balbinus and the Pupienus denarii.] The standing figure on the reverse of each coin was traditionally believed to be the respective Emperor himself, holding a parazonium (a short triangular sword typically found on coins depicting Virtus) in his left hand. That view is still reflected in OCRE (based on RIC) and at the British Museum website (based on BMCRE), as well as in the descriptions of all 14 coins of this type I found that have been sold since 2003, listed on acsearch. However, as @curtislclay explained at https://www.cointalk.com/threads/balbinus-denarius.358987/#post-4410967, in discussing a Balbinus example, the reverse “shows not the emperor on the reverse, but the Genius of the Senate, so his attribute has to be a short scepter, not a sword! A pity that the [British Museum] website perpetuates this old error (Genius misdescribed as emperor). The correction was made by [Andreas] Alföldi in his Insignien und Tracht [der römischen Kaiser (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, 1935)] . . ., followed by many others since then, including a recent article by R. Ziegler. On coins of Antoninus Pius, for example, the same togate figure is labeled GENIO SENATVS. His beard and bushy hairstyle on [the Balbinus] coin are exactly as required for the Genius, and exclude Balbinus. No surprise that the Genius of the Senate reappears on the coins of Balbinus and Pupienus, since they were senators themselves and were chosen to be emperors by the Senate.” Note that Sear equivocates, describing the reverse figure on both coins as either the Emperor or “the Genius of the Senate.” See Sear RCV III 8489 & 8528 (published in 2005).
The authority could be the city council (or its equivalent). Municipal cults operated alongside the imperial cult. I don't know the specifics but the city may have erected a shrine to the Senate. Regarding the depiction of the Senate as a female, the Greek word σῠ́γκλητος is gramatically feminine. Thus its personification is female. As a comparison, consider the Latin word virtus ("manliness"), also gramatically feminine, with the result that Virtus is depicted as female.
What did the Senate ever do for us? -PFJ Phrygia, Synaus. Æ18. Asklepios facing Obv.: ΘЄOΝ CΥΝ - ΚΛΗΤΟN, draped bust of Senate right. Rev.: CΥΝΑ - ЄΙΤΩΝ , Asklepios standing facing, raising himation with his right hand and holding serpent-entwined staff in his left hand. 18mm., 3.92 g. Late 1st Century. Forni 514, SNG Leypold II 1749
All great & interesting posts - @dltsrq, @DonnaML, @Ryro, @ancientone: Sure; however, I am not aware that Genius was referred as "ΘƐΟΝ" Even though the word is grammatically feminine, the Senate is shown as a male; this is even explicitly included in the coin's description, for example, in Corpus Nummorum https://www.corpus-nummorum.eu/mysia/coins/17488 Good one I like your coin. Wondering what they intended to convey with the deified Senate and Asklepios. I can somehow follow that the deified Senate takes care of Rome and its people, so is the Senate taking care of Asklepios and the sick?
Yes, you are correct. I took σῠ́γκλητος as the noun being personified but here it is apparently an adjective modifying θεός, a masculine noun. While the noun σῠ́γκλητος is feminine, as an adjective it can be masculine, feminine or neuter as required. However, that still leaves us with the coin posted by @Ryro which has the same legend but a female personification.
Guess that the people from Apollonis wanted to show a female personification of the Senate with features of Julia Titi or Domitia, while Attalea used a Dyonisos-like Senate like the one posted by @hotwheelsearl and the Pergamene decided for a male personification. Each place seems to have been free to choose what they wanted.
I don't know off hand how much freedom the language allows. Note that on the op, the Senate side shows a male bust and the grammatically masculine word θεον ("god") is used but on the reverse, a female bust is shown and the gramatically feminine word θεαν ("goddess") is used.
I'm thinking something like "We are proud to be controlled by such a wonderful Senate and have Asklepios to watch over us". I'm wondering if the general population would agree.
Since I recently was told this is a Senate Rep. I might as well add it to the list here, River God on Reverse, if someone has some guesses as to the inscription that would be nice, I have had one suggestion; ΙΕΡΑΣ ΣΥΝΚΛΗ I realize there are quite a few River Gods usually dependent upon the river in the area of where the coin was minted, so if you can figure that out as well...
I wish I were able to recognize the ethnic on the reverse of your coin. Identification is challenging because there were dozens of similar coins -- typically from various places in Asia Minor -- that used the obverse type of the Senate combined with a river god on the reverse.
