Severus Alexander, AE 38 mm, 27.84 g. Tarsus, Cilicia. Obv.: AV K CЄOVHPOC AΛЄΞANΔPOC / Π / Π, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander, right, seen from rear Rev.: AΔP CEOV AΛЄ[ ... ] / A M K // H MHTP / Γ B ( Ἁδρ(ιανὴ) Σεου(ηριανὴ) Ἀλε[ξ(ανδριανὴ) Τάρσος] α'(πρώτη) (καὶ) μ(εγίστη καὶ) κ(αλλίστη), ἡ μητρ(όπολις τῶν) γʹ (ἐπαρχειῶν καὶ) βʹ (νεωκόρος) : "Hadriana Severiana Alexandriana Tarsus the First, the Greatest and Most Beautiful, the capital of the three provinces and twice neokoros" ). Nike standing on quadriga, right, holding palm branch and wreath; in the background, cult-statue of Apollo standing facing, leaning on small column and holding reed(?) Sylloge Numorum Graecorum, von Aulock 6028. RPC VI, 7077 (temporary) In 230 the emperor Severus Alexander and his mother Julia Mamaea were on their way to Antioch, about to launch an offensive in Mesopotamia against Artaxerxes (Ardashir I), the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, who claimed all the provinces belonging to the Achemenid Persian Empire before Alexander the Great. They travelled by land through Anatolia and halted in Tarsus, Cilicia. Since the 1st c. BC, the Pax Romana had ended the constant wars between neighbouring cities, which were daily life in the archaic and classical Greek world. The cities replaced war with a competition for prestige, a race for honorific titles. In Cilicia, the two rival cities were Tarsus and Anazarbus. Both claimed for themselves the titles of "the First, the Greatest, the Most Beautiful capital preeminent in the three provinces of Cilicia, Isauria and Lycaonia, and twice neokoros". Inscriptions dedicated to Severus Alexander and mentioning these titles have been found in Tarsus and in Anazarbus as well. The rhetor Dio of Prusa used to call such childish rivalries "nonsense of the Greeks". Anazarbus had a city mint and issued bronze coins circulating within its own territory, but also in the territories of neighbouring cities. Anazarbus coins were a set of 4 denominations (22, 26, 29 and 33 mm : semis, as, dupondius and sestertius), emissions in 223/4, 229/30 and 230/1. At the same time, in the beginning of Severus Alexander's reign, Tarsus mint was closed, and the city was forced to use the coins of its rival with all the prestigious titles written on them. A bit humiliating... But when the emperor visited Tarsus, he granted the city the right to bear his name (as if he had refounded it, like Hadrian had done before in his time). Tarsus became Hadriana Severiana Alexandriana Tarsus. He also granted the city a monetary privilege: its mint could reopen and mint a prestige set of only one denomination, very large bronze coins of 37-38 mm, much larger than the largest of Anazarbus' coins... Of course Tarsus could now proudly write in their reverse legends the same titles as those claimed by its rival! Who was the actual greatest now?
