Dear Friends of ancient mythology! The Coin: Phoenicia, Tyre, Elagabal AD 218-222 AE 27, 11.71g obv. IMP CAES M AN- TONINVS AVG bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r. rev. TV - RI - O - RVM Two baetylic stones (the so-called 'Ambrosial rocks'), standing each on a base, between them Holy Oil-tree in ex: dog of Herakles, walking r., finding Murex shell ref. SNG Rughetti 2344; BMC Penivcia, pl. XLIV, 7 and p.cxli, para 2, citing a spec. from Berlin rare, F Mythology: The rev. of this coin refers to the founding myth of Tyre. It is reported in the 'Dionysiaka' by Nonnos of Panopolis. In his story the Tyrian Herakles Astrochiton appears, a Light God and fire master in a star cloak on whose altar the thousand year old Phoenix is burning himself and then regenerated resurges. This god reports of the 'Ambrosial rocks', which are floating on the sea. Between them entwined by a snake a mighty oil-tree was growing with an eagle which lives on its branches in an eyrie. A gorgeous bowl was there too - a precursor of the Holy Grail. All was enbedded in fire which didn't burn the branches or leafs. It is told of an oracle which commanded the first man on earth to built a ship, go to the floating rocks, and capture the eagle and sacrifice him. So he did. After that the two rocks grew together, stranded at the beach of Phoenicia, and Tyre was founded on the rocks. The scene on the rev. below the rocks alludes to the discovery of the purple. When the city god Melqart once was chasing the nymph Tyros his dog found a snail on the beach and ate her. Thereby he got a red snout. When the nymph saw this bright red she wanted to have a dress in this colour. Otherwise she wouldn't give in. And Melqart dyed a dress with this new colour and gave it as a gift to her. This was the first purple robe in history. And the Phoenicians got their name: People from the land of purple. According to Achilleus Tatios (2nd century AD) it was the dog of a fisher and when the fisher cleaned the supposed bleeding wound he discovered the purple. Background: Tyre was founded by Sidonian colonists 2000-3000 BC on two rocky islands in front of the coast of Phoenicia.The first historical documents are from around 1250 BC. Jesaja called Tyre correctly 'daughter of Sidon'. Soon it outflanked its mother by power and glory. It was called 'Queen of sea'. Actually king Hiram connected the two islands by heaping up with soil. Because of its wealth it soon attracted conquerors like Nebukadnezar who 13 years besieged it but without success. It was assumed to be impregnable because it was a fortress situated in the sea like St.Malo in Brittany. It was Alexander the Great who succeeded in conquering it. He built a causeway from the land to the island and so he took Tyre. This causeway was maintained so that Tyre (todays Sur in Libane) became a peninsula until now. The word 'Tyros' is derivated from the Pheonician 'tor', meaning rock (cp. Hebrew 'tzur'). The two Tyrian rocks could be two baetylic rocks too which stood in front of the temple of Melqart built by king Hiram and were worshipped in Tyre. Their name later was transferred to the rock of Gibraltar. The name "ambrosial rocks" can be traced back too to Semitic amm beruth (= mother of wells). I have added (1) an overview sketch of the causeway built by Alexander from Frank Martin, a cartographer of the US Military Academy (from Wikipedia) (2) the pic of the purple snail Murex, today called correctly Hexaplex trunculus. The pic is from the collection of Eric Feldhuis(Netherlands). I for myself naturally too collect seashells. Literature: (1) Nonnos, Dionysiaca (2) A.B.Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, 1925 (online) (3) Wikipedia Best regards
Was the mythological scene on the reverse used on coins other than provincials from the Severan period? Here’s my coin with Julia Maesa on the obverse, phooto courtesy of cng. I stopped collecting seashells, but not coins
Great writeup! I’ve always wanted an example of the type but have yet to score one. Here’s another from Tyre featuring just one of the rocks. I’m away from my catalog and pic database, so am using seller’s pics and description. PHOENICIA, Tyre. Otacilia Severa. Augusta, AD 244-249. Æ (28.3mm, 17.97 g, 12h). Diademed and draped bust right / Sacrifice to Tyche-Astarte: Tyche-Astarte seated left, holding cornucopia and open wreath(?); before her, large baetyl (Ambrosial rock); in exergue, four figures of Cities (Tyche), wearing turreted crowns; the outer two raising their hands toward Tyche-Astarte; one raising a wreath, and the last pouring a libation on an altar. Cf. Rouvier 2440 (Philip I); cf. BMC 433 (Philip I); cf. AUB 266 (Philip I); Lindgren & Kovacs 2388 var. (Marsyas instead of Ambrosial rock). Fine, dark green patina with tan highpoints and earthen highlights/deposits. Very rare type, especially so with Ambrosial rock. None on CoinArchives.
I couldn’t find anything about them from cursory research. I probably need to spend more time looking into it.
