Many years ago I found this old book, printed in 1728. It is a French translation of the satirical "Caesars" written by the emperor Julian II. Julian imagines that for Saturnalia the god Quirinus (ex-Romulus) offered a banquet to the other gods, and that in this banquet they will judge the deceased Roman emperors and determine those who deserve to be accepted among the gods. The translator is Spanheim, and he gives an extensive comment using coins and medallions which are illustrated in the text, illustrated the way it was done in the 17th-18th c. It is fun to look in this book if there are coins you have a specimen of... But sometimes there are bizarre coins. On this page, the one on the left is interesting because no specimen seems to be known. Only one side is illustrated: a tyche holding two babies in her arms, in the exergue the word ARABIA in Latin, and a Greek circular legend of Trajan ! Spanheim in his comments even mentions other coins with legends like "Arabia August. Provincia", "Arabia capta"... These legends, still mentioned in late 18th c. literature, cannot be found in any later books. But it is true that the earliest coinage of Roman Arabia is still a matter of debate: the Arabia drachms of Trajan have been attributed to Caesarea in Cappadocia, then to Bostra, more recently to Antioch and even Rome; some Trajanic coins attributed to Bostra are attributed by others to Cyrene, all this is a numismatic and historical problem that is still being discussed. And now this coin, illustrated, which is mentioned by no other book... Spanheim describes it and says he found it in the "Cabinet du Roi". This collection, made by order of Louis XIV, is still available because it is now part of the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The gold coins have been robbed in the 19th c. but the bronze should still be there. In fact, the only Arabia tyche holding two kids that is known today is a coin of Hadrian, generally attributed to Bostra (I am convinced it was rather minted in Petra, but that is not the subject here). The Bibliothèque Nationale has 4 specimens of this coin, 3 from collections made in the 19th-20th c. and only one that has always been there: it must be the one seen and described by Spanheim! He copied the reverse, believing ARABIA was in Latin (in fact it is APABIA in Greek), and copied the obverse legend which is not entirely legible, believing it was Trajan when it is in fact Hadrian. And I don't know why, when preparing his illustration for the engraver, he wrote directly the obverse legend on the reverse, creating a monster - well... just a coin that never existed. The illustration given by Spanheim, and the BNF coin that he must have actually seen. Because the name AΔPIANOC was too badly preserved, and the portrait looked much like Trajan, he read ΔAKIKOC... If you have specimens of this Hadrian Arabia coin, feel free to post it !
