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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Severus Alexander, post: 8152079, member: 84744&quot;]Next (and I think last?) instalment. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It would actually be the genitive case (I think?), which would be standard for Greek coinage - so &quot;of the Kosians&quot; (or whatever).&nbsp; I&#039;m no expert in Greek grammar, in fact I&#039;m a complete ignoramus, but judging by other coins ending in -ΣΩΝ or just -ΩΝ preceded by a consonant (the omega is correct for the genitive, see the recent discussion <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-question-on-greek-coin-legends.385239/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-question-on-greek-coin-legends.385239/">here</a>) possible city names with that genitive would be Kosa, Kosia, or Koseia.&nbsp; (Calling [USER=75937]@Roman Collector[/USER] for help here!)&nbsp; Of course that wouldn&#039;t actually be a Greek name, rather a Dacian name with a similar sound.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>His grounds for assuming it&#039;s a personal name seem pretty weak.&nbsp; As I mentioned above, phonetically it&#039;s unlikely that it derives from Cotiso/Kotys and is otherwise not mentioned for any ruler.&nbsp; I was, however, able to confirm its (very rare) occurrence as a personal name in this <a href="http://clas-lgpn2.classics.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/lgpn_search.cgi?name=Κόσων" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://clas-lgpn2.classics.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/lgpn_search.cgi?name=Κόσων" rel="nofollow">lexicon</a>.&nbsp; It occurs in Eretria, Echinos, and Akraiphia.&nbsp; More relevant for our purposes would be the occurrence in Pantikipaion, but it seems to be an incomplete portion of Κόστων. (Our coin type is also listed.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Still, &quot;KOΣON&quot; as a personal name in the nominative is surely the strongest competitor to the proposal that it&#039;s a place name in the genitive.&nbsp; I just don&#039;t think it deserves its status as the default position!</p><p><br /></p><p>[USER=57495]@zumbly[/USER] asked me in a pm if I had any thoughts about DROUEIS on the First Meris type drachms.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> But I looked into it and one interesting possibility did surface.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a surprisingly similar word in modern Romanian: <a href="https://dexonline.ro/intrare/droaie/17734" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://dexonline.ro/intrare/droaie/17734" rel="nofollow">droáie</a>, which means crowd, or a large number [of people or animals].&nbsp; Its origin is generally listed as unknown, which raises the probability that comes from the Dacian substratum.&nbsp; The Romanian linguist Russu specifically suggests it is a Dacian word - see the list <a href="https://romanianhistoryandculture.com/dacianlanguage.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://romanianhistoryandculture.com/dacianlanguage.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a>, where they also point out there is an Albanian homolog, droe or droje. (Albanian likely shares a common substrate Dacian/Thracian origin with Romanian.)&nbsp; So the idea that it&#039;s a Dacian word isn&#039;t just coming from enthusiasts like Vinereanu, it seems to be the consensus position.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the ending &quot;EIΣ&quot; does strongly suggest that &quot;ΔROYEIΣ&quot; is in the dative case.&nbsp; Again I plead ignorance of Greek grammar, but whereas the genitive indicates a possessive, the dative indicates an indirect object, including what we&#039;d express as prepositional objects in English, like &quot;to ___&quot; or &quot;for ___&quot; or &quot;by ___&quot;.&nbsp; I suggest this is a Dacian word designating the people of the city (closely related to &quot;crowd&quot;), and &quot;KOΣON ΔROYEIΣ&quot; (gen. pl. then dat. pl.) means something like &quot;<u>for the people</u> <u>of Kosa</u>&quot; or &quot;<u>to the people</u> <u>of Kosa</u>,&quot; or &quot;<u>by the people</u> <u>of Kosa</u>,&quot; an attempt to hellenize the Dacian way of saying that the coins are an expression of the will, wealth, and residents of this important city.&nbsp; It also fits with Greek coin inscriptions generally, although I don&#039;t think the dative is commonly used: on Greek coins the genitive plural form of the city name is usually enough to express all this. Perhaps that didn&#039;t sit well with the Dacian mint officials who were producing these First Meris imitations, which may well have come earlier than the Curtisimo stater type (by which time they got used to the idea).&nbsp; Perhaps on the first drachms they felt &quot;the people&quot; needed to be made more explicit.</p><p><br /></p><p>Obviously this is pretty speculative, but certainly no less so than Fischer-Bossert&#039;s druid idea... which is surely a real stretch!&nbsp; (&quot;Well, see, there&#039;s this sorta-similar Galatian word, coming from Celtic, which, um, just might have influenced Dacian centuries beforehand...&quot; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie12" alt="o_O" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />)&nbsp; What do you think?</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course &quot;ΔROYEIΣ&quot; could also be something boring, like a magistrate&#039;s name. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie65" alt=":meh:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> It&#039;s not attested as a personal name in Greek, but if it&#039;s a Dacian name then who knows?&nbsp; (Personally I think both &quot;the people&quot; idea and the boring magistrate possibility are more likely than the Fischer-Bossert story.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I should note that this proposal for the meaning of ΔROYEIΣ is mostly independent of the proposal for the meaning of KOΣON, and both are independent of the proposal for the meaning of the monogram as Burebista/Buridava/the Buri.&nbsp; For the most part, they don&#039;t stand or fall together; maybe one is right and the others are wrong.&nbsp; However if &quot;ΔROYEIΣ&quot; means &quot;by/for/to the people&quot; then it seems &quot;KOΣON&quot; would probably have to be a place name.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t like posting without a coin, so here&#039;s a nearly completely unrelated 2nd century imitation that could possible be from Dacia. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1422067[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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