Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 8048042, member: 82322&quot;]This is a very interesting type!&nbsp; Adrienne Mayor claims (<i>The Amazons</i>, p. 265) that these coins depict <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiope_(Amazon)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiope_(Amazon)" rel="nofollow">Antiope</a>, the Amazon who married Theseus. In a lost poem by Hegias of Troezen, Antiope betrayed her homeland because she fell in love with Theseus.</p><p><br /></p><p>And a Leu cataloger wrote &quot;The word solecism, meaning a grammatical mistake or absurdity, was invented by the ancient Athenians to describe the Greek dialect spoken in Soloi, which they thought was a corrupt version of Attic. Perhaps the beautiful bunch of grapes on this coin gives us a hint as to why the people of Soloi made so many mistakes in speaking: Pliny records that much wine was produced in Cilicia and Soloi’s standard type of a bunch of grapes implies that some of it was certainly made here!&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a much later coin from Soloi:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1393290[/ATTACH]</p><p>AE24 13.29g</p><p><br /></p><p>The dating of this coin, and the identification of the bull rider on the reverse, are all over the place in the literature.</p><p><br /></p><p>Edoardo Levante believed the type was struck 200-100 BC.&nbsp; George Hill assigned the issue to 300-100 BC.&nbsp; Barclay Head dated slightly more loosely, to 300-80 BC, pointing out Tigranes the Great destroyed Soli soon after 83 BC.&nbsp; The chronology of Soli is not clear; during the early Hellenistic period the costal cities of Cilicia, probably including Soli, belonged to the Ptolemies.&nbsp; After the fifth Syrian war (202-195 BC) all of Cilicia belonged to the Seleukid empire.&nbsp; Tigranes the Great became the Seleukid emperor in 83 BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mithridates the Great, who used the aegis type heavily in his coinage, was Tigranes’ father-in-law and military ally.&nbsp; It is possible this Soli issue dates to the Mithridatic wars and is connected with him.&nbsp; It could also be Seleukid; both Antiochos IV and Alexander Balas used the aegis on their regal coinage.&nbsp; The gorgoneion was appears on coinage of Antiochos III as a shield boss.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lucia F. Carbone at the ANS and others have been promoting the idea that a lot of the coins of Asia Minor that look like the coinage of Mithradates VI were, in fact, inspired by or in alignment with his coinage.&nbsp; I am tempted to put this issue into the period 100-55 BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>The identification of the horse rider as Aphrodite is by Imhoof-Blumer.&nbsp; He merely calls her “Goddess” but believes the coin depicts the same goddess as Cypriot coins of King Stasioikos that are identified today as Aphrodite or Astarte.&nbsp; Imhoof-Blumer was certain this type does not depict Europa!&nbsp; He doesn’t mention traditionally turreted goddesses Cybele and Tyche.&nbsp; He doesn’t mention Athena, the goddess usually associated with owls that often appear on these.&nbsp; (It’s worth noting that the Stasioikos coin Imhoof-Blumer was certain doesn’t depict Europa is described as depicting Europa on the web site for the Bank of Cyprus.&nbsp; A modern Cypriot coin copied the design of the Stasioikos coin to celebrate Cyprus’ entry into the European union.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in