Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8176696, member: 128351&quot;]Are camels so rare in ancient coinage?</p><p><br /></p><p>The oldest ones are on rare Arabo-Philistine silver obols of the Persian period (4th c. BC) showing a camel-riding god. In c65 BC the city of Natounia in Adiabene (now in Iraqi Kurdistan) issued little bronzes with a head of Shamash and a camel riding god who must be Arsu. Some time after in Rome M. Aemilius Scaurus, as Curule Aedile, minted denarii commemorating the submission to Rome of the Nabataean king Aretas III. To figure an Arab king, the Romans made him kneeling in submission besides a camel with a saddle.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1429026[/ATTACH]</p><p>Denarius of M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus, Aed. Cur., Rome 58 BC. The exergue REX ARETAS is off-flan.</p><p><br /></p><p>This image was influential in Rome, and 3 years later in 55 Aulus Plautius issued other denarii showing the submission of Aristobulus (called &quot;Bacchius&quot;): the image was copied from the Scaurus denarii.</p><p><br /></p><p>The camel as symbol of Arabia came back on Roman coins in 111, under Trajan, to symbolize the annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in 106 and the creation of the new province of Arabia : the allegory of Arabia stands with a tiny camel at her feet.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1429032[/ATTACH]</p><p>Trajan, dupondius. In exergue: ARAB ADQVIS</p><p><br /></p><p>But this trajanic camel coinage was not only a celebration, it was also a ambitious financial operation.&nbsp; In Rome the Arabia and camel reverse type was struck on gold aurei, silver denarii, bronze asses, dupondii and sestertii. It was perhaps also an Arabia-related coinage because, and it is very interesting IMO, several specimens of the <i>Arabia adquisita</i> sestertii have been found in excavations in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Trajanic sestertii are not abundant in the Middle East, it is noteworthy that among the very few found there, there are several Arabia sestertii...</p><p><br /></p><p>It was not all. From 111 to 114 the mint of Antioch issued enormous quantities of drachms with the same Arabia with camel type. These silver drachms have been attributed to Caesarea of Cappadocia, to Bostra or to an &quot;Arabian mint&quot;: many specialists now agree on the hypothesis they were minted in Antioch, especially for Arabia. These drachms were the new province&#039;s currency in the continuation of the Nabataean silver currency, on which it was sometimes overstruck. In the same time in 111 light tetradrachms (c.11 g) with Greek legends and the Arabia with camel type were minted in Rome, for circulation in Arabia. From 114 to 116 other drachms and light tetradrachms were issued especially for Arabia at the mint of Rome: they show a two-humped Bactrian camel :</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This silver coinage specially minted in Antioch and in Rome for circulation in Arabia was not continued under Trajan&#039;s successors, but it had been produced in such quantities that it circulated there, together with Roman or Antiochene denarii, for at least a century.</p><p><br /></p><p>Under Hadrian, the little camel was depicted again besides the allegory of Arabia on the <i>Restitutori Arabiae</i> sestertii, but the camel is absent from his <i>Adventui Aug. Arabiae</i> sestertii.</p><p><br /></p><p>Camels have also been depicted on provincial coins. About 37-34 BC the propraetor L. Lollius minted coins in Cyrenaica with a camel on reverse, and this animal reappeared on Cyrenaica bronze coins under Tiberius. It is much later that in Arabia, under Antoninus Pius, when the civic mint of Bostra opened, small local coins (equivalent of a Roman quadrans) were minted with a camel on the reverse. Similar small bronzes were minted in Bostra under Commodus. Was this camel on Bostra coins a mere symbol of the province, like in Rome, or did he have another meaning for the people of Bostra? Under Elagabalus the South Syrian city of Canatha (in Arabia since Septimius Severus) issued bronze coins with the god Arsu riding a camel - the same type as the coins of Natounia almost 3 centuries ago...</p><p><br /></p><p>I think the latest Roman coin with a camel is a very interesting silver tetradrachm of the usurper Uranius Antoninus in Emesa, 253-254. It depicts a saddled camel and it seems to be an original unprecedented type, or was perhaps inspired by the old Scaurus denarii.[/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