Had to roll my change for these lol got em localy at ABC. Constantine I. AE (21mm) Follis. IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG laureate cuirassed bust right/ GENIO POPV-LI ROMANI, Genius standing left, head turreted/towered?, loins draped, holding patera & cornucopiae. RS in ex Gallienus AR Antoninianus. GALLIENVS P F AVG, radiate cuirassed bust right / IOVI STATORI, Jupiter standing facing, head right, holding sceptre & thunderbolt. Cohen 388. RIC 644
Here's my new favorite Gallienus. Rheskoporis IV Kingdom of the Bosporus BI Stater AD 267/268 BACIΛEWC PHCKOVΠOPIΔO Diademed and draped bust of Rheskoporis IV, trident before Laureate head of Gallienus r., K before, ΔZΦ MacDonald 623
I agree, that is a great looking coin. A question: Can you ID the emperor shown on a Bosporos coin without using the date letters?
I unfortunately haven't handled very many yet. Certainly on the earlier ones. But from what I've seen/read tt starts to get fuzzy around Rheskoporis IV and Severus Alexander. I think this portrait still bears a resemblance to more standard images of Gallienus, but beyond his reign, it becomes completely stylized. Its intriguing to wonder why. I refuse to accept the old thesis that "degenerate styles" arose during the 4th century. Rather, I think of it more like modern, abstract art. The accuracy of the Bosporan portraiture drops off even earlier than it does at the central mints; portraits of Philip I on staters are for the most part unrecognizable. Bosporan portraits also don't seem to adopt the same tropes as Rome and doesn't really emphasize strength or solidarity in the images. Now, if it were only the Imperial portraits that changed on these coins, I would suspect that the central government had simply stopped bothering to send new portraits. That wouldn't be terribly surprising, what with the revolving door that the throne practically was at the time. But the royal Bosporan portraits also exhibit the same stylistic changes. So I suspect that the new styles are imports, influences from the Scythian culture that had always existed in the region and only now seeped into numismatic art.
