Faustina Friday – A Couple of Coins from Docimeum in Phrygia

TGIFF, everyone, and happy new year!



Docimeum or Docimeium (Greek: Δοκίμια and Δοκίμειον; modern İscehisar) was an ancient Phrygian city where there were famous marble quarries.[1] The city stood on the road from Synnada to Dorylaeum in a rocky gorge formed by the stream known as Doureios, an affluent of the river Caÿstros.[2]

From "Asia citerior," Auctore Henrico Kiepert Berolinensi. Geographische Verlagshandlung Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen) Berlin, Wilhemlstr. 29. (1903). David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.​

Some coins of the city bear the epigraph Δημος or Ιερα Συνκλητος Δοκιμεων Μακεδονεν because it was a Macedonian colony,[3] and was perhaps named after Antigonos Dokimos, the General who surrendered Synnada to Lysimachus in 302 B.C.[4] Little is known of the city in pre-Christian times otherwise.

The city's coins, Imperial and quasi-autonomous, range from the reign of Claudius to that of Gordian III. For Faustina the Younger, the city issued five types.[5] Two of these types (illustrated below) depict the empress with a hairstyle used on her imperial coinage from November AD 149[6] through late AD 154 and three types depict her with a hairstyle used from AD 154 through 161.[7] I assign a date to the coins below of c. AD 150 to 155 to account for at least a few months delay for the news about the empress' latest coiffure to reach the tiny Phrygian town from Rome.

The coins in my collection depict a rather unusual representation of Cybele as well as Hygieia rendered with standard iconography. Both were struck in orichalcum and all known examples of both coins were struck with the same obverse die.

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman provincial Æ 17.4 mm, 4.39 g, 6 h.
Phrygia, Docimeum, c. AD 150-155.
Obv: ΦΑVСΤЄΙΝΑ СЄΒΑС, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: ΔΟΚΙ-ΜЄΩΝ, cultus-statue of Cybele standing facing, flanked by lions.
Refs: RPC IV.2 1976 (temp); BMC 25.192, 23; SNG Copenhagen 358; SNG von Aulock 3550.​

Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman provincial Æ 17.4 mm, 4.67 g, 6 h.
Phrygia, Docimeum, c. AD 150-155.
Obv: ΦΑVСΤЄΙΝΑ СЄΒΑС, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: ΔΟΚΙ-ΜЄΩΝ, Hygieia standing, right, feeding serpent from patera.
Refs: RPC IV.2 1977 (temp); BMC 25.192, 24; SNG Copenhagen 359; Recueil général 5960.​

Do you have any coins of Docimeum? Post anything you feel is relevant!

~~~

Notes

1. Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography in Two Volumes--Vol. I. Abacaenum - Hytanis. John Murray, 1872, p. 781.

2. Head, Barclay Vincent. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Phrygia. Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1906, p. lvi.

3. Smith, op. cit.

4. Head, op. cit.

5. "Search: 'Faustina' + 'Docimeum.'" RPC Online Volume IV.2, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford., https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/search/browse?q=Faustina+Docimeum.

6. Beckmann, Martin, Faustina the Younger: Coinage, Portraits, and Public Image, A.N.S. Numismatic Studies 43, American Numismatic Society, New York, 2021, p. 57.

7. Clay, Curtis L. post #9 in "Faustina Friday – a Couple of Anepigraphic Bronzes." Coin Talk, 13 Nov. 2020, https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-a-couple-of-anepigraphic-bronzes.369904/

 

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Very nice coins Roman Collector! The Cybele reverse type is very similar to coins from Trapezopolis. Here is my only Docimeum.


Phrygia, Docimeium. Gordian III AE30. Athena Alkidemos.
Obv: M ANT ΓOPΔIANOC AVΓ, draped laureate right.
Rev: ΔOKIMEΩN MAKEΔONΩN, Athena Alkidemos.
RPC 744

also: Dokimeum, Docimeion, Docimeium, Dokimaion, and Dokimion.

 

Wonderful stuff and a happy new year right back atcha!
Best I can do is share another place in Phrygia.
Here's a Julia named Livia from Fulvia... wait what???

Livia, Phrygia. Eumeneia - Fulvia. Livia, wife of Augustus AD 14-29. Kleon Agapetos, magistrate. Struck under Tiberius
Bronze Æ
13 mm., 2,99 g.
ΣΕΒΑΣΤΗ. draped bust left / ΚΛΕΩΝ ΑΓΑΠΗ / ΤΟC / ΕΥΜΕИΕ / ΩΝ, legend in five lines within wreath.
very fine
RPC I 3148; SNG Copenhagen 392. Purchased from Savoca 4/2021

 

Very nice examples, RC, and always nice to learn a little bit more about an ancient city. I don’t have any coins from Docimeum, but I do have one from Prymnessus. I just learned (thanks to the great map you posted) that it was actually the next town over from Docimeum.



Mine has a much more traditional representation of Cybele and one of her lions:


Julia Domna, Phyrgia, Prymnessus., AE Diassarion (23 mm, 6.84 g). ΙΟΥΛΙΑ CЄΒΑCTH Draped bust of Julia Domna to right./ Rev. ΠΡΥΜΝΗCCЄΩΝ Kybele seated left, holding patera in her right hand and leaning left on tympanon; at feet to left, lion.

 

I only have a couple of coins from Phrygia, Docimeum. This is one of the rarest (best of 3 known specimen's):

Region, City - Reign: Phrygia, Docimeum - Tranquillina (Gordian III)
Obverse: ϹΑΒ ΤΡΑΝΚΥΛΛΕΙΝΑ Ϲ, diademed and draped bust of Tranquillina right
Reverse: ΔΟΚΙΜΕΩΝ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ, Tyche of Docimeum seated left on rocks, holding ear of corn; at her feet, river god Dureius
Reference: RPC Online VII.1, 750 (specimen #2)

 

That's lovely! Thanks for posting.

 

Phew, that's a tough one! So far RPC only has 51 types from Docimeum & only a total of 266 specimens. (Roughly 160 records on ACSearch.) That would qualify as a scarce mint!

If I cut out a modest square around it on the map given, though, I can spot a few nearby cities from which I have at least one coin:



In Phrygia:
Cotiaeum. Valerian:

Acmoneia. Nero:

Hierapolis. Gerousia type:


In Psidia:
Apollonia-Mordiaeum (alliance w/ Koinon of Lycia). Alexander III type:


A handful more cities each in Phrygia, Psidia, and Lydia if expanding out a bit further...

But NO Docimeum!

It's a reminder that when collecting Provincials, it can be hard just to learn/remember all the mint names. Trying to get a coin of each (or most) is a lifelong project