Featured Faustina I provincial Æ 20 from Flaviopolis

The city of Flaviopolis in Cilicia, also known as Flavias, is shrouded in mystery. The city was founded by Vespasian, as part of an imperial program for the urbanization of the Cilician Plain. It was located northeast of Anazarbos along a tributary of the Pyramus river (modern Ceyhan River), but its exact location is not certain. Some archaeologists identify it with the modern town of Kadirli, where mosaic floors, inscriptions, and building blocks have been found. Moreover, a 6th century church has been excavated at Kadirli, consistent with Flaviopolis being a bishopric of Cilicia Secunda in the early Christian era.



Coins of the city are typically dated according to an era beginning with the founding of the city. Hill[1] assigns a date of AD 74 for the city's founding, whereas Sear[2] assigns a date of AD 73. RPC IV.3 online[3] calculates the dates the coins issued by the city from year 1 = AD 73 as well. However, the earliest known coins are of the year 17 and bear the image of Domitian.

This small coin depicts the Roman empress Faustina I (Augusta AD 138-140), the wife of Antoninus Pius. It was issued in AD 166/7, under the authority of her son-in-law, Marcus Aurelius, Pius having died in AD 161. The reverse depicts Dionysus with rather standard iconography, not uncommonly used on coins throughout the provincial series. I have previously discussed this reverse type here and here on CT.

Post anything you feel is relevant!


Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman provincial Æ 20 mm, 4.91 g.
Cilicia, Flaviopolis, CY 94 = AD 166/7.
Obv: ΦΑΥСΤЄΙΝΑ CЄBACTH, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: ΦΛΑOΥΙΟ-ΠOΛЄΙΤΩΝ ЄΤOYC / Ϟ - Δ, Dionysos standing front, head to left, holding kantharos over panther in his right hand and thyrsos in his left.
Refs: RPC IV.3 online 10281 (temp); SNG Levante 1541 v. (year); Ziegler 1246-7; BMC --; SNG Paris --.
Notes: Double die-match to the specimen in the Ashmolean Museum (RPC example):



~~~

1. Hill, G.F. A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Greek Coins of Lycaonia, Isauria, and Cilicia. British Museum, London, 1900, p. cvii.

2. Sear, David. Greek Imperial Coins and Their Values. Seaby, London. 1982, p. 606.

3. “ROMAN PROVINCIAL COINAGE ONLINE.” Ashmolean Museum, https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/search/browse?q=Flaviopolis.

 

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Nice example. I do not have anything struck at Flaviopolis

One might think there would be numerous issues with Dionysos depicted, but of my collection of 700 plus coins, I only have four coins showing Dionysos. Here are a couple of 'em:

NAGIDOS in CILICIA
AR Stater
OBVERSE: Aphrodite seated left, holding patera over altar, crowned by Eros flying right above, rose and bud in left field, mouse under chair
REVERSE: NAΓIΔIKON, Dionysos, loins draped (long), standing left, holding bunch of grapes and thyrsos. EY ΔIO in left field.
Struck at Nagidos in Cilicia 356-333 BC
9.93g, 23 mm.
Lederer 64; Paris 809; Babelon Traite II-2 1524.8; SNG France II, 34
ex. Warren Esty

MARONEIA, THRACE
AE24
OBVERSE: Wreathed head of Dionysos right
REVERSE: Dionysos standing naked, holding bunch of grapes and two narthex wands, monogram to lower left, Greek legend DIONYSOU SOTIROS MARONITON ("of Dionysos, saviour of the Maroneans")
Struck at Maroneia 148 BC
10.94g, 24mm
Sear 1638

 

@Roman Collector - an interesting coin of Flaviopolis and the double die match a nice find! It seems Flavians named a few towns after their family: here a reference from Pliny to another Flaviopolis (if my geography is not off - this one much further north, with a story of Tereus and Procne and the swallow's mournful song):

We next come to the rivers Bathynias and Pydaras, or Athyras, and the towns of Selymbria and Perinthus, which join the mainland by a neck only 200 feet in width. In the interior are Bizya, a citadel of the kings of Thrace, and hated by the swallows, in consequence of the sacrilegious crime of Tereus; the district called Cænica, and the colony of Flaviopolis, where formerly stood a town called Cæla.
- Pliny, Natural History 4.18.5​

and a small obol from Cilicia - the city of Soli (also called Pompeiopolis on your map) - ~200 miles away on the southern coast, and ~400 years earlier with grapes (in place of Dionysus):
CILICIA, Soloi, Circa 350-330 BC, AR Obol
Size: 9.8mm, 0.53g
Obv: Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet
Rev: ΣOΛEΩN Bunch of grapes on stalk with leaf and tendrils, AΠ left of grapes

 

Interesting, I learned something !

I have only one coin from this city:



Domitian
Cilicia, Flaviopolis
AE17, dated Dated CY 17 (89/90 AD).
Obv.: ΔΟΜЄΤΙΑΝΟC ΚΑΙCΑΡ, laureate head right
Rev.: ЄΤΟVC ΖΙ ΦΛΑVΙΟΠΟΛЄΙΤωΝ, veiled head of Kronos right, harpa at his shoulder
AE, 2.60g, 17mm
Ref.: SNG Levante 1531, RPC II 1760, SNG von Aulock 5558.