Never heard before of Blaundus... Blaundus / Blaundos was a colony of Macedonian soldiers probably established by the Seleucid kings. The city was located on the border of Phrygia and Lydia. While Blaundus never became particularly important, it’s a city founded in the wake of Alexander the Great. The city was under control of the Kingdom of Pergamon after Alexander the Great and later of the Roman Empire. It was known in ancient times as the land of beautiful horses and beautiful vineyards. Actually, even though the references either assign this coin to Nero, who after adoption was called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, or just describe the obverse as Nero and date the coin to ca. 55 AD, that is, about five years after his adoption by emperor Claudius in 50 AD, whose name by the way was also Tiberius Claudius Nero. Even found some that say that the magistrate is Tiberius Claudius Calligenes. So, of course I'm again a bit confused. Æ Hemiassarion Lydia, Conventus of Sardis, Blaundus, ca. 55 AD; Magistrate Calligenes 17x18 mm, 5.94 g RPC I 3059; BMC 63-65; SNG Copenhagen 85; SNG von Aulock 2925;GRPC Lydia 99; Obv.: ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ Bare-headed and draped bust of Nero to r. Border of dots Rev.: ΤΙ ΚΛΑΥ (Tiberius Claudius) Apollo standing r., holding plectrum and lyre ΚΑΛΛΙΓΕΝΗΣ ΒΛΑΥΝΔΕΩΝ (Calligenes of Blaundus). Border of dots. Picture courtesy Heritage Please share any info and/or coins related
Interesting. The dictionary of Greek and Roman geography has this regarding Blaundus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper...=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=blaundus-geo
Ah, this is a great coin! A great things about Roman Provincial coins is that there are so many mints (over 350?), even if you've heard of them all, you're sure to forget some before the next time you hear them named! But this is one that I remember, for a couple reasons, below.... (Pardon me for having already recently shared them both.) Two Questions: RPC lists yours as the first of the 78 types it has for Blaundus: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/3059 of https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/search/browse?q=blaundus . Do you happen to know if this is actually the first type (or from the first series of issues) struck at the mint? (It looks that way. Would be very cool!) And, do you know if there is any particular local significance to Apollo Kitharoidos for the city? (In some places, like Troas, Alexandreia, there were important temples/cults for Apollo Musaegetes...and Smintheus, Apollo the Mouse Slayer! Seriously. Maybe similar here.) Here's why I was already interested in this particular type: One, these Blaundus AEs look so similar to Nero's early coins of Phrygia, Eumeneia. Not only on the obverse portrait. The reverse style: both share a standing god (Apollo/Zeus), holding his symbolic object (Lyre/Labrys), and a mix of vertical and curved text in the reverse legend (incl. Magistrate name). Here's my Nero Eumeneia that I just bought: Also, whose collector tag is that in the middle? Not Lockett & Vermeule (who passed it along). References 1887 ed. of Head's HN. Lockett bought it from Lincoln (London dealer). At first, I wondered if Blaundus & Eumeneia could've shared dies or engravers. (Not dies, it turns out: "Blaundian" Neros are as Caesar, "Eumeneian" Augustus, at least in RPC. But Kraft, Johnston, and Watson did mention Blaundus when discussing Asia Minor cities involved in "die-sharing." I don't remember which reigns or with which partner mints.) The second reason I like these Blaundus Neros: Apollo Kitharoidos. That design appears on Roman Provincials from other mints and for many emperors (Claudius before him, and, after him at Blaundus alone, Vespasian, Hadrian, Antoninus Aurelius, probably others). BUT, it has a particular significance for Nero. As Suetonius famously described, Nero (later, as Augustus) had statues commissioned of himself as Apollo with Lyre/Kithara, and even had coins struck with himself portrayed as Apollo playing. @Gavin Richardson started an interested thread on the type(s): https://www.cointalk.com/threads/self-portrait-with-nero-as-apollo.395197/ NOT my coin: Fig. 5 on page 9 of Ellithorpe (2017) Circulating Imperial Ideology (UNC Dissertation) [downloadable from UNC] = CNG EA 276 (21 Mar 2012), Lot 379. The present type from Blaundus is too early for us to say that Apollo on the reverse represents Apollo. That interpretation is usually reserved for the Roman Imperials of similar design. The Blaundus version, however, appears to be the first coin of Nero what that reverse imagery. Could it have given him some ideas? There are Provincial types, however, whose reverses can, in my opinion, be identified with some confidence as Nero-in-the-guise-of-Apollo Kitharoidos. The types from Thessaly, in particular: RPC 1439, example 25 = Burrer 1 (A1/R1) = this coin. The historical context was that Nero had just finished his great musical tour of the Greek Games, playing and orating at every festival he could. He had also just "liberated" Achaea (of which province Thessaly was a part, then). Though despised by the elites of Rome, the Greeks loved Nero, and surely wished to flatter him with these coins. In case it wasn't clear enough, they took the extra step of depicting Apollo radiate on this type -- another of Nero's personal affectations (he is also shown radiate on the obverse of another coin from Thessaly in this series, RPC 1440; ex. 7 = my coll). So... to summarize it with a math equation: Nero Blaundus = Nero Eumeneia + Nero Thessaly - a couple years
I had some trouble with your URL, but there's good information in it. Let's see if these work: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=blaundus or http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper...04.0064:entry=blaundus-geo&highlight=blaundus Interesting that Perseus / Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography give Blaundus as Phrygia rather than Lydia. I'm sure that's the city. But the boundaries between neighboring Lydia & Phrygia may have varied with Roman administration. (Edit: Looking it up, I see that my Bildatlas der Klasshichen Welt gives it as Lydia. And Barrington as Phrygia!) Also interesting that a lot of the information available about Blaundus at that time (late 19th cent?) was from coins and their finds. (I.e., in addition to a small number of tomb inscriptions, etc.) A century on, Wiki doesn't have much to add: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaundus
@expat I tried to access the link you shared, but got the following message: "We're sorry, but we were unable to find a document matching your query."
Aha, here is something interesting I learned about Blaundus that's relevant to this coin type. About 10 miles to the southeast is a temple/sanctuary to Apollo Lairmenos. (I assume this must be Apollo Lairbenos; there's something funny going on with B's & M's here; several sources report Greek coins with the legend Mlaundus instead of Blaundus!) So Apollo must've been a sort of local patron deity. Blaundus is halfway from Bagis, a big city, so maybe travelers would've even stopped on the way southward? (Or from Silandos & Tabala.) [B-5, toward the bottom, lower center right-ish.] For context, we're in the bottom-left corner of square 62 below:
@Curtis that's an impressive and very informative write-up. Thank you so much for sharing. Trying to answer your questions: I don't know if it is from the first issues struck at Blaundus. Actually, I spent a lot of time looking for information about this coin. One of the documents I found is a PhD dissertation that on its page 108 (114 of the pdf) has an image and description of the coin, which was my main interest. The dissertation is titled "CHAOS AND CLAIRVOYANCE: APOLLO IN ASIA MINOR AND IN THE APOCALYPSE" by Andrew Courtras, 2018. The apocalypse parts are not of interest for me, but he certainly discusses Apollo. Here is the link: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2280&context=ecommonsatsdissertations Another PhD dissertation that I found is by Lucia Carbone, "Romanizing’ Asia: the impact of Roman imperium on the administrative and monetary systems of the Provincia Asia", Columbia University, 2016 which downloads automatically from here: https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8HT2X2S/download On later issues of Nero, it is clear from the many references that Apollo had a special significance for Nero. However, on this coin he is portrayed as a very young boy, and I just question if at that age Apollo had the significance that he had later for Nero, and if this is really The Nero, or if it could be another emperor whose name was Tiberius Claudius Nero. The many examples I searched just say Nero or even that the Magistrate's name is Tiberius Claudius Calligenes; it seems that I'm not the only one confused. This is quoted from the first dissertation I mentioned: Even after Asia Minor fell under Roman control, Apollo remained a deity grounded in the Greek practices of religion. He represented the Greek and indigenous cultures of Asia Minor; Rome had adopted the Hellenic Apollo. Apollo also had the role of guarantor and protector of the empire.
I was looking for a map showing Blaundos and surrounding cities with their ancient names. I didn't find one. That's great that you shared this map.
Do you mean you think it might be a coin of someone other than "the" Nero? I don't think that's possible: The coin names him on the obverse inscription as Nero Caesar (ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ). The inscription "ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ" is not used for anyone except Nero. RPC certainly doesn't show anyone else besides Nero, Caesar from 50-54/55 CE, using that obverse legend. They and all the major collections and catalogs identify this coin as Nero. (It is also easily recognizable as the same person in all of his other youthful Provincial portraits from the region.) As far as "Tiberius Claudius Kalligenes": All that history records about him is on this and one other coin type. He is a local "magistrate" (we don't really know what the office was called or how it worked all the time, but it's the official responsible for coinage that year, in that city). We know his name from the reverse legend on your coin: "ΤΙ ΚΛΑΥ ΚΑΛΛΙΓΕΝΗΣ" = Ti[berius] Klau[dius] Kalligenes.
The name of the magistrate is really Tiberius Klaudius Kalligenes? I understand that on coins TI always means Tiberius (The Tiberius), and by reading the legends on the obverse and the reverse we have Tiberius Claudius Nero, the name of the future emperor Tiberius. There is a publication by Miroslav Marcovich "Zur Inschrift des Tiberius Claudius Calligenes", that apparently deals about this, but I haven't been able to find it available on the web. It would be interesting to know what Marcovich writes about the legend.
Yes that's definitely the name of the magistrate. I promise you, it's a coin of Nero and the name "Tiberius Claudius Kalligenes" is for the local mint official/magistrate, not the person on the obverse. They don't put different parts of one person's name across both sides of the coin. It's just not how it works. This coin is in very typical format for Roman Provincials, and has been published many times with the same interpretation, along with all the other Roman Provincial coins that have the same format. Obverse: Emperor's name and portrait ("ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ") They even give the title afterward, "Caesar" / Junior Emperor. Reverse: Magistrate name ("ΤΙ ΚΛΑΥ ΚΑΛΛΙΓΕΝΗΣ") and city name ("ΒΛΑΥΝΔΕΩΝ"). There's no room for any other interpretation, so if anyone suggested otherwise, I can't believe they're very familiar with Roman Provincial coinage. On my coin it's the same format. He's named on the obverse ("ΝΕΡΩΝ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΟΣ," Nero, with Sebastos being the Greek term for the title Sr. Emperor/Augstus). On the reverse it names the magistrate, Julius Kleon ("ΙΟΥΛΙΟΣ ΚΛΕΩΝ") and the city, Eumeneia ("ΕΥΜΕΝΕΩΝ"). It doesn't mean that my coin is of an emperor named Nero Julius Kleon. Like your coin, it's naming two different people, the Emperor, and the magistrate, who is like a city mayor or something.
