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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Alex22, post: 4787428, member: 102942&quot;]Here are two coins I have that commemorate the capture of <b>Armenia</b> by Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius. This conquest gave them the title of Armeniacus.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1163739[/ATTACH]</p><p><i>Denarius of Lucius Verus 163 AD - 164 AD, Rome mint, RIC.III.509(m_aur). <b>Obv.</b>: </i>L VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS<i>, Head of Lucius Verus, bare, right. <b>Rev.</b>: </i>TR P IIII IMP II COS I<i>, </i>ARMEN<i> (in ex.), Armenia seated left on ground, surrounded by arms, resting left hand on bow and quiver; <i>before her, vexillum and shield</i>.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1163746[/ATTACH]</p><p><i>Denarius of Marcus Aurelius 163 AD - 164 AD, Rome mint,<i> RIC.III.80(<i><i>m_aur</i></i>), RSC.8, BMC.271.</i> <b>Obv.</b>: </i>ANTONINVS AVG ARMENIACVS<i>, Head of Marcus Aurelius, bare, right. <b>Rev.</b>: </i>P M TR P XVIII IMP II COS III<i>, </i>ARMEN<i> (in ex.), Armenia seated left on ground, <i>surrounded by arms,</i> <i>resting left hand on bow; </i>before her, vexillum and shield.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Note, that the personifications here indeed depict some characteristics of the captive region. In particular, the elongated headwear, depending on a specific reverse type, depicts either the Armenian tiara or lesser headwears seen on the coinage of Armenian satrap states, such as Armenia Minor. The style is also different from the personification of Parthia, which appears on analogous coins (also giving the title Parthicus to L.V. and M.A.), but with distinct Parthian bashlyk (see below for an example from <a href="http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=3582648" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=3582648" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=3582648</a>).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1163752[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Another geographic personification would be the <b>river Araxes</b> (Arax) swimming below the Tyche city goddess (see F.L. Kovacs 2016). My coin below is from the Tigranocerta (Tigranakert, Armenia) mint.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1163768[/ATTACH]</p><p><i>Tetrachalcoi of Tigranes II (The Great), 80 BC - 68 BC, Tigranocerta (<i>Armenia</i>) mint, Kovacs.81. <b>Obv.</b>: head of Tigranes II right, wearing Armenian flapped five-pointed tiara, decorated with 8-pointed star between two eagles. <b>Rev.</b>: </i>BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩN TIΓPANOY<i>, Tyche seated right, holding palm, below, river-god Araxes swimming right, letter </i>A<i> above the river god, and </i>TP<i> monogram above the hand of Tyche.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>This type of Tigranes coins, with different mintmarks and denominations, was also produced in other cities, and upon Tigranes&#039; expansion there, in Antioch. For the Antioch coins, the river god is naturally attributed to the river Orontes. Seems the ancients gave proper credit to the rivers that were giving rise to, or were an essential attributes of, the great cities. On another note, there is also a later commemorative issue for Artaxiata (Artashat) city, an Armenian capital, also situated on Araxes river, depicting only the head of Tyche, who could have been a general depiction of a city, hence a city goddess, with the headwear out of a stronghold.</p><p><br /></p><p>Armenia personification also appears on the coin of Trajan, stating &quot;ARMENIA ET MESOPOTAMIA IN POTESTATEM P R REDACTAE&quot; in its reverse. It shows the reclining figure of Armenia, surrounded by the river gods Tigris and Euphrates (rivers that start from Armenian Highlands). Some listings mistakenly mention &quot;reclining figure of Mesopotamia&quot;, but the Armenian headware, and the exact historical events this coin is linked to, confirms the former. An example of that coin is below (from <a href="http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=2574675" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=2574675" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/image.html?id=2574675</a>).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1163796[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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