Dear Friends of ancient mythology! About 10 years I have this coin in my collection. The attribution was very difficult because this coin is unpublished. Finally I succeeded. Only the inscription on the shield is still unknown. Ionia, Magnesia ad Maeandrum, Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161 AE 33, 26.53g, 33.3g, 210° struck under grammateus L. Dioskurides Gratos Metr. obv. [T AI]ΛIOC KAICAP - ANTΩNEINO[C] Laureate head r. rev. EΠI ΔIOCKOVPIΔ[OV] ΓP - MAΓ- NHTΩN Themistokles, nude to hips, std. l. on throne with lion's-feet, l. hand at parazonium hanging at his l. side, with r. hand holding an oval shield inscribed with .EM/.AN/OC in three lines set on cippus; r. behind him a horse stg. r., head turned l. ref.: cf. Schultz 100 (obv. only, same die), unpublished extremely rare, F+ This coin was very difficult to interprete. Because of the depiction of the male figure, nude, with parazonium, very tall upper part of the body, the suggestion tends to Themistokles. There is another rare type of him sacrificing before an altar, where he is depicted in the same way. Themistokles is the famous hero of Salamis who after an infamous ostrakismos had to flee from Athens. His former enemy, the Persian king Artaxerxes I, took him hospitably in and made him satrap of Lampsakos and Magnesis ad Maeandrum due to his merits at Salamis. The inscription .EM / .AN / OC is what I can see. It is well possible that it is not correct. And what should be the meaning? Anyone who has an idea how this inscription has to be read or what can be its meaning? I have added (1) a pic of the original coin (2) a magnification of its rev. (3) a pic of the rev. after an attempt to clean it. I think this was not successful. It has lost some details. Thanks in advance
What an interesting coin! It would be great to find stronger evidence that it does in fact depict Themistokles. It would make sense, of course, since Magnesia ad Maeandrum was his headquarters after he fled Greece and was made governor by the Persian king. Here's my writeup on Themistokles from last year's Imperator tournament: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/po...27-severus-alexander-round-3-cit-2018.323007/ I've since sold that coin, but I still have a Themistokles, this tiny silver with his monogram: Magnesia ad Maeandum under Themistokles, 465-459 BCE, AR tetartemorion (5mm, 0.21g) Nollé and Wenninger Th 5b (though half the weight).
Here's another example of the OP coin, from Leu Web Auction 3, lot 554, ex G&M 181. Probably the same dies, although it's hard to be sure. They also identify the reverse figure as Themistokles. Phil Davis
and a couple more, both from Pecunum; sale 41, lot 489 and 39, lot 592, respectively. Both also identified as Themistokles.
Thank you all for your posts! Here I have a scan of the shield, left side before cleaning, right side after cleaning. Sadly I have no better pics. Jochen
