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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24851199, member: 128351&quot;]Many cities in the oriental provinces of the Roman Empire worshipped their own city-goddess called in Greek the <i>Tyche</i>, the Fortune or Destiny of the city. In every city there was a temple called the <i>Tychaion</i>, a name that means &quot;statue of the Tyche&quot; but also &quot;temple of the Tyche&quot;. Though the local Tyche was supposed to be the goddess of this city and not any other city, the statues were almost identical. In North Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, almost all Tyches were represented veiled, seated on a rock, a river-god swimming at their feet, like the Hellenistic statue of the Tyche of Antioch made by the sculptor Eutychides. In South Syria, Palestine, Arabia, the Tyche was a standing figure holding a cornucopia and/or a long sceptre, one foot resting on some object, head or prow for example.</p><p><br /></p><p>On 3rd c. coins, most of them minted under Elegabalus, these Tyches were often represented in an architectural frame, described as a tetrastyle temple with a triangular pediment and a central arch. Sometimes there are tiny statues between columns. It is always the same architecture. It does not represent the facade of the temple but the inner shrine, the <i>adyton</i>, where the statue was standing.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1592626[/ATTACH] <font size="3">Some examples of <i>Tychaion</i> coins from different cities (not my coins)</font></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>One of these temples is well-preserved enough to show this inner shrine. It is in a small South Syrian town, Sanamein (ancient Aere). Aere was not a polis, a city, but had her own Tyche in her temple. We can still see the bottom of the cella with the central niche flanked by columns, there must have been a triangular pediment but it has vanished.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1592627[/ATTACH]</p><p style="text-align: center"><font size="3">Interior of the Tychaion of Sanamein (Syria). It&#039;s the best preserved I know. </font></p><p><br /></p><p>Now, the problem... This architecture is always the same in many cities, and it is possible to ID coins only when the legend is readable, at least a part of it. But in archaeological digs, you often find bronze coins in terrible condition, and it is not always possible to clean them properly. Hence the frustration when you have a worn and corroded Tychaon coin you cannot ID with confidence because no part of the legend is readable...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1592628[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Tychaion coins from an archaeological dig. Some could be identified (Bostra, Caesarea, Antipatris) but for others it&#039;s a total frustration... </font></p><p><br /></p><p>Please you can post your Tychaion coins if you have any...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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