By coincidence, I just obtained one of each for
Marcus Aurelius and
his partner,
Lucius Verus.
Did a
Google search and found this link...
Roman commanders with plans to attack
Armenia or the
Parthian Empire, east of the Euphrates, often visited Cyrrhus. We know that
Germanicus,
Trajan, and
Caracalla visited the city. The presence of legionaries and other soldiers, and the imperial visits, must have been beneficial to the urban economy; the two bridges were built in this age - in the second century, to be precise. The large theater (
diameter 115 meter) was built at about the same time, while the hexagonal mausoleum, probably the tomb of a
Roman centurion, belongs to the late second or early third century. The
Historia Augusta mentions that the usurper Avidius Cassius was born in Cyrrhus.note
was taken by the
Armenian Empire in the 1st century BC, then became
Roman when Pompey took
Syria in 64 BC. By the 1st century AD, it
had become a
Roman administrative,
military, and commercial center on the trade route between
Antioch and the Euphrates River crossing at Zeugma, and minted its own coinage.[1] It was the base of the
Roman legion
Legio X Fretensis.[2] The Sassanid
Persian Empire took it several times during the 3rd century.[3]
The city has been excavated by the Lebanese Syrian Archaeological Mission of Cyrrhus.[5] Initial results indicate a square layout with Hippodamian grid road plan and a central main road with Colonnades typical of the Hellenistic east . The road layout seems to have survived until into the
Islamic times. Remains in Cyrrhus include two
Roman Bridge s in working order, a dilapidated theatre outside the town and foundations of a
Basilica church and some city fortifications. In the 6th century a
Byzantine citadel was built on the top of the
hill behind the theatre.[6] with evidence of Greek and
Egyptian influences in the design
work.[7][8] This citadel is
still largely unexcavated
Another is a
thread here
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/zeus-kataibates.336651/I don't know if they are
rare, but nice to own and interesting stories
