Desr Friends of the coins from
Nikopolis ad Istrum!
My new coin of
Marcus Aurelius from Nikopolis has induced me to pay attention to
his coinage:
The coin:Moesia inferior,
Nikopolis ad Istrum,
Marcus Aurelius as
Caesar, AD 161-180
AE 20, 4.57g, 19.54mm, 180°
struck under governor
Marcus Antonius ZenoObv.: AVPH OVH - POC KAIC
Bust, draped, bareheaded, n.r.
Rev: HΓE ZHNΩNOC - NEIKOΠOΛEIT
Artemis as huntress, in short double
chiton, stg. r., holding in her extended l.
hand the bow and drawing with r. hand arrow from quiver over her r. shoulder
Ref.: (a) not in
AMNG (b) not in
Varbanov (c) not in
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2018):
Rev. No. 8.6.13.1 (for
Antoninus Pius, same die)
Obv. e.g. No. 8.7.9.1 (same die)
Extremely
rare (unique?), probably unpublished, F+, brown
patinaIf you look up the relevant reference works, you see that
AMNG I/1 for
Marcus Aurelius knows only 2
types,
RPC IV online only 3
types and
Varbanov 4
types.
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2018) has listed 12
types so far (you can see the meaning of our monograph in which all coins are shown and described!):
(1) 8.7.6.1 Hades/Serapis sacrificing over
altar I
(2) 8.7.6.2 Hades/Serapis sacrificing over
altar II
(3) 8.7.7.1
Apollo Sauroktonos(4) 8.7.8.1 Bundle of wine grapes
(5) 8.7.9.1
Nike(6) 8.7.13.1
Artemis as huntress
(7) 8.7.14.1
Herakles stg. l.
(8) 8.7.30.1
Isis(9) 8.7.32.1
River god(10)
Nemesis leaning against
column(11)
Tyche stg. l. I
(12)
Tyche stg. l. II
All but (4) of these
types have the
legend M AVPHΛIOC OVHPOC
KAICAP in different variations. Only (4) has M AVPHΛIOC ANTΩNINOC. The
types (5), (6), (9) and (19) are
signed with HGE ZHNΩNOC, and with the exception of the
types (1), (2), (9), (11) and (12) all reverses are struck with dies of
Antoninus Pius.
Let us now look at
his life data, which are of interest in connection with our coins:
Marcus Aurelius comes from a former family from Povinz
Hispania and was born on 26.4.12 in
Rome as (M. Annius?) Catilius
Severus. He earned great merits and was adopted on 25.2.138 by Emperor
Antoninus Pius under the name M.
Aelius Aurelius
Verus. In the beginning (?) 139 he was raised to
Caesar. On 7.3.161 he was raised to
Augustus as
Imperator Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (
Kienast).
Several reverses are
signed with HΓE ZHNΩNOC.
Tat is
Marcus Antonius Zeno, who was from 140-ca. 145 governor of the then
still undivided
Thrace. Only after 187 - probably only at the beginning of the reign of
Septimius Severus -
Moesia inferior got
his own governor. HGE stands for HΓEMΩNEVONTOC, which is the Greek translation of the Latin
legatus Augusti pro praetore and means a praetoric legate, in contrast to the following governors who were consular legates as YΠATEVONTOC (from Greek YΠATOC =
consul). These titles should not be translated with magistrate, as often happens by mistake. A magistrate is a city official. But as representatives of the emperor, these governors were also the commanders of the legions stationed in the province, the consular legate of several ones.
What can we infer from this? With the exception of the
type with the bundle of grapes, all other 11
types have the
legend OVHPOC
KAICAP. This means that these coins were struck for
Marcus Aurelius as
Caesar under
Antoninus Pius when he was
still called Aurelius
Verus. They date from the period between 139 and 161. The
types signed with
Zeno date from the years 140 to 145, i.e. from the beginning of
his time as
Caesar. This also explains that in 7
types dies of
Antoninus Pius was used.
Only the
type with the grape bundle carries the name M AVPHΛIOC ANTΩNINOC, which he carried as
Augustus. But since a die of
Antoninus Pius was also used here, there are some indications that this
type was stamped shortly after
his elevation to
Augustus. That would mean, however, that from about 161 until the death of
Marcus Aurelius on 17 March 180, the
mint in Nikopolis
had not struck any coins for him as
Augustus for almost 20 years. That's astonishing, I think. The reason for this is unknown until now.
I have added a picture of a marble
bust of
Marcus Aurelius from the Capitoline Museums in
Rome, so called
Type 3 (
Wikipedia)
Literature:(1)
Behrendt Pick, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands (
AMNG), 1898
(2) Arthur Stein, Römische Reichsbeamte der Provinz Thrakia, 1920
(3)
Varbanov,
Greek Imperial Coins, 2005
(4) Dietmar
Kienast, Römische Kaisertabelle, 1990
(5)
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov, The Coinage of
Nicopolis ad Istrum, 2018
(6)
RPC IV online(7)
WikipediaBest regards