Lloyd,
Great coin. Congratulations. Although a bronze, I wanted to share my Ainianes coin with you. I hadn't heard of coinage from this
area either until a very reputable dealer at a
coin show pulled one out and told me that it is a very uncommon coin.
Obverse:
Zeus facing right
Reverse: [AIN]
IAN[ΩN] on either
side of mythical
King Phemios shown as a slinger, naked but for
chlamys over
his shoulder and
arm, sword in scabbard, shooting
sling to right; behind, leaning against
his right
leg, two spears.
6.6 grams; 22.28 mm
Trichalkon
168-146 BCE
I find it interesting that you say that the date of creation of these coins is now 1st century. Reason being?
Also interesting is the fact that the right
arm on my coin is up as opposed to down on yours. I understand that on these coins Phemios is shown with either a
sling or a spear. Here is some information I found.
"The reverses of the coinage of the Ainianes can be divided into two main groups: the first, which I believe is the earlier, bears the figure of Phemios who appears as a warrior with a short spear and either a
petasos or a petasos-like small
shield; the second also bears a depiction of Phemios, but using a
sling instead of a spear. In any case the coins that show him as a slinger are definitely later in date. The present coin appears to combine both
types and is typical of the kind of confusing iconography found on some
Greek coins! "
"Recent scholarship has well documented the propensity of Greek poleis in the Hellenistic and
Roman world to insert themselves into broader regional and panhellenic mythologies—to innovate or embroider established tradition when necessary—in an attempt both to define their position within a rapidly changing political landscape and to advertise their connectedness to one another (e.g.,
Jones 1999). The relationship of Greek ethnē to these developments has been much less prominent, however. This paper examines the persistence of ethnos identity in Hellenistic and
Roman Greece through a close reading of the experiences of Ainis.
The Ainianes, a small ethnos in the Spercheios valley of central
Greece and early member of the Delphian amphictyony, were, through much of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic
history, under the sway of their more powerful neighbors, whether they be Thessalian, Spartan (from nearby Herakleia Trachinia) or Aitolian. Following the Macedonian defeat at Pydna, the Ainianes (re)formed a
koinon before being subsumed into the Thessalian League and most likely integrated into the
Roman province of
Achaia in 27BCE. Throughout this extended period of subjection and submission, Ainian identity remained vibrant.
While the
epigraphy of the region is not especially extensive, there are three literary passages which illuminate the various ways in which Ainian identity was articulated during the Hellenistic and
Roman era: (1) [Aristotle], peri thaumasiōn akousmatōn, 843b15-844a5, recounts the discovery of an archaic metrical
inscription outside Ainian Hypata. This text claimed to record the foundation of a sanctuary of Aphrodite in the region by
Herakles himself after herding the cattle of Geryon. While one doubts
Herakles’ role in establishing the cult, this strategy of integrating Ainis into a broader panhellenic thought-world is typical, as the evidence of the Lindian Chronicle makes clear (Higbie 2003); (2) Plutarch, Mor. 297b1-c6 (= Quaest. Graec. 26), describes a procession made by the Ainian maidens to the territory of Kassiope in
Epirus. This display apparently traced in
reverse a segment of the legendary wanderings of the ethnos from western
Greece into the Spercheios valley; (3) Heliodorus’ Aithiopika 2.34-3.10 (esp. 2.34-35), the most difficult text of the three, offers a very full description of a Thessalian procession to
Delphi which is headed by Ainianes. While the passage has attracted much warranted suspicion, particularly regarding the historicity of the procession it claims to describe (e.g., Rougemont 1992), it is clear that the position of the Ainianes within this Thessalian theoria and, in particular, Heliodorus’ description of Ainian claims on
Achilles as an ancestral, perhaps national, hero coupled with Thessalian renunciation of competing claims, reflect a
contemporary political reality of
Roman Thessaly; under the empire, the political and symbolic center of Thessaly shifted south from Larisa to Hypata in Ainis.
The assembled texts offer a glimpse of Ainian
tools of self-actualization in Hellenistic and
Roman Greece—recreation of the legendary past, self-projection into a broader panhellenic
mythology and exclusive claims on heroic (Homeric) ancestry. While Ainis was never a major player on the grand stage of Hellenic
history, the persistence of the Ainianes qua Ainianes suggests that ethnos identity was not purely a matter of political expedience but
had deeper, cultural purpose."
Steve S.
