Sidon(Saida, Lebanon)
(of the Sidonian's in Phoenician)DICTIONARY OF ROMAN| COINS|
         | Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. Sidon, or Zidon (now Saida, Lebanon), a maritime city, in that part of Syria called Phoenicia, renowned for its great antiquity, being celebrated in history both sacred and profane. -- Sidon has its name from the son of Canaan, mentioned in Genesis (c. x. v. 15). The equally famous city of Tyre long contended with it for primacy. But as Isaiah (c. xxiii. v. 12) calls Tyre the "daughter of Sidon," thus confirming what Strabo says, that Sidon only, and not Tyre, was celebrated by Homer, the palm of antiquity must necessarily be yielded to Sidon. Its inhabitants were early famous for their naval power, insomuch that, according to Diodorus, they could send out a hundred galleys of the largest class. At length the opulence of this grand emporium of commerce became a prey to Persian cupidity. -- Falling afterwards under the sway of the Romans, Sidon was deprived of her long enjoyed dignity of a metropolis by Augustus. -- But Trajan, mindful of its ancient glory, reconstituted its pre-eminence in the Syrian province ; and at length this most ancient city was restored to its metropolitan rank, and made a Roman colony by one utterly unworthy to hold the scepter of imperial Rome namely by Elagabalus, himself a Syrian by birth. -- These metropolitan rights, however, seem to have been soon abolished, for beyond the reign of Alexander Severus no coins assign that title to her. -- That Sidon was constituted a colony, with the distinctive appellation of Aurelia Pia, by Elagabalus is shown by the numerous coins struck in honor of himself and wives, of his mother and aunts. -- The autonomous coins of this place, many of which have Phoenician legends, bear the heads of Syrian kings from Antiochus IV. to Demetrius III. Its imperial medals, with Greek legends, are from Augustus to Hadrian. The colonial are inscribed to Elagabalus, Julia Paula, Annia Faustina, and Julia Maesa, and also to Alexander Severus. These all have Latin legends, such as COL. MET. AVR. PIA. SIDON. Colonia Metropolis Aurelia Pia Sidon ; and on their reverses the features of the Greek and Roman are singularly mingled with those of the Syrian and oriental superstition. The following are the types found on coins of this colony, as given by Vaillant, whose work is rich in Latin medals of Sidon, and no less so in explanatory animadversions on the subjects to which the different types refer : -- Astarte. -- Among the numerous numismatic dedications made by the Sidonians to the Syrian Elagabalus and to members of his house, are first and second brass, bearing the legend of COL. AVR. PIA. METR. SID. (Colonia Aurelia Pia Metropolis Sidon), and exhibiting the effigy of their favorite goddess, standing with her right hand placed on a trophy, and with her left holding a wand. A figure of Victory, placed on a column, extends to her a crown, and at the feet of Astarte is the figure of Silenus. -- On another first brass, inscribed to the same emperor, the same deity appears, and the same Victoriola, within a temple supported by four columns, but without the trophy. This type also appears on coins of Julia Paula. [The Sidonians, like their Tyrian neighbors and rivals paid supreme adoration to Astarte (see the word) ; and their city contained a temple erected to her honor. The goddess lays her hand on a trophy, in the same way as will be seen on the Tyrian money, and seemingly for the same purpose -- namely, to point at the various colonies established far and wide from Phoenicia, and in which trophies had been placed as tokens of conquest ; for which reason, perhaps, the small figure of Victory is made to offer a crown to Astarte, who holds the scipio, or a scepter, her appropriate symbol, as queen of the place, loci regina.] [Sidon, after having experience many changes of fortune, was at length made a colony, and the metropolis of Phoenicia, by Elagabalus. And he, having invested Alexander Severus with the title and rank of Caesar, had this medal dedicated to him, in congratulation of the event, and especially in in remembrance of Alexander's victory over the Persian invaders of Syria. The Sidonians, therefore, adopted the deified hero as a type on their coins, perhaps in flattery to Alexander himself, as if he were another conqueror of the eastern world.] Colonus agens boves. -- On the first brass of Elagabalus, the colonial priest drives his plough team of oxen, by whose side stands a vexillum, on which is inscribed LEG. III. PAR. -- Legio Tertia Parthica. -- On a similar reverse of Annia Faustina, the colonist extends his right hand, which holds a staff over the oxen. [The third legion had its appellation of Parthian conferred upon it by Sept. Severus ; and the military standard here inscribed with its name denotes that old soldiers from that legion were sent as a reinforcement to the Roman population of this colony. -- It appears that in order to supply the place of the many veterans who had fallen in the civil contests between him and Pescennius and Albinus, and also to fulfill his determination of waging war against the Parthians, Sept. Severus established three new legions, which, that he might give them a character for valor, as if they had already gained victories over the enemy, he called Parthicae. But having brought the war to a successful conclusion, he ordered the first and third of these newly formed legions to winter in Mesopotamia for the protection of that province. Subsequently, as many of the soldiers had completed their term of service, they were ordered by Elagabalus to be stationed in this colony of his own founding, not far remote from the place of their winter quarters. Europa, riding on the back of a bull, holds with both hands a veil, which floats above her  head ; on a second brass of Elagabalus and of Annia Faustina, his third wife, the legend of this coin is C. A. PI. MET. SID., Colonia Aurelia Pia Metropolis Sidon. [Vaillant observes that this elegant type, representing the rape of Europa by Jupiter under the form of a bull, refers to the antiquity of Sidon. Bimard (ad Jobert. ii. 261) views it in the same light, in opposition to the conjecture of some writers, who contend that the young woman and the bull simply designate the united beauty and strength of the Sidonians, qualities for which they were by no means remarkable. -- The same learned annotator judiciously adds that "Sidon, at the period when its Roman authorities caused these medals to be struck, was inhabited not only by Phoenicians, but also by Greeks, the latter of whom had established themselves there from Alexander the Great's time. And the Greeks, adopting on their part the worship of Astarte (the most ancient divinity of the Sidonians), imparted in their turn to the Sidonians, the worship of Europa." Thus, the figure of Astarte and of Europa, with their respective attributes and indications, were alternately engraved on the colonial-imperial coins of Sidon, whose inhabitants, like the rest of Phoenicia, had eventually become composed of people, who paid adoration equally to each of these deifications.] Emperor Sacrificing. -- On a coin of Sidon, struck under Elagabalus. -- The emperor, in the garb of a pontiff, stands before an altar with patera in right hand ; star in field. -- Pl. xix. 10, p. 203. Modius. -- On a first brass of Elagabalus, struck at Sidon, appears the modius, or bushel measure, filled with ears of corn, and at the bottom of the coin is AETERNV. BENEFI. Aeternum Beneficium. [Allusive to the donations of corn which, after the custom of Rome (see Annona), were made by Elagabalus to the Sidonians. This type seems to have been borrowed from a celebrated coin of Nerva, struck by order of the senate, with the epigraph Plebei Urbanae Frumento Constituto.] The epigraph is singular, but still in keeping with the monstrous exaggerations and fulsome flattering of a hideous reign. Signa Militaria. -- There is a first brass of Sidon, struck under the same Emperor, which exhibits three military ensigns, whose tops are surmounted by small eagles. These refer to the veterans of the Third Parthian legion sent by Elagabalus as colonists to Sidon, and on which remarks have already been made in describing the type of Colonus boves agens ; see above. On small brass, dedicated by this colony respectively to Julia Soaemias, the mother, and to Julia Maesa, the grandmother of Elagabalus, are three military standards, but without the eagles. Tables and Urns. -- A coin of Sidon, inscribed to Elagabalus, has a table with two urns upon  it, each urn having a palm branch. Around is inscribed COL. METRO. AVR. PIA. SID. ; or COL. AVR. PIA., etc., as in the example here given. Below are a vase, apples, and the epigraph CER. or CERT. PER. ISEL. OECVM. (Periodonica, Iselastica, OEcumenica). In the coin engraved above it must read, CE. PE. OEC. IS. [Vaillant considers CER. or CERT. PER. to signify Certamina Periodonica. but Bimard, who rejects Periodonicum as an unknown and even barbarous word, and who equally rejects the explanation offered by Hardouin of Certamen Perpetuum, adopts the opinion of Iselin, that by CER. PER. is to be understood Certamen Periodicum, that is to say, public games, in which all the different kinds of combats and contests were united, as was the custom at the four great games of Greece. Compare with Vaillant "Num. Imp. in Coloniis Percussa," vol. ii. p. 90. On a very rare first brass coin of this colony, struck under the same emperor, and on a second brass of Annia Faustina, his wife, appears a laurel crown, within which is read CERT. SAC. PER. OECVME. ISELA., the whole surrounded by COLonia AVRelia PIA. METRopolis SIDON. -- alluding to the celebration by the Sidonians of the same certamen periodicum. Triremis or Galley. -- On a rare second brass of Elagabalus, bearing the usual legend of this colony, are two galleys, in the right hand one of which a male figure stands with hands extended towards two figures (one of them a female), in the other galley. At the top of the coin is the ear of Astarte, and in the lower part is a dolphin. [This naval group is supposed to refer to the story of Dido's flight from Sidon.] On another Sidonian medal of Elagabalus a half naked woman is seen standing on the prow of a galley, with right hand extended, and left hand holding a wand transversely. [Some regard this type as alluding to the flight of Dido ; others as merely representing Astarte.] Woman, with turreted head, standing, clothed in the stola, holds her right hand over an altar, opposite to which is a legionary eagle placed on the prow of a ship. -- On a first brass of Elagabalus. [This figure represents the genius of Sidon. She wears a crown of towers, as a Metropolis ; she is dressed in the garb of a Roman matron, as a colony ; she holds a patera over the altar, as in the act of sacrificing for the emperor. The legionary eagle refers to the veterans with which the colony was peopled ; it is placed on a ship's prow, either to show the site of the place (Sidon, till its capture by the Persians, being, according to Mela, the greatest and most opulent of maritime cities), or to demonstrate the naval power of the place.] |
View whole page from the |Dictionary Of Roman Coins|
Sidon(Saida, Lebanon)
(Phoenician: of the Sidonian's)DICTIONARY OF ROMAN| COINS|
| Please add updates or make corrections to the NumisWiki text version as appropriate. Sidon, or Zidon (now Saida, Lebanon), a maritime city, in that part of Syria called Phoenicia, renowned for its great antiquity, being celebrated in history both sacred and profane. -- Sidon has its name from the son of Canaan, mentioned in Genesis (c. x. v. 15). The equally famous city of Tyre long contended with it for primacy. But as Isaiah (c. xxiii. v. 12) calls Tyre the "daughter of Sidon," thus confirming what Strabo says, that Sidon only, and not Tyre, was celebrated by Homer, the palm of antiquity must necessarily be yielded to Sidon. Its inhabitants were early famous for their naval power, insomuch that, according to Diodorus, they could send out a hundred galleys of the largest class. At length the opulence of this grand emporium of commerce became a prey to Persian cupidity. -- Falling afterwards under the sway of the Romans, Sidon was deprived of her long enjoyed dignity of a metropolis by Augustus. -- But Trajan, mindful of its ancient glory, reconstituted its pre-eminence in the Syrian province ; and at length this most ancient city was restored to its metropolitan rank, and made a Roman colony by one utterly unworthy to hold the scepter of imperial Rome namely by Elagabalus, himself a Syrian by birth. -- These metropolitan rights, however, seem to have been soon abolished, for beyond the reign of Alexander Severus no coins assign that title to her. -- That Sidon was constituted a colony, with the distinctive appellation of Aurelia Pia, by Elagabalus is shown by the numerous coins struck in honor of himself and wives, of his mother and aunts. -- The autonomous coins of this place, many of which have Phoenician legends, bear the heads of Syrian kings from Antiochus IV. to Demetrius III. Its imperial medals, with Greek legends, are from Augustus to Hadrian. The colonial are inscribed to Elagabalus, Julia Paula, Annia Faustina, and Julia Maesa, and also to Alexander Severus. These all have Latin legends, such as COL. MET. AVR. PIA. SIDON. Colonia Metropolis Aurelia Pia Sidon ; and on their reverses the features of the Greek and Roman are singularly mingled with those of the Syrian and oriental superstition. The following are the types found on coins of this colony, as given by Vaillant, whose work is rich in Latin medals of Sidon, and no less so in explanatory animadversions on the subjects to which the different types refer : -- Astarte. -- Among the numerous numismatic dedications made by the Sidonians to the Syrian Elagabalus and to members of his house, are first and second brass, bearing the legend of COL. AVR. PIA. METR. SID. (Colonia Aurelia Pia Metropolis Sidon), and exhibiting the effigy of their favorite goddess, standing with her right hand placed on a trophy, and with her left holding a wand. A figure of Victory, placed on a column, extends to her a crown, and at the feet of Astarte is the figure of Silenus. -- On another first brass, inscribed to the same emperor, the same deity appears, and the same Victoriola, within a temple supported by four columns, but without the trophy. This type also appears on coins of Julia Paula. [The Sidonians, like their Tyrian neighbors and rivals paid supreme adoration to Astarte (see the word) ; and their city contained a temple erected to her honor. The goddess lays her hand on a trophy, in the same way as will be seen on the Tyrian money, and seemingly for the same purpose -- namely, to point at the various colonies established far and wide from Phoenicia, and in which trophies had been placed as tokens of conquest ; for which reason, perhaps, the small figure of Victory is made to offer a crown to Astarte, who holds the scipio, or a scepter, her appropriate symbol, as queen of the place, loci regina.] [Sidon, after having experience many changes of fortune, was at length made a colony, and the metropolis of Phoenicia, by Elagabalus. And he, having invested Alexander Severus with the title and rank of Caesar, had this medal dedicated to him, in congratulation of the event, and especially in in remembrance of Alexander's victory over the Persian invaders of Syria. The Sidonians, therefore, adopted the deified hero as a type on their coins, perhaps in flattery to Alexander himself, as if he were another conqueror of the eastern world.] Colonus agens boves. -- On the first brass of Elagabalus, the colonial priest drives his plough team of oxen, by whose side stands a vexillum, on which is inscribed LEG. III. PAR. -- Legio Tertia Parthica. -- On a similar reverse of Annia Faustina, the colonist extends his right hand, which holds a staff over the oxen. [The third legion had its appellation of Parthian conferred upon it by Sept. Severus ; and the military standard here inscribed with its name denotes that old soldiers from that legion were sent as a reinforcement to the Roman population of this colony. -- It appears that in order to supply the place of the many veterans who had fallen in the civil contests between him and Pescennius and Albinus, and also to fulfill his determination of waging war against the Parthians, Sept. Severus established three new legions, which, that he might give them a character for valor, as if they had already gained victories over the enemy, he called Parthicae. But having brought the war to a successful conclusion, he ordered the first and third of these newly formed legions to winter in Mesopotamia for the protection of that province. Subsequently, as many of the soldiers had completed their term of service, they were ordered by Elagabalus to be stationed in this colony of his own founding, not far remote from the place of their winter quarters. Europa, riding on the back of a bull, holds with both hands a veil, which floats above her head ; on a second brass of Elagabalus and of Annia Faustina, his third wife, the legend of this coin is C. A. PI. MET. SID., Colonia Aurelia Pia Metropolis Sidon. [Vaillant observes that this elegant type, representing the rape of Europa by Jupiter under the form of a bull, refers to the antiquity of Sidon. Bimard (ad Jobert. ii. 261) views it in the same light, in opposition to the conjecture of some writers, who contend that the young woman and the bull simply designate the united beauty and strength of the Sidonians, qualities for which they were by no means remarkable. -- The same learned annotator judiciously adds that "Sidon, at the period when its Roman authorities caused these medals to be struck, was inhabited not only by Phoenicians, but also by Greeks, the latter of whom had established themselves there from Alexander the Great's time. And the Greeks, adopting on their part the worship of Astarte (the most ancient divinity of the Sidonians), imparted in their turn to the Sidonians, the worship of Europa." Thus, the figure of Astarte and of Europa, with their respective attributes and indications, were alternately engraved on the colonial-imperial coins of Sidon, whose inhabitants, like the rest of Phoenicia, had eventually become composed of people, who paid adoration equally to each of these deifications.] Emperor Sacrificing. -- On a coin of Sidon, struck under Elagabalus. -- The emperor, in the garb of a pontiff, stands before an altar with patera in right hand ; star in field. -- Pl. xix. 10, p. 203. Modius. -- On a first brass of Elagabalus, struck at Sidon, appears the modius, or bushel measure, filled with ears of corn, and at the bottom of the coin is AETERNV. BENEFI. Aeternum Beneficium. [Allusive to the donations of corn which, after the custom of Rome (see Annona), were made by Elagabalus to the Sidonians. This type seems to have been borrowed from a celebrated coin of Nerva, struck by order of the senate, with the epigraph Plebei Urbanae Frumento Constituto.] The epigraph is singular, but still in keeping with the monstrous exaggerations and fulsome flattering of a hideous reign. Signa Militaria. -- There is a first brass of Sidon, struck under the same Emperor, which exhibits three military ensigns, whose tops are surmounted by small eagles. These refer to the veterans of the Third Parthian legion sent by Elagabalus as colonists to Sidon, and on which remarks have already been made in describing the type of Colonus boves agens ; see above. On small brass, dedicated by this colony respectively to Julia Soaemias, the mother, and to Julia Maesa, the grandmother of Elagabalus, are three military standards, but without the eagles. Tables and Urns. -- A coin of Sidon, inscribed to Elagabalus, has a table with two urns upon it, each urn having a palm branch. Around is inscribed COL. METRO. AVR. PIA. SID. ; or COL. AVR. PIA., etc., as in the example here given. Below are a vase, apples, and the epigraph CER. or CERT. PER. ISEL. OECVM. (Periodonica, Iselastica, OEcumenica). In the coin engraved above it must read, CE. PE. OEC. IS. [Vaillant considers CER. or CERT. PER. to signify Certamina Periodonica. but Bimard, who rejects Periodonicum as an unknown and even barbarous word, and who equally rejects the explanation offered by Hardouin of Certamen Perpetuum, adopts the opinion of Iselin, that by CER. PER. is to be understood Certamen Periodicum, that is to say, public games, in which all the different kinds of combats and contests were united, as was the custom at the four great games of Greece. Compare with Vaillant "Num. Imp. in Coloniis Percussa," vol. ii. p. 90. On a very rare first brass coin of this colony, struck under the same emperor, and on a second brass of Annia Faustina, his wife, appears a laurel crown, within which is read CERT. SAC. PER. OECVME. ISELA., the whole surrounded by COLonia AVRelia PIA. METRopolis SIDON. -- alluding to the celebration by the Sidonians of the same certamen periodicum. Triremis or Galley. -- On a rare second brass of Elagabalus, bearing the usual legend of this colony, are two galleys, in the right hand one of which a male figure stands with hands extended towards two figures (one of them a female), in the other galley. At the top of the coin is the ear of Astarte, and in the lower part is a dolphin. [This naval group is supposed to refer to the story of Dido's flight from Sidon.] On another Sidonian medal of Elagabalus a half naked woman is seen standing on the prow of a galley, with right hand extended, and left hand holding a wand transversely. [Some regard this type as alluding to the flight of Dido ; others as merely representing Astarte.] Woman, with turreted head, standing, clothed in the stola, holds her right hand over an altar, opposite to which is a legionary eagle placed on the prow of a ship. -- On a first brass of Elagabalus. [This figure represents the genius of Sidon. She wears a crown of towers, as a Metropolis ; she is dressed in the garb of a Roman matron, as a colony ; she holds a patera over the altar, as in the act of sacrificing for the emperor. The legionary eagle refers to the veterans with which the colony was peopled ; it is placed on a ship's prow, either to show the site of the place (Sidon, till its capture by the Persians, being, according to Mela, the greatest and most opulent of maritime cities), or to demonstrate the naval power of the place.] |
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