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Coins of mythological interest

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Jochen:
The Holy City Council

The Coin:
Caria, Trapezopolis, pseudo-autonomous, AD 150-250
AE 18, 3.29g, 18.44mm, 180°.
Obv.: IEPA - BOVΛH.
         Bust of Boule, draped and veiled, r.
Rev.: TPAΠE - ZOΠOΛI.
         Kybele, in girdled double chiton, wearing kalathos, standing frontal, holding
         outward-turned hands over 2 lions, seated r. and l. beside her with raised paws
         outward.
Ref.: SNG Tübingen 3505; Martin 12; Mionnet Supp.6, 554; RPC IV.2 online, 9243
rare, VF, brown-green patina

Our coin comes from Trapezopolis in Caria in the present province of Denizli in Turkey On the reverse the goddess Kybele is depicted with 2 lions at her side. What interests us here, however, is the front, which shows the female bust of Boule, draped and veiled to the right. The veil is the expression of her honour. The legend IEPA - BOVΛH translates as the "Holy City Council". Yes, those were the days when the local council was still holy! True, even today it often behaves as if it is sacrosanct and unassailable, but fortunately those days are gone. And one should remember that as a counterpart to the sacred city council there was also the IEPOΣ ΔHMOΣ, the sacred people of the state or the sacred community of citizens, from which our concept of democracy derives.

The Boule originated in Athens and belongs to the beginning of Attic democracy. At first it was exclusively for nobles, but then every unbowed citizen was allowed to become a member. It decided on the budget, the fleet and impeachments. In Roman times, the principle of oligarchy prevailed again, membership was only possible for a circle of wealthy citizens. And their powers were limited to local tasks. The meeting of the Boule took place in a special building, the Bouleuterion, a richly decorated building usually near the Agora, the market place and centre of the city.

In inscriptions, the Boule is always mentioned first, where it says, for example, "The Boule and the Demos have issued the following decree". But it is striking that on coins the Boule is always depicted on the smaller denominations than the Demos. Since nothing was random in this period, as is so often the case today, this can only mean that the Demos, the people, was above the Boule, the council assembly, in the hierarchy, which is actually understandable, since the latter consisted of only a part of the city people.

The coin depicted comes from Asia Minor at the time of the Roman Empire. The depictions of the Boule, the Demos and other institutions of the Greek polis were intended to convey the message that these late Hellenised (Martin) cities were also part of the great tradition of Greek history and, despite being part of the Roman provincial administration, did not need to hide from the famous classical cities.

The coin does not show the image of an emperor and is therefore called "pseudo-autonomous". It reflects an autonomy that had in fact long since ceased to exist. The terms "holy city council" or "holy community of citizens" still recall the old traditions, but in fact the rights of the cities and their institutions were severely curtailed. We know that today, too. There, the city council cannot decide for itself how wide a planned road can be, or whether or not cars may overtake each other on the road to the next town. Times do not seem to have changed after all. All the more reason for today's local councillors to take care that they fulfil their task of controlling the administration and do not degrade themselves to insignificance. I had this article published as a letter to the editor in view of the current situation, since our local council is known for its uncritical approval of all proposals from the administration.

I have attached the photo of the Bouleuterion of Aphrodisias in Caria (own photo from 2011)

Literature:
(1) Der  Kleine  Pauly
(2) Katharina Martin, Demos.Boule.Gerousia: Personifikationen  städtischer  Institutionen auf  kaiserzeitlichen  Münzen  aus  Kleinasien,  Münster  2013
     (The standard reference!)
(3) Katharina Martin, Demos und Boule auf Münzen phrygischer Städte. Überlegungen zu Ikonographie  und  Funktion  von  Münzbildern
(4)  Wikipedia

Best regarss

Jochen:
Gerusia - the Council of Elders

The Coin:
Caria, Antiocheia ad Maeandrum, pseudo-autonomous, 3rd century AD.
AE 20, 4.93g, 19.68mm, 180°.
Obv.: IEPA Γ[E - POVCIA]
        Bust of Gerusia, draped, r.
Rev.: ANTIO - XEΩN.
        Athena in double chiton and helmet standing  l., holding in left arm shield and spear and in outstretched right hand patera.
Ref.: BMC 18; not in RPC
very rare, VF-

The Gerusia, the Council of Elders, originated in Sparta. It consisted of 28 citizens of Sparta, the gerontes (from Greek γέρων = old man), who had to be at least 60 years old. Thus it roughly corresponded to the Roman Senate (from Latin senex = old man). The two kings always belonged to it. In the 7th century, the Gerusia was made one of the central organs of state, along with the Ephores and the People's Assembly. The text of the oldest Greek constitution is attributed to Lycurgus and has been handed down to us by Plutarch. According to him, it was an oracle saying from Delphi that was presented to Lycurgus. Plutarch himself held a priesthood at the temple of Apollo in Delphi from 95. According to current research, Lykurg is probably not a historical but a mythical person.

In fact, however, it was not a single act, but developed gradually. As a result of the Messenian wars, the Spartan territory had expanded to such an extent that it required a new ruling and administrative structure. At the same time, it was intended to counteract a concentration of power in the hands of a few. The gerontes were elected for life. They decided which motions were submitted to the People's Assembly and which were not. They had the right to revoke or prevent decisions of the People's Assembly. Thus they formed an important political interface in the Spartan state. However, it is historically known that they were corruptible.

In the classical period, however, the Gerusia did not appear frequently. Through democratic developments, which also touched Sparta, their function became less and less important politically. Aristotle criticised the Spartan Gerusia in the strongest terms, in particular the much too high age of its members and the "childish" selection procedure (Wikipedia). This consisted of shouting as loud as possible! A procedure that was easy to manipulate.

The personification of Gerusia has no predecessor in Classical and Hellenistic art. Coins depicting her did not appear until the time of the Flavians, whereby these representations show a greater variety than those of the Boule (Martin). While on our coin Gerusia appears as an elderly matron, on other coins she is a youth. This also exists in Aphrodisias. It is possible that this different representation also denotes different institutions. In Ephesus, for example, a C. Vibius Saltutaris at the time of the Antonines consecrated a silver statue to the holy Gerusia, by whom he understood the Boule of the city (Martin).

I have attached a picture of the oil painting "Lycurgus of Sparta", 1791, by Jacques-Louis David (748-1825), Musee des Beaux-Arts de Blois (Wikidata).

Literature:
(1) Plutarch, Life of Lykurg
(2) Katharina Martin, Boule.Demos.Gerousia, Münster 2013
(3) Der Kleine Pauly
(4) Wikipedia

Best regards

Jochen:
The turtle

The turtle is the characteristic image on the ancient coins of Aigina/Attica. But there are also others. For example, the following:

Coin #1:
Cilicia, Mallos, 440-380 BC.
AR - Obol, 0.73g
Obv.: turtle from above
Rev.: androkephalic bull protome n. l. in square incus
Ref.: not listed in the standard works
         Obv.:  cf. SNG Levant 186
         Rev.:  cf. SNG Ashmolean 1735; cf. Rauch 96, 2014, lot 107; CNG e-Sale 380, 2016, lot 272
Very rare, VF, some horn silver plating.

Mythology:
Chelone was a nymph who lived on the banks of a river at Mount Chelydorea in Arcadia in southern Greece. For his wedding with Hera, Zeus had Hermes invite all the gods, men and animals. All accepted this invitation except Chelone, who scoffed at the wedding. When Hermes noticed this, he went back to earth and threw her together with her house into the river, thus transforming her into a turtle that had to carry her shell on its back. Because of her mockery she was condemned to eternal muteness (Servius, Commentary on Virgil, Aeneid). The turtle was a symbol of silence in Greece.
Aesop knows more details in his fables: Zeus did not know why she was not present and asked Chelone the reason. She replied: "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like one's home".

Meanwhile feminists have also taken up this issue. Their explanation: Chelone saw through the fact that this marriage was meant to serve the patriarchal purpose of the mainland Greeks, and that it was meant to severely curtail the rights and importance of the all-embracing and ancient mother goddess Hera. Well, well. 

Hermes invents the lyre
Chelydorea was the name in ancient times for a 1759m high mountain range in Arcadia and in the Achaean Pellene, a part of the Kyllene mountain range that advanced to the north. The name means "de-shelter of the turtle". It was known for its abundance of tortoises (Pausanias). On it, the legend has Hermes inventing the lyre.

Hermes was born of Maja, who had been seduced by Jupiter, in a cave in the Kyllene Mountains. Already on the day of his birth he stole the tools of several gods, even Zeus' sceptre. He sneaked out of the cradle and drove away the cattle Apollo was tending. So that they would not make any noise, he put shoes on them. He slaughtered and ate two of them. On the way back to Kyllene he found a turtle, cleaned its shell and stretched the sinews of the slaughtered cattle over it as strings. Apollo searched for his cattle and learned that Hermes had been the thief. When Hermes, supported by Maja, denied the crime, Apollo brought him before Zeus, where he admitted nothing. Zeus then returned the cattle to Apollo. When Apollo heard Hermes play the lyre he had just invented, he liked it so much that he gave him his cattle in exchange for the lyre. Later Apollo gave the lyre to his son Orpheus. In Hellenism, the lyre was a symbol of poets and thinkers, from which the term lyricism later developed.

An ancient riddle read:
κριον εχω γενεθρα, τεκεν δε με τωδε γελωνη; τικτομενη δ'αμφω πεφνον ερνους γονεας.
Father to me is the ram, the tortoise is my mother, but at birth I gave death to both.
Answer: Of course this is Lyra, also called Chelys in Greek, which is poet. the turtle;  It is also the lyre made from the shell of the turtle. Its arms were often made of rams' horns. It is often difficult to distinguish from the cithara, but the latter, unlike the lyre, has a foot.

Coin #2
Syria, Antiochia ad Orontem, pseudo-autonomous, 54-68 (time of Nero).
AE 16, 4.55g, 0°
struck 59/60 (year 108 of the Caesarian era)
Obv.: Head of Apollo, wearing diadem and necklace, r., in pearl circle
Rev.: ANTIOXE - ET HP (year 108)
        Chelys
Ref.: BMC 88; RPC 4293; SNG Copenhagen 108; SNG Munich 679; SNG Righetti 1899 
VF+, sand encrustations on black patina

We have seen that Hermes is closely associated with the tortoise. Therefore, it is no wonder that he is often depicted together with her. A famous statue of Lysipp (around 330 BC) is the so-called "sandal-binder", a copy of which was found in the Villa Adriana in Tivoli. In the meantime, thanks to von Mosch, we know that it is not a "sandal-binder" but a "sandal-solver". He is depicted on large bronzes from Markianopolis.

Coin #3:
Moesia inferior, Markianopolis, Philip II as Caesar & Serapis, 244-247.
AE 27, 13.94g, 26.96mm, 30°
struck under governor Prastina Messalinus
Obv.: M I[OVΛIOC] ΦIΛIΠΠOC KAI / CAP AVΓ
         Facing busts of Philip II, draped and cuirassed,  r., and Serapis, draped, with kalathos, l.
Rev.:  VΠ ΠPACT MECCAΛEI[NOV MAPK]IANOΠOΛITΩN
        Hermes, nude,  standing left bent forward and facing front, the r. foot placed on
        a  ram's head, the left arm covered with the chlamys resting on the right knee;
        on the ground between his feet a turtle. l., behind him a tree stump with a kerykeion 
        before and a second indistinct object
        in the left field E (for Pentassarion)
Ref.: a) AMNG I/1, 1209, pl. XVI, 25  (2 ex., Philippopel, Sophia Tacchella revue num. 1893, 73, 23)
          b) Varbanov 2107
          c) Hristova/Jekov (2014) No. 6.44.10.3.
rare, almost SS, shiny, dark green patina.
Pedigree:
ex CNG electronic auction 215, lot 390
ex coll. J.P.Righetti, No. 10008

In the statue of Lysipp, the ram's head and the turtle are not present. Here the artist has thankfully added both!

The tortoise in the military:
The Greek chelone was a siege engine with a roof on top for protection against shelling. It was also used by the Romans.

The best known, however, is the Roman turtle formation (Latin testudo = "tortoise"), which was developed during the time of Gaius Iulius Caesar. It consisted of a square formation of soldiers with angular shields (scutum). The first row held their shields forward, the following ones high above their heads so that they overlapped. This allowed the formation to move forward even under heavy fire, but only slowly because it was very cumbersome. The testudo could only be exercised by carefully trained soldiers and, above all, had to be broken up again in good time; otherwise it would have become a helpless victim of the enemy in close combat. The picture is from Trajan's Column (Wikipedia, Cristian Chirita)

The Death of Aischylos
An unfortunate role was played by a tortoise in the death of Aischylos in 456 BC, according to Valerius Maximus.Aischylos (525 - 456 BC) was the oldest of the great Greek tragedian poets.  Unfortunately, most of his works have been lost. But his last ones (e.g. "The Eumenides") are dramas of world literature hardly surpassed in their tragedy and depth of thought. Because he had been prophesied to die by falling objects, he stayed in the fields near Gela on his last trip to Sicily. There he was killed by a tortoise dropped by an eagle. The bird had mistaken Aischylos' head for a rock and used it to break open the tortoise's shell.

Sources:
(1) Pausanias, Travels in Greece.
(2) Aesop, Fables
(3) Pliny, Naturalis Historia

Literature:
(1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770.
(2) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Extensive Lexicon of Greek and Roman Mythology
(3) Hristova/Jekov, Marcianopolis (2014).
(4 Christian von Mosch, The Hermes of Lysipp(?) on the coins of Trapezous, Amastris and Marcianopolis, in Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 63, 2013.
(5)  K. Ohlert, Rätsel und Rätselspiele der alten Griechen, Berlin 1912.
(6)  Gemoll, Griechisch-Deutsches Schul- und Handwörterbuch, 1954
(7) The Kleiner Pauly
(8)  theoi.com
(9) Wikipedia

Best regards

Jochen:
Excursus: The race between Achilles and the tortoise

Probably the best-known paradoxon from antiquity is the race between Achilles and the tortoise, known as "Achilles". This paradoxon  originates from Zeno of Elea (ca. 490 - ca. 430 BC), the founder of dialectics, and has been handed down to us by Aristotle in his "Physics".

Achilles was known as the fastest runner in antiquity. When he entered a race with the tortoise, he gave the tortoise a fair head start. He should not have done so, for Zenon could prove that he could then never catch up with the tortoise, let alone overtake it. For if he wanted to overtake the tortoise, he would first have to reach the place where the tortoise had been before. But every time Achilles reached the tortoise's place, the tortoise had crawled a little further. Although the turtle's lead became smaller and smaller, it always remained. This obviously contradicts our observation. But where is the error in Zeno's chain of evidence?

Now you can read in any better mathematics book how to calculate when and where Achill will catch up with the turtle with the help of series expansions or limit value considerations. But that misses the real problem. It is about logic! What is wrong with the logic that Achilles must always - and I mean always - first reach the point where the tortoise was before? This raises the question of whether space is infinitely divisible. In logic as a thought experiment it is, but not in reality. There is Planck's constant, which sets limits to reality. And this shows that this paradoxon  is not located in reality, but in mental space. And that is why it must be solved there.

In recent times, a number of philosophers have dealt with the "Achilles" and have achieved astonishing results. The British philosopher James Thomson (1921-1984) developed the theory of "supertasks" in 1954. For this purpose, he invented various "machines", which are of course only thought experiments. One of them is "Thomson's lamp": A burning lamp is switched off after a time t, then switched on again after a time t/2, switched off again after t/4 and immediately. We know that mathematically the lamp enters its final state after a finite time. (see "Achilles"). But we do not know what state it is in then.

Another thought led to the "Pi machine." A thought machine calculates the infinite number of decimal places of pi one after the other. In the process, it needs only half as much time for each additional digit as for the digit before it. We know that mathematically this machine must stop after a finite time. The paradox then consists in the last digit of pi, which mathematically cannot exist. That is quite exciting!

The French-American philosopher Paul Benacerraf refuted Thomson's considerations in 1962, which led to new interest in infinity-related problems.

In the meantime, it has turned out that this problem is not only philosophical, but also plays a role in the real world. This was demonstrated in 1994 by measurements at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, which confirmed this paradox for measurements in the quantum world: the motion of a quantum system was shown to be brought to a standstill by a sequence of dense measurements alone, which led to the theoretical modelling of the quantum Zeno effect (Wikipedia)

Zeno's paradoxes challenged our notion of motion, time and space; the path to an answer was full of surprises.

The picture is taken from "Meinstein, school subjects simply explained". 

Sources:
(1) Hermann Diels, The Fragments of the Presocratics, Rowohlts Klassiker 1957.
(2) The Presocratics, edited by Wilhelm Capelle, Kröner 1968.

Literature:
(1) Adolf Grünbaum, Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion, in "Zeno's Paradoxes", edited by Wesley C. Salmon, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.
(2) William I. Laughlin, A Solution to Zeno's Paradoxes, Spektrum der Wissenschaft, January 1995.
(3) Nick Huggett, Zeno's Paradoxes, 2004, in "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy".
(4) Nicholas Falletta, Zenos Paradoxien, Hugendubel 1985
(5) Wikipedia

Best regards

Jochen:
Homonoia

One of the most frequently depicted deities on provincial coins is Homonoia, which alone proves its great importance.

1st coin:
Moesia inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum, Elagabal, AD 218-222
AE 28, 14.32g, 26.97mm, 30°
struck under governor Novius Rufus
Obv.: AVT M AVP - [A]NTΩNEINOC
         Laureate head r.
Rev.: VΠ NOBIOV POVΦOV NI - KOΠOLITΩN ΠPOC ICTPW
         Homonoia, in long robe and mantle, wearing alathos, standing frontal, looking  l.,
         holding  cornucopiae in left arm and patera in her outstretched right arm.
Ref.: a) Not in AMNG:
            Obv. not in AMNG I/1
             Rev. AMNG I/1, 1913 var. (legend, other legend break)
                    AMNG I/1, 1968 (depiction)
         b) cf. Varbanov 4037 (cites AMNG 1968)
         c) Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2021) No. 8.26.36.3 (this coin)
rare, VF+, black-green patina, portrait!

Notes:
(1) Cornucopiae = horn of plenty, symbol of abundance. On coins from Alexandria it is also sometimes depicted with double cornucopiae. But Egypt was also the granary of Rome.
(2) Kalathos: Originally a woven basket with fruits of the field, symbol of well-being and abundance.
(3) The patera here has an elevation in the middle. It is therefore a phiale mesomphalos, as it was used in sacrifice.

2nd coin:
Thrace, Tomis, pseudo-autonomous, 2nd century, Antonine(?) period.
AE 17, 2.71g, 16.81mm, 225°.
Obv.: EYETHPIA - OMONOIA
         Busts of Eueteria and Homonoia, behind each other,  r., both draped and with topknot
Rev.: TO / MI - TW / N
         Cornucopiae with grapes and fruits
Ref.: AMNG I/2, 2576 corr., pl. VI, 19 (legend not legible); RPC I 1823; Moushmov 1786
rare, F+

Notes:
(1) Regling (AMNG I/2) took the bust at the back for Augustus and therefore placed this coin to Augustus(?). Since his description was not correct, the chronological attribution to Augustus is of course also incorrect.This coin belongs to Group V. Coins of the Roman period without emperor's heads, probably to "b) Antonine period". 

(2) Eueteria an abstract term formed from Greek "ευ = good" and "ετος = year", and literally means "the property of being a good year" (in German you can say in one word "Gutjährigkeit"), thus as much as "good, blessed year" or "abundance of food". Thus "Eueteria" has a similar meaning as "Eubosia", the "good harvest". The meaning is, of course, that there is prosperity only through unity. This puts it in line with the famous statue of Kephisodotos the Elder, the father of Praxiteles, "Eirene with the young Plutos on her arm", whose marble copy is now in the Glyptothek in Munich. 

This legend exists only one other time on a Seleucid tetradrachm, BMC 1, 126-125 BC, where Cleopatra Thea herself is called Eueteria.

Mythology:
Homonoia, from Greek "ομος = equal" and  "νους = sense, reason", was not a goddess in the proper sense, but the personification of concord and like-mindedness. Therefore, as is often the case with personifications, her mythology appears somewhat artificial. Our sources are the Orphic Hymns and the Suda, this great Byzantine work that sought to record all the knowledge of the time without much judgement. However, there are also traces in Aischylos. Here, then, are the complicated family relationships of Homonoia:

According to this, Homonoia was the daughter of Praxidike and Soter, her brother. Her siblings were Ktesios, protector of property, and Arete, virtue.

Her mother Praxidike, the enforcer of justice, was the daughter of Ogygos.  Ogygos was an ancient king of Boiotia and the founder of Thebes. The first great flood occurred under him. Originally he was probably a god and the father of the Praxidikai, the Boiotian oath-keepers. This oath was administered in the open air at Haliartos (Pausanias). Through this lineage, Homonoia was closely connected to the Theban Harmonia, the wife of Kadmos, who as the "unifier" was the patron goddess of the citizens' association (Plutarch).

According to Mnaseas, all three siblings together were named Praxidikai after their mother. In the Orphic hymns, Praxidike was identified with Persephone and the Praxidikai with the Erinyes, the goddesses of vengeance.

Menelaus, after his return from Troy, had erected a statue of Praxidike at Gutheion in Lakonia, where Paris and Helen, before they left for Troy, had spent their first night, but otherwise she was worshipped only in the form of a head (Mnaseas, Europa).

Her father was Soter, the personification of safety and salvation, later adopted by Dionysos and Christ as Saviour. According to Aischylos ("Seven against Thebes") he had another daughter Eupraxia, success by Peitharchia, obedience.  Soter, but also Ktesios, his son, were epicleses of Zeus. Epicleses are cult names under which a god was also invoked.

Notes:
(1) The Orphic Hymns are a collection of 87 religious poems composed in either the late Hellenistic or early Roman periods. They are based on the beliefs of Orphism, a mystery cult or religious philosophy based on the mythical singer Orpheus.

(2) The Suda, written around 970 AD, is the most comprehensive Byzantine encyclopaedia. It is arranged alphabetically and contains 30000 lemmata (entries). It was compiled by various authors.

(3) Mnaseas of Patara was a Greek historian and geographer of the late 3rd century B.C. He was a student of Eratosthenes in Alexandria. His geographical works ("Periegeseis") were arranged according to landscapes.

Homonoia as a political concept:
The concept of homonoia was an ancient Greek concept that was traditionally not applied beyond their own culture. This was in line with Aristotle's view.

In a short time, Alexander had conquered an empire that encompassed most of the then known world with a myriad of different peoples. If one asks what Alexander's relationship was to these Asian peoples, one must look at Alexander's concept of the unity of mankind, homonoia, and how he tried to realise this through the organisation of his empire.

The Greeks of the classical period divided humanity roughly into two classes: Greeks and non-Greeks; the latter called  barbarians and considered them inferior human beings, although occasionally someone like Herodotus or Xenophon noted that some barbarians possessed qualities worthy of consideration, such as the wisdom of the Egyptians or the courage of the Persians. Aristotle also held this view.

But in the 3rd century, new ideas emerged: All people were equal and should be brothers. This gave rise to the idea of homonoia. At first, however, this only applied to the factional struggles within the Greek cities.

Isocrates extended this concept to the entire Greek world, which should make wars among the Greeks impossible. He presented this concept to Philipp II, who adopted it for a holy war of the Greeks against the Persians. After Philipp's death, the influence of Aristotle grew again, who advised Alexander to treat Greeks as friends, but barbarians like animals. Alexander, however, was wiser than his teacher and preferred to divide people into good and bad without considering their race. He probably realised that it would be easier to deal with the problems of administration if he treated the inhabitants of the conquered countries not as slaves but as free people. And he wanted to spread the ideas of Greekism throughout the known world. Thus he subjected his actions entirely to the goal of homonoia. This was reinforced by his conviction that God had given him the task of harmonising humanity.

"Alexander was called the Great because of the things he did, but the greatest thing about him was this idea", Tarn writes at the end of his biography of Alexander.

His empire was to be "Greek-Oriental" in its essence, and as far as possible a joint enterprise. Thus he retained the Persian satrapies and filled them with Iraqis. The newly formed offices of taxation and finance, however, he filled with Macedonians. Of course, Macedonians were also at the head of the military units. But Persians and Macedonians served together in the same units.

His call to the Macedonians to marry native women he understood as an important step towards unity. In 324, there was a mass wedding of his officers in Susa, who took Persian women as wives. He himself married the beautiful Roxane, a Bactrian princess.

All this increased the discontent of his Macedonians, who could not see that they should be put on an equal footing with a conquered people. The climax, however, was when Alexander introduced proskynesis at his court, which by now resembled the court of the Great King. This refers to the Persian custom of prostrating oneself before the ruler in order to honour him. According to Greek opinion, only a god was entitled to do this.

In the sense of homonoia, the Greeks were to be introduced to Persian customs and the Persians to Greek customs. In fact, however, this "assimilation" amounted to the Persians being overrun by Greek culture, its art and literature and its science. The impact of Greek culture can still be seen hundreds of years after the collapse of Alexander's empire in Oriental architecture, which still reflects Greek influence.

In the end, his concept failed. But it was adopted and continued by the great world religions of Christianity and Islam. In the end, it is a utopian and - I believe - inhuman idea. Just think of the attempts of Bolshevism, the Mao era or the Pol Pot regime to "educate" people to equality and happiness. Freedom and equality are opposites. To demand both at the same time was the great mistake of the French Revolution, on which all later revolutions were based and which all ended in a bloodbath.

In Asia Minor under Roman rule, Homonoia played an important role as a symbol for settling inner-city tensions and for connecting with other poleis. Coins were struck with the legend "Homonoia" to proclaim regional alliances and to place them under the protection of local deities. They probably did not have great political significance. Here I have a nice example from my collection of the so-called Homonoia Coinage which was issued in Asia Minor for two joint cities as expression for their entente cordiale. This one was struck in Ephesos joint with Alexandria in Egypt. For more information for these interesting issues look at Franke/Nolle, Die Homonoia-Münzen Kleinasiens und der thrakischen Randgebiete.

3rd Coin:
Ionia, Ephesos, Gordian III, AD 238-244
AE 29, 8.47g
obv. AVT K.M.AN - T.GORDIANOC.
        Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. EΦECIΩN / TYXH / KAI A - ΛEΞ - ANΔPEΩN
       City goddess (Tyche), wearing high kalathos, leaning l., holding cornucopiae in
       l. arm and cult-statue of Artemis Ephesia in outstretched r. hand
Ref.: BMC 245, Nolle Homonoia 450 (only 1 ex.!)
very rare (possibly 2nd known!), VF, blue-green patina

Homonoia played a role in the 38th speech of Dion Chrystostomos (after 40 - before 120 AD). There was an old dispute between the cities of Nicomedia and Nikaia in Bithynia  which of them was the metropolis. In his speech, Dion tried to settle the dispute by establishing Homonoia.

Homonoia is said to have had a temple in Olympia (Pausanias).

Sources:
(1)  Aischylos,  Seven against Thebes
(2)  Orphic  Hymnes
(3)  Isokrates, Panegyrikos
(4)  Suda
(5)  Pausanias, Periegeseis
(6)  Dion Chrysostomos, Discourses

Secondary literature:
(1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon
(2) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechisxhen und römishen Mythologie
(3) Henry M. de Mauriax, Alexander the Great and the Politics  of  "Homonoia",  1949
(4) William  Woodthorpe  Tarn, Alexander  the  Great, 1948 
(5) Der  Kleine  Pauly
(6) Gemoll,  Griechisch-Deutsches  Schul-  und  Handwörterbuch

Online sources:
(1) theoi.com
(2) acsearch.info
(3) Wikipedia

Best regards

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