Well, yes, floodgates. Advertise a lecture on
Herakles, and you fill the auditorium.
(a) Sebastopolis-Hadrianopolis: a perfect typological parallel for my favorite Herakes coin.
(b)
Herakles riding a feline as if he were a Scythian on horseback (facing the rear) and dandling a baby: it's
britannicus you want to ask (Francis Jarman).
(c) from the sublime (a) to the ridiculous: a quasi-autonomouss
Hadrianopolis and an inimitable
Dionysopolis.
Pat L. (I'll be back with basic IDs)
top:
• 17 01 03 AE 26
Marcianopolis, issued by Pontianus.
Macrinus, laureate,
head to r. facing Diadoumenian, bareheaded,
head to l. AV[T K
OPEL SEV MAKREIN]OS K M
OPEL ANTONEINOS. Heads as on no. 748 (which has stacked
legend in
obv. exergue, however).
Rev., Bearded
Herakles, frontal,
head to r.,
his right hand resting on
his club (but so large and odd that
Pick marks it ?), with the
lion skin over
his left
arm, its tail hanging down to
his feet. VP PONTIANOV
MAR KIANOPOLEITON; the OV and the AR ligatures. In the
field at r. E.
Pick,
AMNG I, 1, p. 243, no. 752, known to him only from the Sophia example, which does not preserve Pontianus's name and therefore not the
ligate ending. The
head of
Macrinus extremely refined.
middle:
• 01 11 02 AE 19 3.9g
Hadrianopolis. Autonomous.
Head of Lysippic Weary
Herakles to l.
Rev., Quite recognizable, the Weary
Herakles, with
his club and
lion skin, to r. ADRIANO[POLEI]
TON.
Cf. the simpler
Sear GIC 4832 and
SNG Cop 2, 556, where the time of
Commodus is (inevitably) suggested, but as B. V.
Head, HN, says, p. 287, "
Types often referring to the labours of
Herakles".
bottom:
• 10 10 01
AE19
Moesia Inferior,
Dionysopolis.
Commodus, laureate
head r. M
AVT KAI M A[VRE --]MODOS.
Cf. Pick AMNG I, 1, p. 132, no. 374, an AE 23 with the same kind of
legend starting at 1:00 o'clock. That coin has a Beta in the
reverse field.
Rev.,
Herakles with
his club in
his r. and
his lion skin over
his l. forearm; the
legend again begins at 1:00 o'clock: DIONYSO P OLEITON (ending at 11:00 o'clock) and, retrograde, in the
field at left Beta. So at this city, at this date, about 19mm is two
assaria. Sold as "
Marcus Aurelius", but parts of the key letters of
Commodus can be made out at left, and
Marcus Aurelius had no issues at
Dionysopolis.
