AY[T] ANTΩNEI - NOC
CEB EYCEB Bust laureate left with
Medusa head on neck and portion of
aegis with snakes over near shoulder.
HΓEM Γ ΓAΛΛΩNI ΦP - ONTΩNOC ΦIΛIΠΠOΠO
River god (Hebros) reclining left holding
cornucopia and
reed, left elbow on
urn from which water flows, four small V-shaped plants growing in the water, prow of ship behind the god's legs.
AE 30, 21.33g,
die axis 6h. Ex
CNG E294, 16 Jan. 2013, lot 439; see their image below.
Varbanov 702, citing G.
Hirsch 231, 2003, lot 702 (same dies as the
CNG piece).
RPC temp. 7426, citing two specimens in
Sofia, without picture.
Some details of earlier descriptions can be
corrected on the basis of the
fine new
CNG piece. What Pius wears on
his shoulder is not a fold of
his cloak (
RPC,
Varbanov), but an
aegis with
Medusa head and snakes. The
river god holds a
cornucopia in
his right hand, not an "uncertain object" (
RPC), a
Victory (
Hirsch cat.), or a branch (
Varbanov). The four small plants in the water below the god have apparently not been noticed before; I wonder whether they recur in other river-god
types on coins. The
cornucopia seemed to me an unusual attribute for a
river god, but
RPC describes and illustrates several other river-god
types with cornucopias under Pius at
Philippopolis, and
Varbanov 654 also describes one, though without image.
Gargilius Antiquus is the one reasonably common governor on the coins of
Philippopolis under Pius: he was the latest governor of the reign, since on coins of
Hadrianopolis and
Perinthus he is named as
still being governor under the succeeding emperors,
Marcus Aurelius and
Lucius Verus. There are also inscriptions showing him as governor both in the final year of Pius' reign, TR P XXIIII = 161 AD, and under
Lucius Verus as
Augustus. See A. Stein, Römische Reichsbeamte der Provinz Thrakia, 1920, pp. 24- 27.
The coins of
Philippopolis also name four other governors of
Thrace under Pius, all considerably rarer than Gargilius Antiquus. For G. Gallonius Fronto, the governor on the new
CNG piece,
Varbanov records this coin, two other river-god
types, two
Homonoia standing, a
Tyche standing, and an empeor on horseback, all probably known in only a couple of specimens each.
Fronto must have been governor after 145 AD, because one of the
obverse dies used for him at
Philippopolis calls Pius YΠA Δ, that is
COS IIII, Pius' last consulship which he assumed in 145. This title on the coins, Stein informs us, was first correctly read by Münsterberg in 1915. The die in question is that illustrated by
Varbanov 699 and 700. Unfortunately
Varbanov still hasn't got the reading right, claiming that the
legend ends with
EYCEB TI AN in one case and EYCEY TI AΔ in the other, neither of which makes any sense!
It may not have been noticed before that the same left-facing
obverse die with
aegis shown by the
CNG coin was also used for another governor, M. Pontius Sabinus,
Varbanov 706 and 708, both with photos. Therefore Sabinus was very likely either the immediate predecessor or the immediate successor of Gallonius Fronto as governor of
Thrace under
Antoninus Pius. That is a small step forward: Stein could only say that Sabinus
had been governor at some unknown date under Pius. I would think that a thorough study of the "gubernatorial" bronzes of Pius at
Philippopolis might well establish a firm relative order for the four
rare governors named on the coins, the fifth and commoner governor, Gargilius Antiquus, certainly being the last of them.
Stein points out that our G. Gallonius Fronto was probably a relative of the well-known general and praetorian prefect Turbo under
Hadrian, since an
inscription shows that Turbo's full name was Julius Priscus
Gallonius Fronto Q. Marcius Turbo Publicius
Severus.
