Adramyteion AE

[Pscipio]

I recently got this AE18 from Adramyteion:

AE18, imperial times, Adramyteion, Mysia.
Obv: CTP A KAI KAPITWNA, laureate and bearded head of Zeus left.
Rev: ADPAMYTHNWN, horseman (emperor?) galloping right, raising right arm.
17-18 mm, 2.23 g
SNG Cop 1 (?)

I got the reference from the seller; maybe somebody who owns SNG Cop can check it? I didn't find the coin in my own reference books.

Münsterberg lists this magistrate, though with the longer legend CTPA TWN PERI A KAI KAPITWNA-legend and only for a Dionysos obverse. Imhoof-Blumer, KM, p. 11, no. 2, explains this legend as strategoy twn peri A. kaicilon Kapitwna, so "strategoy twn peri A. kaichilon Kapitwna". Can anybody help me with the translation of this legend? What does twn peri stand for?

Lars

[archivum]

The legend as given by Munsterberg could be transliterated-expanded STRA[THGON] TWN PERI A[DRAMYTEIOI] KAI[KILION] KAPITWNA.  Name and title are in the accusative, and TWN is in the genitive, thus "Caecilius Capito, Commander of Those Around Adramyteion."  The coin doesn't seem to be in von Aulock, and I can't check Copenhagen.

[slokind]

Similarly, the coin is not in von Fritze, AMNG IV, though no. 83 has your magistrate's legend, but with obv. Head of Athena in helmet with crest and aegis, to l.  Von Fritze finds the style (Taf. II, 9) Hadrianic, "wohin auch das Strategencollegium weisen konnte".  The discussion of the strategoi, ibid. p. 7, is a bit long to transcribe here, but I could scan and send it. 
The horseman type is also pre-Imperial, and so is that sort of Zeus head.  Pat L.

[Pscipio]

Excellent, thank you very much for the translation! Pat, yes, if it is not too much work, I'd be happy if you could scan me that discussion.

Lars

[curtislclay]

If I understand v. Fritze correctly, the translation of the rev. legend would be "Under the College of Strategoi headed by A. Caecilius Capito."

The coin inscriptions prove, according to v. Fritze, "dass in hadrianischer Zeit ein Strategenkollegium, einmal mit A. Caecilius Capito, das andere Mal mit M. Cl. Bassus an der Spitze, bestand, dem unter anderem die offizielle Signierung des Geldes oblag.  Der Wortlaut 'hoi peri ton deina', in der griechischen Literatur zur Bezeichnung eines mehrköpfigen Magistrats bekannt, gehört auf Münzen jedenfalls zu den Seltenheiten (andere Beispiele bei Imhoof, Revue Suisse de num.14, 46f.)."

[archivum]

But does v. Fritze have very much external support for his different expansion of the legend?

[Pscipio]

I post the scan here that Pat sent me, in case it is of help.

Lars

[curtislclay]

I think v. Fritze's expansion is the same one cited by Lars, and I think his understanding of the phrase is the same as that of Imhoof-Blumer.

Where did you get your interpretation, Archivum, along with the erroneous expansion of Capito's praenomen A into "the people of Adramyteion"?

[slokind]

When persons like Munsterberg, Imhoof-B., v. Fritze, B. V. Head, and (for that matter) Curtis expand abbreviations you will always (in my experience) find, if you have epigraphical publications and the like at your disposal, and you can read them (you can learn to read them), that the grammar and syntax of inscriptions and legends has been worked out patiently by the whole community of scholars over the last two to three centuries.  Actually, this philological work advanced even before numismatics did.  The first names that occurred to me, of course, are just that.  But epigraphy is an essential discipline for almost all of us.  Pat L.
P.S. I have trouble in places with von Fritze's German, so I chickened out by using the scanner and e-mail, knowing I'd have to go over it several times and look up some stuff and even so...well, Lars and Curtis and Dapsul and others can read it!

[archivum]

Homer nods, and von Fritze may also, or so I suspect.  For the benefit of the curious here's a quickie translation of the argument concerning our legend:

If the character of their office is indicated at all, the signing officials bear the title "commander" [_strathgos_] and are generally introduced via _epi_ accompanied with the genitive; yet as usual we find legends where the preposition is lacking by reason of space limitations (N. 74 ff., 79 f., 83 ff., 89 f., 92 f., 104, 158, 177, 179, 182) or also where the title itself is omitted for the same reason, so that then only _epi_ appears with the genitive of the name (N. 106, 110, 193 ff.).  A few specimens instruct us to recognize an institution seldom noted on coins.  We are directed there by the following, unfortunately ill-preserved legend: _STR PERI M KA ......_ (N. 79), _STRA .......KAPTWNA_ (N. 80).  An explanation for the construction employed here is suplied by the formulas _epi strategwn peri m kl basson_ (N. 82) and _S[TR]A TWN PERI A KAI KAPITWNA_ (Nr. 83).  Unfortunately the first of the latter two pieces has been reworked; yet we may be permitted to think that the tenor of its inscription has been left unaltered in the process.  The same Bassus is mentioned (in the accusative however) on N. 104 (obv. Hadrian) in the form _STRA ..... M (?) BASSON_.  From a combination of all these inscriptions the fact clearly emerges that in the time of Hadrian there was a college of _strathgoi_, with A. Caecilius Capito in charge at one point and M. Cl. Bassus at another, who were responsible among others for officially signing the money. The expression _hoi peri ton deina_, well-known in Greek literature as an indication of an office with several representatives, is however uncommon on coinage ...

Note that von Fritze actually reads the close parallel legend _STRA ..... M (?) BASSON_ as referring to Bassus in the accusative, the same way I interpret _STRA ... KAI[KILION] KAPITWNA_.   So where is the necessity of inventing a college of _strathgoi_ to make decent sense of that _STRA_?  As for _TWN PERI A_ meaning _TWN PERI A[DRAMYTEIOI]_, I appeal to von Fritze's own emphasis on space limitations; necessity is the mother of invention itself, which is generally a lot harder than abbreviating.  It is certainly a good plan to take Curtis Clay's word on virtually all matters epigraphic, but this word's von Fritze's not Curtis's.    Here's to all informed guesses in any event; if this weren't an anomalous legend, we wouldn't be guessing.  Best wishes,
Archivum

[curtislclay]

Lars,

SNG Cop. 1 is an anonymous issue, sharing its types but not the magistrate with your piece; the obv. is without legend.  It is AMNG 16, assigned by v. Fritze to the second cent. BC.

Is the magistate's name on your coin certainly in the accusative, KAPITWNA?  In that case, we need a PERI to govern that accusative, and I wonder whether there might not be two further letters below Zeus' head, T P, the full legend being CTR T P A KAI KAPITWNA, that is (EPI) CTRATHGWN TWN PERI A. KAIKILION KAPITWNA, the same legend proposed by Imhoof-Blumer for his coin, AMNG 80.

Archivum,

1.  In your interpretation the magistrate's name is given in the accusative case.  Why?  On other coins of this mint the magistrate is always named with EPI followed by the genitive.

2.  The Strategos was the normal magistrate named on coins of Adramytion.  Why, in this one case, is he called Strategos "of Those Around Adramyteion"?

3.  On the tooled AMNG 82, the legend should apparently be restored EPI CTRATH TWN PERI M KL BACCON.  Surely you are not going to make some other geographical area out of Bassus' praenomen M(arcus)?

4.  As v. Fritze indicates, boards of magistrates of the sort proposed here by Imhoof-Blumer are familiar from inscriptions and literary sources, and also from a few other coins, for example at Aphrodisias under Septimius Severus.  See MacDonald, Coinage of Aphrodisias, p. 91:  "The unusual reverse legend of reverse dies 234-241 may be expanded EPI ARX(ONTWN) TWN PERI MENECThEA ICOBOVNON, 'During the time of the board of archons headed by Menestheus Isobounos.' "

All in all, the interpretation proposed by Imhoof-Blumer and von Fritze seems very well founded, whereas yours, I think, is clearly impossible!

[archivum]

Curtis, I will gladly defer to your expertise, but it does seem worthwhile to point out that von Fritze himself indicates an accusative in the legend  _STRA ..... M (?) BASSON_ without calling for PERI to govern it.  Yes, he could have done so, but doesn't.  Though EPI with the genitive is standard for magistrates' names at this mint, pretty drastic variations are standard as well; if a magistrate's name can appear with the dative (as BMC Phrygia remarks), is an accusative so out of the question? Furthermore, as von Fritze himself notes, one legend seems to record Capito's first initial as M and not A, so the A seems as much of a problem for his PERI reading as for mine; or is there any external witness for that first initial that he does not cite?  As for why, in this one case, Capito might be called Strategos "of Those Around Adramyteion," being Strategos of the Adrymyteion district sounds to me like a plausible title, and maybe a useful refinement in some circumstances, though you would know best.  So no doubt you are right, and I thank you for those missing pieces, but the blinding assurance of von Fritze's wording still does give me pause: "From a combination of all these inscriptions the fact clearly emerges that in the time of Hadrian there was a college of _strathgoi_ with A. Caecilius Capito in charge ..."  Without all of the pieces in place, an assertion of that sort is bound to raise eyebrows.

[curtislclay]

Archivum,

My expertise in the field of Greek epigraphy is minimal and not worth deferring to, but the arguments advanced by Imhoof-Blumer and von Fritze certainly seem to me to deserve that respect!

You write that "von Fritze himself indicates an accusative in the legend  _STRA ..... M (?) BASSON_ without calling for PERI to govern it."  But on p. 35, no. 104, v. Fritze in fact suggests PERI in the lacuna, to govern the accusative.

You also say, "As von Fritze himself notes, one legend seems to record Capito's first initial as M and not A."  Do you mean no. 79, with CTRA PERI M KL...?  Surely the magistrate to be restored there is M. Cl. Bassus, not A. Caecilius Capito?

[archivum]

Yes, I did misread _STR PERI M K:Greek_Lambda:_ for _STR PERI M KA_ and assumed that "unfortunately ill-preserved" was a reference to M creeping in where the wanted initial was A.  There was no disrepect meant in stating that even von Fritze, like Homer, could nod now and then, or in taking a close look at the argument as given on the posted p. 7; lacking access to n. 104 on p. 5, I just rendered the text that I had.  Personally I prefer students who ask questions, and hope he would too.

[Pscipio]

Curtis,

I haven't received the coin yet but I'll ask Simon to take a larger pic of it tomorrow, so we can check whether I missed any part of the legend.

Lars

[Pscipio]

I'm a bit late with the promised larger pics. I can't see an additional T P below Zeus' head but neither I am sure about the reading KAPITWNA. I hope to receive the coin this week, so I can check it in hand.

Lars