I keep thinking about such questions. The close relationships are plain to see, once you know the coins. But I am restrained by the absence of
contemporary documentation (external to the dies themselves) concerning the use of dies or employment of their engravers among these cities, closely linked though they are by documented roads and, of course, by the rivers and sea lanes along the coast. The possibility is plain. A die could be lent in the
hands of a government courier, and metal workers, engravers and hammerers (of repoussé) and chasers all could travel as easily as New Testament apostles or any kind of merchant. But with all the abundant technical and stylistic evidence of the coins and other
fine artisan
work, we have no Vitruvius of small arts, no Cennino Cennini, no Villard de Honnecourt, nothing like Leonardo's notebooks. Even for free painting and
sculpture, we have practically nothing
contemporary with the works themselves and nothing at all for the arts under the Empire. As for signatures, they tell the same story: they are Greek. Even when found in western contexts, the signatures are Greek. The Empire USED highly skilled artisans; paying them was sufficient. They
boasted of owning
antiquities, especially
opera nobilia.
So, a few days ago, in the Identifications category, discussing the always difficult
Antoninus Pius portraits,
Curtis pointed out similarities to
Philippopolis dies, but a categorical die match is requisite, just as a starting point. We don't have one. Often, evidently,
Rome portraits were studied, and, evidently the
portraits of some emperors were monitored, especially in places directly governed by
Rome (you get to inland
Asia Minor, or
Cilicia, or usually
Egypt, and the
portrait is more generalized, at best).
At the time of Caracalla's marriage there was such a spate of
Greek Imperial coinage that they may have
had no
choice of fresh models but
had to replicate in common.
Pautalia four-coil
snake reverses of that period are almost as 'bad' as
campgates to sort out.
I'm
still fussing over my
Macrinus portraits, though eventually some idea of the number of engravers employed should emerge. They proved much harder than I
had antiicpated, even in those 14 months, and there is only one case where I
still think an engraver "went with" Pontianus from
Marcianopolis to Nicopolis. I write "went with", because who knows what other
work he was engaged in besides, or where? All I have is a
style and technique that are exceptional in both places.
As for the Mother of the Gods,
replica statues and statuettes of her seem to be alike, whether found in
Greece or
Italy (they usually are found in
Greece): I mean, the enthroned goddess with that bizarre-backed throne, with the pair of lions at her feet, with the cymbal at her left elbow. Who knows whether the statue in
Rome was not derived directly from the one in the Metroon in
Athens. The conservative
Rome religious establishment, it seems, would not have cared for anything even vaguely Phrygian. As for the coins, look below her right
arm: the back of the throne is missing, and above her shoulders, therefore, it looks like something tacked on. So perhaps
fine Rome dies,
aureus or
sestertius dies, were the models in the Balkan and Pontic mints?
Since these questions do exercise my mind as well as yours, I would add one thing I am pretty sure of: that the criteria will be different from one time to another, and from one place to another.
BTW,
Pick (I can get the
ref. if you don't have it) did notice already the relations of some Danubian mints, such as
Philippopolis and Nicopolos, to Pontic region mints, and I am quite sure of relations between
Philippopolis and Nicopolis--from time to time, but not always. Further I have not been able to go. It takes more coins than I have been able to gather! Also, stylistic study demands lots of assimilating and lots of re-examining and re-assessing. Wishful thinking and unwise doubts as well are forever rearing their heads.
Curtis has studied some
obverse dies used for coins at more than one
mint early in
the Severan period. He might have time to discuss them, but I can't; I don't even know all that may be in question.
Pat L.
For Meter Theon of several
types and in a different
style from the above, see Ellen Reeder's article in
AJA 91:3, 1987, pp. 423-440.
P.S.For Caracalla, the Pautalia obv. has 
as I see it, where the NadI obv. has the characteristic •
I mean, Gallus still likes the decorative values of marked abbreviations.
