Abonoteichus/Ionopolis Coins?

[Mark Fox]

Dear Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

I am currently looking for a good photo of a coin from the city of Abonoteichus/Ionopolis, for an article.  I am especially interested in one with an image of the serpent Glykon, but any coin examples from this rare minting city would be greatly appreciated!       

For those who specialize in this area:  approximately when were the Marcus Aurelius specimens struck and are any of them known with a serpent design?  Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate a single name of a magistrate on these coinages.   
 
Thank you for any insight that can be provided!


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan

[slokind]

Every time I go hunting for one of these coins, it takes me hours to find it again.
Anyhow, I think I recall that the one that photographs well (see attached) is in British Museum**--but I'll go look in RPC on line, since it's Antonine.  The attached scan is from one of those Athenian Agora picture booklets, where it confirms the identification of the little bronze Glykon from the Agora; this coin has Glykon spelled out under the snake and is of Abonouteichos-Ionopolis itself.  But I don't recall that the Agora actually yielded one of these coins, and, in a popular booklet, the source of the photo isn't given.  Pat L.
** P.S. Back with the goods.  http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/5364/?search&stype=quick&q=Lucius+Verus&rno=4 
This should be the coin you want (the one in Milan being dismissed as tooled--tooling makes me madder by far than mere faking or emulating!); it is in Paris ('P') in the Cab Méd, and is Waddington et al. Rec Gén p. 131, no 12 for Abonouteichos, issued for Lucius Verus, illustrated also op cit pl. XVII, fig. 16, both dies (for once: such a fine, large Æ29 coin, and so rare!) and even in the re-print the images are excellent.  I think the Agora booklet took the same photo from the first edition of Rec Gén, in fact.  I'm not sure, but this may be the only one that actually says GLYKON right on the coin, though any snake with all its traits (not just a common four-coiler) is pretty surely a Glykon.
Pat L.
P.P.S.  Fakes generally just part fools from their money: you yearn for Antinoos, they'll see that you get one.  Tooling robs history and the science of numismatics of irreplaceable evidence!  It's like the copy of the Discus Thrower that was turned into a falling gladiator (ugh): what if copies of the Discus Thrower were rare as this coin is?

[Mark Fox]

Dear Patricia,

Thank you for your post!

The specific Lucius Verus example you illustrated (Rec 12) seems to float around a lot.  It is probably the most famous coin image of the serpent, but its title "ΓΛΥΚΩΝ" appears on many other Abonoteichus/Ionopolis' coins, from Antoninus Pius all the way to Gallus.  (I currently have Recueil Général des Monnaies Grecques d'Asie Mineure, Pont et Paphlagonie by Waddington, W., et. al., on loan from the ANA Library.)  Ironically, there does not appear to be any Glykon issues associated with Marcus from this city. 

I have tried to obtain Abonoteichus/Ionopolis coin photos through the London Museum (as seen on RPC Online), but I have not received any word yet of their availability or a price quote.  I am a little nervous to go this route as the privilege to use museum photos seem to be disappointingly expensive.     

Like you suggested, Patricia, I did contact Athenian Agora Excavations.  They were very nice and I am awaiting a letter in the mail to arrange permission to use a photo of their Glykon statuette.  Now as I think about it, I should have mentioned if they had any relevant coin photos as well...

Perhaps, the best way to solve this problem is just to do a line drawing of an Abonoteichus/Ionopolis coin, something that I believe Marvin Tameanko had done in his June 1997 Coin News article, "The False Prophet Alexander of Abonuteichos or The Coinage of the Serpent Called 'Glykon'".     


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan
 


 

       

[Britannicus]

Hi Mark,
Here's a rare Ionopolis coin of Lucius Verus, reverse Bust of Sarapis, AE 26, 14.25 g, 6 h. This issue is known from 2 battered specimens, this coin and a similar one sold by Frank L. Kovacs in 1995 (XII,182). There is also a parallel issue, with Marcus Aurelius/Bust of Isis, known from only one coin (in Berlin). The coins were probably struck to celebrate the renaming of Abonuteichus as Ionopolis circa 162 A.D.
Back in 1995 Wilhelm Hollstein and I published an article about Ionopolis in the Yearbook for Numismatics and Monetary History of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (but in German): "Isis und Sarapis in Ionopolis".
Sorry about the quality of the photo, and that it's not a Glykon (I'd like one of those too)!
All the best,
Francis

[Mark Fox]

Dear Francis (aka Britannicus) and Fellow Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

I forgot to use the option of being notified of new posts and so only just discovered your reply today!

I have seen this coin at asiaminorcoins.com, but have tried in vain to learn more about it.  It is a pleasure to finally get in contact with you!  What makes you think the renaming of Abonoteichus to Ionopolis took place in ~162 AD?  This discussion, which has somewhat wide implications, is discussed at length in my coin article "Lucian and the Prophet's Request."  It is nearly ready for submission, so I am greatly relieved to have seen your post beforehand!

 
Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan

[Britannicus]

Hi Mark,
the false prophet Alexander petitioned "the emperor" (singular, so presumably Antoninus Pius) for Abonuteichus to be renamed Ionopolis (Lucian). This renaming has been seen as part of a process of "debarbarisation" of various Asian cities by means of a stressing of their Greek origins (L. Robert). It may have occurred late in the reign of Pius, but there is no numismatic or epigraphic evidence that I know of to support that idea.
Although it is uncertain, there is reason to believe that A. was founded from the Pontic city of Sinope, itself a Milesian-Ionian settlement (A.H.M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, p.149, and other commentators). It was from Sinope that (according to Tacitus and Plutarch) Sarapis was brought to Alexandria. Sarapis types are common on the Provincial coins of Sinope. There was a particularly large issue of Sarapis and Isis coins for Aurelius and Verus in Sinope in the year 162 (the coins are dated). The Sarapis-Isis issues in Ionopolis would thus have been an acknowledgement of the Sinopian context and the Ionian background of the city, as reflected in its new name. Marek (Amastris, 1989), in connection with the redrawing of provincial boundaries, also dates the renaming of Ionopolis to the beginning of the reign of Aurelius.
There is much more detail in our article, but these are the essential points!
All the best,
Francis

[Britannicus]

P.S. I fished the Verus/Sarapis coin out of a rummage tray at a coin fair - for $5 - twenty-odd years ago. I can remember thinking, "That's a city I'm not familiar with", and then being rather irritated when, back at home again, an initial search through my modest numismatic library failed to reveal any information on Ionopolis at all.

[Mark Fox]

Dear Francis (aka Britannicus) and Fellow Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

What a fascinating discussion!  It is interesting that I have arrived at the same basic conclusions as you, but through entirely different deduction!  In fact, I have never heard Abonoteichus’ renaming to Ionopolis explained like that before.  Once again, it is a bit of a shame I didn’t get in touch with you before, not to mention that I can’t read German...

Two particular comments about your post:

1.  The singular form of emperor, as used in Alexander’s famous coin petition (Alex 58) is indeed important, but perhaps not as straightforward in identifying Antoninus Pius as we would like, although he is certainly a good candidate.  An excerpt from my latest article draft may help explain:     

“Is it not vague then or even a bit odd when Lucian quotes simply “the emperor” as the person Alexander petitioned?  Exactly who was meant?  The truth is it isn’t that unusual.   Lucian often neglects to name people that would otherwise enlighten historians.  In The Way to Write History, Lucian criticized the many inexperienced writers that flocked to record the before mentioned Parthian War.  One of the literary greenhorns, Lucian tells us, had a terrible habit of using needless details.

‘A whole book hardly suffices him for the Emperor's shield--the Gorgon on its boss, with eyes of blue and white and black, rainbow girdle, and snakes twined and knotted. Why, Vologesus's breeches or his bridle, God bless me, they take up several thousand lines apiece; the same for the look of Osroes's hair as he swims the Tigris…’ (De Hist. Conscrib. 19)

Had both emperors accompanied their armies in the Eastern campaigns, we would likely be hard put trying to decide which emperor Lucian meant.  But we know that Marcus stayed home in Rome to handle affairs while his adopted brother [Verus] had gone east --- if only to relax at Antioch most of the time.”

2.  Your discussion of the name Ionopolis puts its origins in a new light.  In the article "The False Prophet Alexander of Abonuteichos or The Coinage of the Serpent Called 'Glykon'", Marvin Tameanko wrote that Ionopolis was derived from Io, an ancient name of Aesclepius’ snake, Glykon.  I had assumed that this was a commonly held fact, which seemed to fit in with Lucian’s satire quite comfortably.  Nevertheless, is this theory within dispute?

Thank you very much for the valuable information and the amazing story of how you found the Verus/Sarapis coin!



Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan
       

[Britannicus]

Dear Mark,
I'm afraid that I don't know the article by Marvin Tameanko. Perhaps you could tell what source he gives for his information that "Ionopolis was derived from Io, an ancient name of Aesclepius’ snake, Glykon"? According to Lucian, Alexander himself came up with the name for his new snake-god. I spent a couple of hours this morning at the library, sifting through various multi-volume standard works of reference on Greek and Roman culture, including the magisterial Realenzyklopädie (three different editions), Roscher's huge lexicon of classical mythology, and a number of more recent works, but none of these provided any information about a snake called Glykon connected with the Asklepios cult (before Alexander, that is) or any Io other than the lady loved by Zeus who was transformed into a heifer. Well, perhaps I overlooked something...
What I did find was information about a gem in Paris showing a snake-god and bearing the three names XNOYMIS (referring to the snake-god Chnubis),  YK NA (Glykon) and IA , whoever that may have been. Could this perhaps be the source for a snake-god named Io?
Alexander/"Glykon" referred constantly to Asklepios, but the new cult was more a money-spinning oracle than a traditional Asklepian healing cult. The Io/Glykon-Asklepios connection - if it actually existed - can only have been something very obscure, since nobody (including Lucian) seems to have mentioned it. Why then go for "Ionopolis" as the new name for the city? (The translator of the Penguin edition of Lucian erroneously has Alexander petitioning for the city to be renamed "Glyconopolis".) The new name is more plausibly explained in terms of "de-barbarisation", emphasising (or inventing!) a respectable foundation tradition linking the sleepy little town full of "fatheads" with its distinguished Ionian Greek neighbour, Sinope (mentioned, incidentally, in the dubious Sibylline oracle announcing the arrival of the prophet). This line of argument would be more likely to appeal to the emperor and his advisors than a probably unfamiliar reference claiming to link the hysterical new cult with venerable Asklepian antecedents.   
Whatever the logic behind the new name, local-boy Alexander had the kudos of achieving the renaming!
All the best,
Francis

[Mark Fox]

Dear Francis (aka Britannicus) and Fellow Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

Thank you Francis for your careful and insightful research!  I don't know where Marvin obtained the Io/Ionopolis connection from, although the gem you mentioned is a good possibility.  I may want to ask him about all of this sometime.  I still have the article he kindly scanned for me.  If you will give me your e-mail address, I will try to send it to you when time permits.


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan