People in
Antioch spoke Greek in everyday life. I think this is a systematic error, maybe due to the kind of Latin that they spoke when they
had to. Maybe they spoke "aequus" (=just, even, equal) like "aecus" and therefore "
aequitas" like "aecutas", or rather "aec'tas", with the u being a very short
binding vowel. So the I might just not have appeared in their
pronunciation and therefore have been forgotten in the coin dies.
A similar systematic error appears on the very
first coins of
Postumus. On the very short first emission the
legend is invariably "
IMP C M CASS
LAT POSTIMUS PF AUG". We may conclude that the engraver
had only HEARD but never READ the new emperor's name, and that the name was surely not pronounced PostOOOmus! Certainly not PostEEEmus either, but the first U must have been an equally weak
binding vowel, and the
pronunciation will have been something like "Post'mus". After a few dies the
legend was shortened, and the spelling
corrected to
Postumus. My first emission antoninian is not really in bad condition, but was struck from very worn dies; yet the POSTIMUS is well discernible.
Rupert