The Province series of
Antoninus Pius appears, on
his bronze coins only, in 139, the second year of
his reign. Since each of the provinces shown holds out a crown or diadem,
Eckhel suggested that the series commemorates the traditional gift of a golden crown to a new emperor upon
his accession from all of the cities and provinces in the empire, the so-called
aurum coronarium. We happen to be told that Pius remitted the entire accession gift made to him by
Italian cities, and half of the gifts made by the provinces.
Apart from the provinces or regions of the empire, like
AFRICA,
DACIA,
PHOENICE, and
SYRIA, and one city,
ALEXANDRIA, Pius' province series is noteworthy for including two client kingdoms,
PARTHIA and SCYTHIA. Four ancient historians, cited by
Strack in
his note 104, attest that client kingdoms too indeed traditionally sent accession gifts to the emperors.
SCYTHIA is probably the rarest "province" of the series.
Cohen knew the
sestertius and As of this province only from Vaillant's
work of c. 1690, and left them unpriced, as though uncertain of their existence. However,
Strack 795 found a single sest. of the
type, in BM, and a single As, in Florence.
BMC reports a second spec. of the As from the
Oxford collection.
This new specimen of the As (below) is from the same dies as the Florence coin, which
Strack illustrates on
his pl. IX. Unfortunately it is rather roughly cleaned, and
tooled in the hair on the emperor's neck and temple. Scythia holds a large sword in scabbard in her left hand. The BM
sestertius,
BMC pl. 27.2, also shows the sword-belt which is attached to the scabbard.
The
sestertius is the main
denomination of Pius' province series.
Dupondii and
asses are attested for only a few provinces, and are normally much rarer that the corresponding
sestertii.
The Scythians living
north of the Black Sea are frequently mentioned by ancient historians, but apparently this is their only explicit appearance in ancient
numismatics. Some Scythian kings seem to have minted coins, but without naming the people or country they ruled. It is unknown why a city on the river Jordan in distant
Samaria was called Scythopolis, later Nysa.