The most enigmatic type of Tomis

[Jochen]

Hi!

Recently I got this coin, which I think is the most enigmatic type of Tomis.

Septimius Severus, AD 193-211
AE 26, 10.81g, 26.15mm, 195°
obv. AV K.L CEPTI - CEVHROC P
       Head, laureate, r-
rev. MHTRO - P - P - ONTOV TO - MEWC (from 12h clockwise to 9h)
      Two-wheeled cart drawn by a bull pacing l.; in the cart a bearded man in himation std. r.,
      upper part of the body and head turned l., r. hand stretched out l., r. hand bent; in front of
      the bull a woman in double-chiton advancing l., head turned r., with r. hand holding an
      unknown object on r. shoulder, l. hand raised r.
      in upper field Delta (for tetrassarion)
ref. a) not in AMNG:
          rev. AMNG I/2, 2756 (depiction)
                AMNG I/2, 2757 (legend)
          obv. AMNG I/2, 2757
      b) Varbanov (engl.) 4845 var. (= AMNG 2757)

Regling writes: This strange depiction, first seen at Marcus Aurelius (Regling: Pertinax), we probably must take as a scene from a local myth. The man sometimes looks like Herakles. An explanation for this picture I have not found. A vague relation could be the depiction of the transport of the sick Philoktetes to Troy (Robert, Sarkophagreliefs II, p.150). Here too the constancy of the type suggests a copy of a monument.

Today this type is known from Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Pertinax, Severus, Domna, Caracalla, Geta, Elagabal, Severus Alexander, Maximinus, Gordian III and Philip II. The rev. depiction is mostly identical. Interesting is the type of Pertinax, where the bearded man looks like Pertinax himself http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/pertinax/_tomis_AE26_Moushmov_1869.jpg

Is there any new information available about this type since Regling has written his description in AD 1910?

Best regards

[archivum]

From the specimens pictured in AMNG I Taf. VII I can't see how this figure could be Herakles!

http://www.archive.org/stream/p1dieantikenmn01akaduoft#page/n553/mode/2up

[archivum]

Balkan Gordios the author of Alex the Great's Gordian Knot perhaps?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordias // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot

[Jochen]

A very interesting story! Some of the essentials are present: Riding in his ox-cart, his patroness, and his origin in Macedonia. I think it's worth to be studied further.

Jochen

[archivum]

Louis Robert, "Les dieux des Motaleis in Phrygie," Journal des savants 1 (1983), 45-63 , 51, n. 16, wants to see Gordios with his oxcart on a stele from Thiounta in Phrygia:

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/jds_0021-8103_1983_num_1_1_1461

From other sources it seems that the figure-in-oxcart appears on two steles from Thiounta, both too badly damaged to help much in unpuzzling Tomis' design.  At least equally germane to this whole case, at more points than one: Ernest A. Fredricksmeyer, "Alexander, Midas, and the Oracle at Gordium," Classical Philology,  56 [1961], 160-168, on the Balkan connection (Bryges / Phryges, Moesi / Mysi, etc.) and on how Alexander aligned his own schemes with the Phrygian migration from the Balkans.  Fredricksmeyer is more interested in a Balkan Midas-connection than in Gordios proper, but a well-documented rotation of Midas and Gordios in Phrygia as dynastic names makes it easy to see how the "Gordios-saga" could come to supply an especially apt migrating-founder figure.  And given Tomis's barbarous reputation in early Imperial times it would surely help bolster the outpost's own cultural credentials to be able to claim the first founder of a lineage like Phrygian Midas's.  See now also the further discussion at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=25089.msg404048#msg404048.

[Jochen]

Thanks so much. I'm very happy!

Jochen

[helvetica]

On one of the later pages of the Persée article mentioned and linked to above, is a map of Phrygia. Are my eyes tired of identifying Tyche types or does part of the map look like the turreted head of Tyche facing right ?

[Jochen]

Hi Dane!

And at the left border I see a woman with a crown. 
I think it is like seeing figures in clouds!

Best
Jochen