A Coin of Aretas III Bearing His NameConcerning the events surrounding the decline of
Seleucid control in the northern
Levant, Josephus writes, “After
his [Antiochus
XII’s] death,
Aretas began to reign over Coele-Syria, being called to the throne by those who held
Damascus because of their hatred of
Ptolemy, the son of Mennaus. From there he marched on
Judaea and defeated Alexander in a battle near the fortress of Adida, but, after coming to terms with him, withdrew from
Judaea.” (AJ,
VIII, 392)
Aretas III commemorated
his rise to power in
Damascus by issuing a series of coins that bore
his portrait and name, establishing a tradition in
Nabataean minting that clarifies the
attribution of later coins. These
new coins fall into three
types. The bronzes feature a
portrait of
Aretas III on the
obverse, with either Tyche of
Damascus seated, or
Nike in the guise of Tyche standing on the
reverse. A third
type mimics the Bust/Nike-seated coins in silver, but the coin
Meshorer catalogs may have been a singular presentation issue - to my knowledge, the British Museum owns the only known example.
The coin I’ve attached to this post arrived yesterday from Dubai. It belongs to the category of Bust/Nike of
Damascus types,
Meshorer 6 and 6A. This particular rendition of Tyche was established on
Seleucid coinage, and continued in use through various
Roman Provincial issues. Of this rendition,
Newell writes, “Like the more famous
Tyche of Antioch, from whose well-known statue our present
type is directly copied, she is seated, turreted, on a rock, while beneath her feet is depicted the swimming figure of the River Chrysaroas. Unlike the
Tyche of Antioch, she holds a
cornucopiae in her left
arm, and stretches the right straight out before her, as if blessing with her beneficent powers the happy and industrious populations of her fertile oasis. These particular details always clearly differentiate the Tyche of
Damascus from her numerous sisters throughout the Greek world, even down to her last appearance on the issues of the city under the Emperor
Volusian, more than three hundred years later.” (E.T.
Newell: Late
Seleucid Mints, etc.,
NNM 84, pp. 93-94)
Meshorer reports that these issues are found only in
Damascus, suggesting they were city coins not intended to circulate in the greater
Nabataean Empire. (The anonymous Athena/Nike issues would have been serving that purpose at this time.) One of these
types, however, was discovered far from
Damascus in the
Nisibis hoard, but we can consider it an exception - a traveler’s lost pocket change, perhaps, or a memento.
1.
Nabataea:
Aretas III, r. 87-62 BCE
AE20, 7g, 1h;
Damascus Mint, 83/4 - before 74 BCE
Obv.: Diademed
head of
Aretas III right
Rev.: Tyche of
Damascus, turreted, seated left on rock,wearing mantle on lower
part of body, holding
cornucopiae in l. hand, extending r. hand,
river god (of Chrysorrhoas river) swimming below; in
field, in three vertical lines, inscr. ΒΑΣΙΛΕ[ΩΣ]/ΑΡΕΤΟ[Υ]/ΦΙΑ-ΕΛΛΗΝ[ΟΣ], in left
field, [A]P
Reference:
Meshorer 6A
