Coins and Antiquities Consignment Shop
  Hanukkah Sameach!!! Tell them you want a coin from FORVM for Hanukkah!!!! All items are guaranteed authentic for eternity! Please Call Us If You Have Questions 252-646-1958 Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!!! Tell them you want a coin from FORVM for Christmas!!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Internet Challenged? We Are Happy To Take Your Order Over The Phone 252-646-1958

×Catalog Main Menu
Fine Coins Showcase
Antiquities Showcase
New & Reduced
Show Empty Categories
Shop Search
Shopping Cart
My FORVM
Contact Us
About Forum
Shopping at Forum
Our Guarantee
Payment Options
Shipping Options & Fees
Privacy & Security
Forum Staff
Selling Your Coins
Identifying Your Coin
FAQs
zoom.asp
    View Categories
Home ▸ Catalog ▸ |Greek Coins| ▸ |Geographic - All Periods| ▸ |Anatolia| ▸ |Lydia| ▸ |Tralleis||View Options:  |  |  | 
Ancient Coins of Tralleis, Lydia

On the slopes of Mount Messogis in the valley of the Meander, Tralles, was one of the largest and richest cities of Lydia. King Attalus had a splendid palace there. The local god was Zeus Larasios, but Apollo Pythius and other divinities were also worshiped. On the defeat of Antiochus, 190 B.C., Tralles, with the rest of Lydia, was assigned to the kingdom of the Attalids, under whose gentle sway it enjoyed peace and prosperity, and was one of the chief mints of the Cistophori. When Attalus III died without an heir in 133 B.C., he bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome in order to prevent a civil war. Tralles was destroyed by an earthquake but was rebuilt by Augustus and took the name of Caesarea.

Tralleis, Lydia, c. 128 - 67 B.C.

|Tralleis|, |Tralleis,| |Lydia,| |c.| |128| |-| |67| |B.C.||cistophoric| |tetradrachm|
On the slopes of Mount Messogis in the valley of the Meander, Tralles, was one of the largest and richest cities of Lydia. King Attalus had a splendid palace there. The local god was Zeus Larasios, but Apollo Pythius and other divinities were also worshiped. Tralles was destroyed by an earthquake but was rebuilt by Augustus and took the name of Caesarea.

The cista mystica was a basket used for housing sacred snakes in connection with the initiation ceremony into the cult of Bacchus (Dionysus). In the Dionysian mysteries a snake, representing the god and possibly symbolic of his phallus, was carried in a cista mystica on a bed of vine leaves.SH71849. Silver cistophoric tetradrachm, SNG Cop 659; BMC Lydia p. 331, 37; SNGvA -, SNG Munchen -, Choice gVF, weight 12.535 g, maximum diameter 27.2 mm, die axis 0o, Tralles (Aydın, Turkey) mint, magistrate Theod.., c. 128 - 67 B.C.; obverse Cista mystica with half-open lid, from which a snake emerges left, all within ivy wreath; reverse two coiled serpents, heads erect, flanking bow-case ornamented with an apluster, bow within emerging top left, strap from lower right, TPAΛ left, ΘΕOΔ (magistrate) above case; Dionysos on right, standing left, holding bunch of grapes in right hand and thyrsos in left; SOLD


Gaius Julius Caesar, 17 B.C. - 21 February 4 A.D., Tralleis (as Caesarea), Lydia

|Tralleis|, |Gaius| |Julius| |Caesar,| |17| |B.C.| |-| |21| |February| |4| |A.D.,| |Tralleis| |(as| |Caesarea),| |Lydia||AE| |21|
The brothers, Caius and Lucius, were the sons of Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of Augustus. They were adopted by Augustus in 17 B.C. and were due to succeed him but predeceased him in 4 and 2 A.D. Augustus' wife, their step-mother, Livia, was rumored to have arranged both of their deaths to advance her son Tiberius, who was later adopted as Augustus' son and heir.

RPC I describes the type with a star on the obverse and notes "the star is not usually clear, but was probably present on all specimens." We disagree. Many specimens, including this one, do not have even the slightest indication of a star.RP84838. Bronze AE 21, BMC Lydia p. 344, 121; RPC I 2649 var. (star below bust); SNG Munchen 734 var. (same); Waddington 5421 var. (same); SNGvA -; SNG Cop -, F, porous, scratches, reverse slightly off center with exergue and plowman partly off flan, weight 5.583 g, maximum diameter 20.6 mm, die axis 0o, Tralles (Aydın, Turkey) mint, c. 2 B.C.; obverse ΓAIOΣ KAIΣAP, bare head right; reverse colonist plowing right with yoke of two oxen, KAIΣAPEΩN in exergue; scarce; SOLD


Claudius, Messalina and Britannicus, 43 - 49 A.D., Tralleis (as Caesarea), Lydia

|Tralleis|, |Claudius,| |Messalina| |and| |Britannicus,| |43| |-| |49| |A.D.,| |Tralleis| |(as| |Caesarea),| |Lydia||AE| |18|
On the slopes of Mount Messogis in the valley of the Meander, Tralles, was one of the largest and richest cities of Lydia. King Attalus had a splendid palace there. The local god was Zeus Larasios, but Apollo Pythius and other divinities were also worshiped. On the defeat of Antiochus, 190 B.C., Tralles, with the rest of Lydia, was assigned to the kingdom of the Attalids, under whose gentle sway it enjoyed peace and prosperity, and was one of the chief mints of the Cistophori. When Attalus III died without an heir in 133 B.C., he bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome in order to prevent a civil war. Tralles was destroyed by an earthquake but was rebuilt by Augustus and took the name of Caesarea.RP84886. Bronze AE 18, RPC I 2654; SNG Cop 691; SNG Munchen 740; SNG Righetti 1107; BMC Lydia p. 345, 124; Waddington 5423; Lindgren III 535; SNGvA -, gF, toned coppery surfaces, tight flan cutting off much of the legends, porous, weight 5.559 g, maximum diameter 17.9 mm, die axis 0o, Tralles (Aydın, Turkey) mint, 43 - 49 A.D.; obverse TI KLAY KAI CEBAC, confronting heads of Messalina and Claudius, Claudius laureate; reverse KAIΣAPEΩN BPETANNIKOΣ, togate figure of Britannicus standing slightly left, head left, holding ears of grain in right hand; SOLD







CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE FROM THIS CATEGORY - FORVM's PRIOR SALES


REFERENCES|

Babelon, E. La collection Waddington au cabinet des médailles. (Paris, 1897-1898).
Bloesch, H. Griechische Münzen In Winterthur. (Winterthur, 1987).
Burnett, A., M. Amandry, et al. Roman Provincial Coinage. (1992 - ).
Cohen, E. Dated Coins of Antiquity: A comprehensive catalogue of the coins and how their numbers came about. (Lancaster, PA, 2011).
Forrer, L. Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Greek Coins formed by Sir Hermann Weber, Vol. III, Part 1. (London, 1926).
Franke, P. & M. Noellé. Die Homonoia-Münzen Kleinasiens und der thrakischen Randgebiete. (Saarbrücken, 1997).
Grose, S. Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Greek Coins, Fitzwilliam Museum, Vol. III: Asia Minor, Farther Asia, Egypt, Africa. (Cambridge, 1929).
Head, B. Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, Lydia. (London, 1901).
Imhoof-Blumer, F. Lydische Stadtmünzen, neue Untersuchungen. (Geneva and Leipzig, 1897).
Kleiner, F. & S. Noe. The Early Cistophoric Coinage. ANSNS 14. (1977).
Kurth, D. Greek and Roman Provincial Coins - Lydia, Vol. I: The Early Electrum, Gold and Silver Coinage of Lydia. (Istanbul, 2020).
Kurth, D. Greek and Roman Provincial Coins - Lydia, Vol. IV: The Bronze Coinage of Lydia, Sardes (Sardis) - Tripolis. (Istanbul, 2020).
Lindgren, H. Ancient Greek Bronze Coins. (Quarryville, 1993).
Lindgren, H & F. Kovacs. Ancient Bronze Coinage of Asia Minor and the Levant. (San Mateo, 1985).
Mionnet, T. Description de Médailles antiques grecques et romaines, Vol. 4. Lydia - Armenia. (Paris, 1809).
Pinder, M. Über die Cistophoren und über die kaiserlichen Silbermedaillons der Römischen Provinz Asien. (Berlin, 1856).
Roman Provincial Coinage Online - http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/
Sear, D. Greek Coins and Their Values, Vol. 2, Asia and Africa. (London, 1979).
Sear, D. Greek Imperial Coins and Their Values. (London, 1982).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Denmark, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Vol. 5: Ionia, Caria, and Lydia. (West Milford, NJ, 1982).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, München Staatlische Münzsammlung, Part 23: Lydien. (Berlin, 1997).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Münzsammlung Universität Tübingen, Part 5: Karien und Lydien. (Berlin, 1994).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia. (Berlin, 1962).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, France, Bibliothèque National, Collection Jean et Marie Delepierre. (Paris, 1983).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain VI, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, The Lewis Collection II: The Greek Imperial Coins. (Oxford, 1992).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain XII, The Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Part 2: Roman Provincial Coins: Cyprus-Egypt. (Oxford, 2008).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Österreich, Sammlung Leypold, Kleinasiatische Münzen der Kaiserzeit. Vol. I. Pontus - Lydien. (Vienna, 2000).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Schweiz II. Münzen der Antike. Katalog der Sammlung Jean-Pierre Righetti im Bernischen Historischen Museum. (1993).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Turkey 1: The Muharrem Kayhan Collection. (Istanbul, 2002).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Turkey 5: Tire Museum (Izmir), Vol. 1: Roman Provincial Coins From Ionia, Lydia, Phrygia, etc. (Istanbul, 2011).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Turkey 7: Odemis Museum, Vol. 1: Roman Provincial Coins of Ionia, Lydia and etc. (Istanbul, 2012).

Catalog current as of Wednesday, December 6, 2023.
Page created in 1.532 seconds.
All coins are guaranteed for eternity