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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







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REFERENCES|

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