Information, Legitimation, or Self-Legitimation? Popular and Elite Designs on the Coin Types of Syria

In a Famous Essay ‘Numismatics and History’, A. H. M. Jones suggested that Roman imperial coin types could be compared to the designs on modern postage stamps. The purpose of this analogy was to demonstrate the relative insignificance of types and legends for the study of imperial policy. In doing so, however, he addressed a fundamental problem which is of particular relevance here: What are the meaning(s) of coin types, and who chose the designs? Jones’s comparison was perhaps offered with a slight hint of facetiousness, as a way of debunking the notion that imperial history could be reconstructed from the coin designs alone, yet the analogy does have some merit when considering the meanings of types on Roman provincial coins. These do indeed depict ‘famous men of the country concerned, its artistic monuments . . . fairs . . . or . . . great events in national history’, among other things. The analogy is not intended to mean that the designs were empty or frivolous, or that people could not construct a sense of identity from them. This chapter examines some of the coin types of cities in Syria, to show that not only the more unusual types, but also some of the designs that we might consider generic could have been seen as specific and generated a sense of identity among members of the issuing community. Whether individuals within a community found the same meanings in the designs is a question addressed here. What people understood is crucial to any search for identities. It is suggested that whilst people from outside the community might have understood the types, these designs were not generally intended to convey ‘information’ to outsiders. Some of the types may remain unexplained today because they were perhaps equally obscure to many non-citizens in antiquity. However, unless the issuing authorities and the audience can be clearly identified it will be very difficult to say very much about how the coin types generated a sense of identity, and what sort of identities were generated.

Pergamum as Paradigm

The Editors of this Book Requested a study of an individual city to contrast with the broader regional surveys. This contribution attempts to demonstrate the advantages of a fuller exploration of the specific context of a civic coinage by focusing on selected issues from the coinage of Pergamum— alongside Ephesus and Smyrna one of the three largest cities in the Western part of Asia Minor. In the Julio-Claudian period Pergamum’s coin designs were dominated by the imperial succession and the city’s first neocorate temple (17 BC–AD 59). In AD 59 Pergamum’s coinage stopped for more than two decades. When it resumed under Domitian (AD 83) new topics were continuously introduced until the reign of Caracalla (AD 211–17). These included gods, cults, heroes, personifications, architecture, sculpture, games, and civic titles. After Caracalla the city concentrated on a few key images, such as Asclepius or the emperor. At the same time, coin legends— especially civic titles—gained greater importance. This trend continued until the city’s coinage came to an end under Gallienus (AD 253–68). The overall range of Pergamum’s coin iconography was broadly similar to that of other cities in the East of the Roman empire. Coins of Pergamum from the imperial period fall into (at least) sixty-four issues, the most diverse of which employed twenty different coin types. In all, around 340 different types are currently known. They provide a solid base from which to explore various relationships. These include the relationship between coin obverses and reverses, as well as the place of an individual coin type within its own issue, and within the city’s coinage as a whole. Coin designs could allude to objects and events within Pergamum itself, or focus on the city’s connections with the outside world: with small neighbouring cities, with the other great cities within the province of Asia, or with Rome and the imperial family. Communication via the medium of civic coinage was in the first instance presumably directed towards the citizens of Pergamum. At the same time coinage also reflected developments outside the city. Social and geographical mobility was encouraged by an imperial system which allowed distinguished members of local elites access to the highest military and administrative posts.

The Cities and their Money

In their Kind Invitation to Contribute to this book the editors assigned me the topic of ‘Authority/control’. The authors of RPC devoted an intensive discussion to the subject, with many facets and displaying an extraordinary knowledge of the material. This is in many respects a difficult field, and it is obvious how wide and heterogeneous is the material, how different the presuppositions were in the various parts of the Roman empire, and with what a broad timespan one has to deal: some three centuries, in which there were many developments and several changes. Despite its gigantic bulk, the coinage affords far fewer unambiguous indications permitting a clear conception of how minting came about and was controlled than one would wish. Epigraphy, which in other cases provides an enormous fund of information, here by contrast leaves us almost entirely in the lurch. It follows that many differences of opinion exist, and in many matters, even on points of central importance, our vision is still clouded. The topic is too complex to permit a thorough discussion of all the questions before us in this narrow space. For that reason I have undertaken a limited evaluation. In what follows, I am concerned only with coins pertaining to the cities. Attention is therefore not paid, for example, to the cistophori in Asia, the coins of Alexandria in Egypt, or of Caesarea in Cappadocia, or to the provincial coinage of Syria. I shall first consider the question of Roman control, but only in the form of some basic observations and reflections. Much must here remain unresolved. My central concern will therefore be the following set of questions: How did the cities organize their monetary production? How were responsibilities apportioned, and who was directly involved? What range of possibilities was there? How in this context are we to interpret the numerous names and functional titles on the coins of many Roman cities, especially in the west, down to Julio-Claudian times, and above all, in continuity with Hellenistic practice, on very many coins from the Greek poleis in Provincia Asia?

Aspects of Identity

Amodern Example May Help to Clarify some of the issues to be discussed in this chapter. Formerly one of the six republics forming the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), Bosnia- Hercegovina has since 1995’s Dayton Agreement been an uneasy international protectorate, divided into a Croat-Muslim Federation, and the Serbian ‘Republika Srpska’ (RS). Bosnia’s coinage speaks powerfully about the paradoxes of a state created through a bloody war of identity and ethnic cleansing. These two entities—the Federation and the RS— and three communities—Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian Muslim—display strong and sometimes aggrieved senses of their own individual identities, and ethnic divisions can arise over the simplest of everyday differences. For example, car registration stickers until recently identified cars as registered either in the Federation or in the RS. The International Community felt compelled to design a coinage in which ethnic differences were avoided. The currency itself is a paradox—known as the ‘Convertible Mark’ (KM), it converts to another currency, the Deutschmark, which no longer exists. But it is in the choice of iconography that the Bosnian KM is most striking; these are some of the least attractive coins ever issued, more akin to subway tokens than to genuine coinage. One side of the 1 KM coin displays the stylized shield motif of Bosnia-Hercegovina, a device approved by the International Community. The other bears the denomination and the words ‘Bosne i Hercegovina’ twice, in one language, and two alphabets, though Serbs, Muslims, and Croats might deny that the Latin script of Catholic Croatia, and the Cyrillic of Orthodox Serbia represent the same language. Aside from this need for linguistic even-handedness, no other motifs are to be found. An iconographic void appears to be the only means of compromise. What does this tell us? First, any minting authority can use coins to send an ideological and iconographical message. Coinages represent both political and economic acts. Second, coinage is in no sense an unmediated or direct guide to the ethnic identities of communities; it represents deliberate political choices made by those in control and may therefore mirror social attitudes of those not in control, attempt to modify them, or ignore them outright.

‘Belonging’ to Rome, ‘Remaining’ Greek: Coinage and Identity in Roman Macedonia

During a Period when the Western world, and especially Europe, has been undergoing radical changes, the concept and definition of ‘identity’ has naturally attracted the interest of sociologists, historians, and political scientists alike. This tendency has influenced classical studies and the way we approach ancient civilizations. Archaeologists, for example, tend to become more cautious concerning the connection between material civilization and ethnic identity, and the ‘objectivity’ of the available evidence, whether literary or material, is now often scrutinized. One of the main interests— but also difficulties—of this perspective is that it requires interdisciplinary research: in order to understand how private individuals, or social groups, perceived ‘themselves’, in other words what they considered as crucial for differentiating themselves from ‘others’, one cannot rely on partial evidence. Can, for example, the adoption of Roman names by members of the provincial elite be conceived as an adoption of Roman cultural identity? Other literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence clearly shows that this was not the case. The Roman empire was a state that incorporated many ethnic groups, with different political institutions and various religious beliefs. In this sense it is natural that contemporary studies on cultural identity have, to a large extent, concentrated on the imperial period. And a good many of them are dedicated to the interpretation of literary texts. The contribution of coinage to the understanding of identity under the Roman empire is what this book is about, and Howgego has set the general framework in his introduction. Before trying to explore what coins can contribute to our understanding of the civic identity of Macedonian cities, it is crucial to bear in mind the restrictions imposed by the nature of our material. It is clear that coin types represent deliberate choices made by certain individuals who possessed the authority to act in the name of the civic community they represented. Whose identity therefore do these coins reflect? Under the late Republic and the imperial period provincial cities possessed a restricted autonomy but were always subjected to Roman political authority. Their obligations towards Rome or their special privileges could vary according to the emperor’s will.

City Eras on Palestinian Coinage

Thirty-Eight Palestinian Cities Minted coins at various times during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The vast majority of these coins bear dates, with the bulk of the dates involving individual city eras. During the third century BC, royal Ptolemaic silver was struck in several urban centres on the Palestinian coast. The coinage from Ptolemais, Joppe, and Gaza was fairly substantial and most of it was dated by the regnal years of the kings. One undated silver coin has also been attributed to Dora. On these Ptolemaic issues the cities are represented only by monograms. Palestine came under Seleucid control c.200 BC, after its final conquest by Antiochus III. From the reign of Antiochus IV (175–164) onwards, there are both royal and city coinages, the latter mostly of bronze. The dates which appear on many of these coins use the Seleucid era of 312 BC. As in the preceding century, only coastal cities were involved: Ptolemais, Ascalon, Gaza, and Demetrias. The location of the last city is not known for certain, but an identification with Strato’s Tower, later rebuilt by Herod as Caesarea, seems possible. There is more information about the cities themselves on these second-century coins. Royal issues often bear the names of cities as well as specific symbols, like the dove in Ascalon or the Phoenician mem in Gaza. City-coinage proper further mentions Seleucid dynastic names, like that of Seleucia for Gaza or Antioch for Ptolemais; we would not have known about these dynastic names if not for their appearance on these coins. In the last quarter of the second century, new titles, ‘sacred and inviolable’, appear on coins of Ptolemais, Ascalon, and Gaza. The first individual city eras were established in this region at the very end of the second century BC, with the earliest material evidence belonging to the beginning of the first century: Ascalon, coin of year 6 (99/98 BC); Gaza, coins of years 13 and 14 (96/95, 95/94 or slightly later); Ptolemais, coin of year 9 (apparently from the first decade of the first century BC). In Ascalon and Ptolemais the new era appears together with the addition of the title ‘autonomous’.

Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces: Spain

The Ethnic and Cultural Composition of Iberia was not uniform before the Romans arrived; literary sources and archaeological research provide evidence of different influences over several Late Bronze Age strata. An account of the groups there previously is an essential first step before assessing the impact of Roman intervention, so that we can determine the extent to which the arrival and dominion of the Romans modified existing traditions. Before the coming of the Romans, the foreign peoples who principally influenced native Iberians were Phoenicians and Greeks (Map 6.1). The Greek colonies at Emporion and Rhode in north-east Iberia played an important role in the trade of commodities and the spread of ideas along the Mediterranean coast. In the south, the Phoenicians had settled early on, and created the great centralized settlements in this area, which includes part of what is now Portugal, and several villages commercially attached to the coast. The south and Mediterranean coast included the most Hellenized native towns, villages, and peoples; the Late Bronze Age populations evolved towards a culture that is generally speaking labelled as Iberian, and owed many features to their contacts with Greeks and Phoenicians. However, important variations in settlement patterns, religion, artistic traditions, and social organization can be recognized. Some of the most important settlements developed urban models. The inhabitants spoke a pre-Indo- European language and had their own writing. The eastern part of the inner Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by Celtiberians, throughout a wide territory that extended over the lands located south of the river Ebro and on the eastern part of both Mesetas. They had been developing a form of urban organization since the fourth century BC, and their material culture shows some indirect Greek influences from contacts with coastal Iberians. Their language belongs to the Indo-European family. The central and western parts of Iberia were inhabited by peoples with few Mediterranean influences, and with a strong presence of their own Late Bronze Age traditions. There are no signs of urban development, as seen in the Greek, and later Roman, worlds, until the Late Republican period.

Coinage and Identity in Pre-conquest Britain: 50 BC–AD 50

This Chapter Looks at Coins made and used by peoples on the edge of the Roman world in Britain just before and just after their conquest. In it I want to ask what the evidence of the coinage, its inscriptions, designs, and findspots, can say about various kinds of collective identity in Britain in the late pre-Roman Iron Age and early Roman periods, how they were constituted, and how they changed. The reason for focusing on Britain in this period is not merely that I know more about it than anywhere else. It provides a well-attested external case for comparison with contemporary developments within the Roman empire discussed elsewhere in this volume, especially with regard to such overarching and perhaps overused narrative themes as ‘Romanization’. It also allows us to explore certain current propositions about how to exploit coins as a source for understanding ancient identities. In recent scholarship in ancient history and archaeology, particularly English-language scholarship, ‘identity’ and its kindred concepts have become a major focus of thought and debate, particularly with regard to questions of ‘ethnic identity’, or ‘ethnicity’. So intense has been the focus and so absorbing the debate, however, that certain important aspects of human identity often tend to be left out of the picture. As an instance of this, I might cite the notion of ‘identity’ underlying this very volume, which seems essentially restricted in range to those aspects of identity which we think Roman provincial coin-types are able to tell us about—ethnic, civic, and political. These are important, of course, but they aren’t by any means the whole story. There is perhaps also a general presumption that provincial coin-types take us straightforwardly into the shared symbolic world of the civic communities in whose names they were made. The possibility that the coins and their designs might rather be selectively representing symbols associated with certain groups, the sponsors or adherents of a particular local temple depicted on a city’s coins, or the wealthy participants in a festival whose prize-crowns were adopted as a civic coin-type, is not generally taken into account.

The Roman West and the Roman East

Many Aspects of Different Cultures can help to throw light on their differing identities—language, architecture, religion, and many other things, such as the ‘range of landscapes, ways of thought, racial groups, roof-tops and cheeses’. In fact, almost anything. A particular category is provided by the institutions people observe, a category which might embrace an enormous range of different things, from burial practices to legal systems, or from different calendars to different systems of weights and measures. The link between coins, weights, and measures was clear to the Greeks and Romans, and that coins could be regarded as an expression of some at least of the values characteristic of a particular society is evident from an anecdote reported by Pliny as taking place in the reign of Claudius. He relates how a Roman was forced by a storm to Sri Lanka (ancient Taprobane), and how he told the local king about Rome: A freedman of Annius Plocamus, who had brought the tax collection for the Red Sea from the Treasury, was sailing round Arabia. He was carried along by winds from the north past Carmania and, on the fifteenth day, made harbour at Hippuros in the island; and in consequence of the kind hospitality of the king he learned the local language thoroughly over a period of six months, and afterwards in reply to his questions described the Romans and Caesar. In what he heard the king got a remarkably good idea of their honesty, because among the captured money there were denarii which were of equal weight, even though their various types indicated that they were issued by several persons. I want to apply this approach to the Roman world, and use coins in a way that may throw light on some of the ways that Romans regarded themselves, having a special look at the differences between the western and eastern parts of the empire. I want to suggest that we can use this sort of approach to help explain the fundamental change that took place in the currency of the Iberian peninsula, Gaul, Italy, Sicily, and Africa in the first century AD—how people there stopped using locally made coins and started to use coins imported from Rome, coins which might otherwise have been regarded in some sense as almost ‘foreign’.

Religious-Cultural Identity in Thrace and Moesia Inferior

The Beauty and Attractions of Philippopolis, named after Philip II, king of Macedonia, praised in this poetical manner by Lucian, were also celebrated on its coinage in Roman times. Hence the river Hebrus, navigable up to Philippopolis in antiquity, was often depicted on coins; on Hadrianic coins it was even named (pl. 8.1, 1). Its great importance for the city is further reflected in the common illustrations of the river-god and the city-goddess (pl. 8.1, 2). And one coin with the river-god also shows other sources of wealth for the city: little genii are depicted representing agriculture and mining (pl. 8.1, 3). While the AIMOΣ, depicted only on coins of Nicopolis ad Istrum, is shown as a male personification (in the form of a young hunter), the smaller mountains of Rhodope, situated near Philippopolis, are depicted as a charming female figure with an explanatory legend (ROΔOΠH) on coins of Philippopolis (pl. 8.1, 4). In addition, the three hills which formed the acropolis of the city (which, as a consequence, was called Trimontium in Roman times), and are known today as Nebet-, Džambaz-, and Taximtepe, were depicted (singly or all together) on coins of Philippopolis (pl. 8.1, 5). Sometimes even the other hills of the city (which are said to have been seven in all) can be seen on the coins. So a statue of Heracles, situated on a hill, supposedly represented the second highest elevation of the city, the Bundardžika (pl. 8.1, 6). The pictures of these hills are combined with appropriate buildings—temples, statues, aqueducts— on the coins (pl. 8.1, 7). It is clear that such illustrations conveyed a specific image of the city and the landscape, and were intended to show essential aspects of the common identity of the Philippopolites. As a consequence they give a good insight into the processes of acculturation which led to the formation or change of identities. They show how indigenous, local, or regional traditions, myths, and stories of origins were conserved or changed. They also inform us about the adaptation of foreign influences (for example, the taking over and/or integration of foreign deities in the local pantheon) or the resistance against such influences. Such central aspects of ‘Coinage and Identity’ will be studied in detail in this chapter, with special regard to Thrace and Moesia Inferior.