ANTONINUS PIUS 138AD Amphipolis in Macedon City Goddess Roman Coin RARE i42826

Item: i42826

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Antoninus Pius
–
Roman Emperor
: 138-161 A.D.

Bronze 26mm (9.36 grams) of

Amphipol
is in
Macedon

Reference: Sear GIC 1350; Mouchmov 6078; Varbanov 3195; SNG Copenhagen 184;
Gaebler 42,81
AYTOKPA. KAICAP ANTΩΝЄINOC, Laureate head right.

ΑΜΦΙΠΟΛЄΙΤWN, City-goddess enthroned left, holding patera.

You are bidding on the exact

Guarantee of Authenticity.

Amphipolis was an
ancient

Greek

city
in the region once inhabited by the
Edoni
people in the present-day
periphery
of
Central Macedonia
. It was built on a raised
plateau overlooking the east bank of the
river

Strymon
where it emerged from Lake Cercinitis,
about 3 m. from the
Aegean Sea
. Founded in 437 BC, the city was
finally abandoned in the 8th century AD. The present municipality Amfipoli,
named after the ancient city, occupies the site. Currently, it is a municipality
in the
Serres Prefecture
,
Central Macedonia
with a population of 3,623
(2001 census).

 Origins

Archaeology
has uncovered remains at the site
dating to approximately 3000 BC. Due to the strategic location of the site it
was fortified from very early.
Xerxes I

of Persia
passed during his invasion of Greece
of 480 BC and buried alive nine young men and nine maidens as a sacrifice to the
river god. Near the later site of Amphipolis
Alexander I

of Macedon
defeated the remains of Xerxes’ army
in 479 BC.

Throughout the 5th century BC,
Athens
sought to consolidate its control over
Thrace, which was strategically important because of its primary materials (the
gold and silver of the
Pangaion hills
and the dense forests essential
for naval construction), and the sea routes vital for Athens’ supply of grain
from Scythia
. After a first unsuccessful attempt at
colonisation in 497 BC by the
Miletian

Tyrant

Histiaeus
, the Athenians founded a first colony
at Ennea-Hodoi (‘Nine Ways’) in 465, but these first ten thousand colonists were
massacred by the
Thracians
. A second attempt took place in 437
BC on the same site under the guidance of
Hagnon
, son of
Nicias
.

The new settlement took the name of Amphipolis (literally, “around the
city”), a name which is the subject of much debates about
lexicography
.
Thucydides
claims the name comes from the fact
that the Strymon flows “around the city” on two sides; however a note in the

Suda (also given in the lexicon of
Photius
) offers a different explanation
apparently given by
Marsyas
, son of
Periander
: that a large proportion of the
population lived “around the city”. However, a more probable explanation is the
one given by
Julius Pollux
: that the name indicates the
vicinity of an isthmus
. Furthermore, the
Etymologicum Genuinum
gives the following
definition: a city of the Athenians or of Thrace, which was once called Nine
Routes, (so named) because it is encircled and surrounded by the Strymon river.
This description corresponds to the actual site of the city (see adjacent map),
and to the description of Thucydides.

Amphipolis subsequently became the main power base of the Athenians in Thrace
and, consequently, a target of choice for their
Spartans
adversaries. The Athenian population
remained very much in the minority within the city. An Athenian rescue
expedition led by strategist (and later historian) Thucydides had to settle for
securing Eion
and could not retake Amphipolis, a failure
for which Thucydides was sentenced to exile. A new Athenian force under the
command of Cleon
failed once more in 422 BC during a
battle
at which both
Cleon
and
Brasidas
lost their lives. Brasidas survived
long enough to hear of the defeat of the Athenians and was buried at Amphipolis
with impressive pomp. From then on he was regarded as the founder of the city
and honoured with yearly games and sacrifices. The city itself kept its
independence until the reign of the king
Philip II
despite several other Athenian
attacks, notably because of the government of
Callistratus

of Aphidnae
.

 Conquest
by the Romans

In 357 BC, Philip removed the block which Amphipolis presented on the road to
Macedonian control over Thrace by conquering the town, which Athens had tried in
vain to recover during the previous years. According the historian
Theopompus
, this conquest came to be the object
of a secret accord between
Athens
and Philip II, who would return the city
in exchange for the fortified town of
Pydna
, but the Macedonian king betrayed the
accord, refusing to cede Amphipolis and laying siege to Pydna.

After the conquest by Philip II, the city was not immediately incorporated
into the kingdom, and for some time preserved its institutions and a certain
degree of autonomy. The border of Macedonia was not moved further east; however,
Philip sent a number of Macedonians governors to Amphipolis, and in many
respects the city was effectively ‘Macedonianized’. Nomenclature, the calendar
and the currency (the
gold stater
, installed by Philip to capitalise
on the gold reserves of the Pangaion hills, replaced the Amphipolitan
drachma
) were all replaced by Macedonian
equivalents. In the reign of
Alexander
, Amphipolis was an important naval
base, and the birthplace of three of the most famous Macedonian
Admirals
:
Nearchus
, Androsthenes^[6]
and
Laomedon
whose burial place is most likely
marked by the famous lion of Amphipolis.

Amphipolis became one of the main stops on the Macedonian royal road (as
testified by a border stone found between
Philippos
and Amphipolis giving the distance to
the latter), and later on the ‘Via
Egnatia’, the principal
Roman Road
which crossed the southern Balkans.
Apart from the ramparts of the low town (see photograph), the gymnasium and a
set well-preserved frescoes from a wealthy villa are the only artifacts from
this period that remain visible. Though little is known of the layout of the
town, modern knowledge of its institutions is in considerably better shape
thanks to a rich epigraphic documentation, including a military ordinance of
Philip V
and an
ephebarchic
law from the gymnasium. After the
final victory of
Rome
over Macedonia in a
battle
in 168 BC, Amphipolis became the capital
one of the four mini-republics, or ‘merides’, which were created by the Romans
out of the kingdom of the
Antigonids
which
succeeded
Alexander’s Empire in Macedon. These
‘merides’ were gradually incorporated into the Roman client state, and later
province, of Thracia
.

 Revival
in Late Antiquity

During the period of
Late Antiquity
, Amphipolis benefited from the
increasing economic prosperity of Macedonia, as is evidenced by the large number
of Christian Churches
that were built.
Significantly however, these churches were built within a restricted area of the
town, sheltered by the walls of the
acropolis
. This has been taken as evidence that
the large fortified perimeter of the ancient town was no longer defendable, and
that the population of the city had considerably diminished.

Nevertheless, the number, size and quality of the churches constructed
between the fifth and sixth centuries are impressive. Four
basilicas
adorned with rich
mosaic
floors and elaborate architectural
sculptures (such as the ram-headed
column
capitals – see picture) have been
excavated, as well as a church with a hexagonal central plan which evokes that
of the
basilica
of
St. Vitalis
in
Ravenna
. It is difficult to find reasons for
such municipal extravagance in such a small town. One possible explanation
provided by the historian
André Boulanger
is that an increasing
‘willingness’ on the part of the wealthy upper classes in the late Roman period
to spend money on local
gentrification
projects (which he terms ‘’évergétisme’’,
from the Greek verb εύεργετέω,(meaning ‘I do good’) was exploited by the local
church to its advantage, which led to a mass gentrification of the urban centre
and of the agricultural riches of the city’s territory. Amphipolis was also a
diocese
under the
suffragan
of
Thessaloniki
– the Bishop of Amphipolis is
first mentioned in 533 AD.

 From
the reduction of the urban area to the disappearance of the city

The
Slavic invasions
of the late 6th century
gradually encroached on the back-country Amphipolitan lifestyle and led to the
decline of the town, during which period its inhabitants retreated to the area
around the acropolis. The ramparts were maintained to a certain extent, thanks
to materials plundered from the monuments of the lower city, and the large
unused cisterns of the upper city were occupied by small houses and the
workshops of artisans. Around the middle of the 7th century AD, a further
reduction of the inhabited area of the city was followed by an increase in the
fortification of the town, with the construction of a new rampart with
pentagonal towers cutting through the middle of the remaining monuments. The
acropolis, the Roman baths
, and especially the Episcopal
basilica were crossed by this wall.

The city was probably abandoned in the eighth century, as the last bishop was
attested in 787. Its inhabitants probably moved to the neighbouring site of
ancient Eion
, port of Amphipolis, which had been
rebuilt and refortified in the
Byzantine period
under the name “Chrysopolis”.
This small port continued to enjoy some prosperity, before being abandoned
during the
Ottoman period
. The last recorded sign of
activity in the region of Amphipolis was the construction of a fortified tower
to the north in 1367 by
Grand Primicier
Jean and the
Stratopedarque
Alexis to protect the land that
they had given to the monastery of Pantokrator on
Mount Athos
.

 Archaeology

The site was rediscovered and described by many travellers and archaeologists
during the 19th century, including E. Cousinéry (1831) (engraver), L. Heuzey
(1861), and P. Perdrizet (1894–1899). In 1934, M. Feyel, of the
École française d’Athènes
, led an
epigraphical mission
to the site and uncovered
the remains of a funeral lion (a reconstruction was given in the, a publication
of the EfA which is available on line). However, excavations did not truly begin
until after the Second World War. The
Greek Archaeological Society
under D. Lazaridis
excavated in 1972 and 1985, uncovering a necropolis, the rampart of the old town
(see photograph), the basilicas, and the acropolis.

 Amphipolitans

• Demetrius of Amphipolis
  , student of Plato’s
• Zoilus
  (400 BC-320 BC), grammarian, cynic
  philosopher
• Pamphilus (painter)
  , head of
  Sicyonian
  school and teacher of
  Apelles
• Aetion
  , sculptor
• Philippus of Amphipolis
  , historian
• Nearchus
  , admiral
• Erigyius
  , general
• Damasias
   ^{[disambiguation
  needed]} of Amphipolis 320 BC
  Stadion
  Olympics
• Hermagoras of Amphipolis
  (c. 225 BC), stoic
  philosopher ,follower of
  Persaeus
• Xena
  , the Warrior Princess of Amphipolis.

Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus (19 September 86 – 7

March 161), generally known in English as Antoninus Pius was

Roman emperor

from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the

Five Good Emperors

and a member of the

Aurelii
. He

did not possess the

sobriquet

“Pius” until after

his accession to the throne. Almost certainly, he earned the name “Pius” because

he compelled the

Senate

to deify his adoptive father

Hadrian
; the

Historia Augusta

, however, suggests that he may have earned the name by

saving senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years.

//

 Early

life

 Childhood

and family

He was the son and only child of

Titus Aurelius Fulvus

,

consul
in 89

whose family came from

Nemausus

(modern Nîmes
)

and was born near

Lanuvium

and his mother was Arria Fadilla. Antoninus’ father and paternal grandfather

died when he was young and he was raised by

Gnaeus Arrius Antoninus

, his maternal grandfather, a man of integrity and

culture and a friend of

Pliny the Younger

. His mother married to Publius Julius Lupus (a man of

consular rank),

Suffect

Consul
in 98, and bore him a daughter called Julia Fadilla.

 Marriage

and children

As a private citizen between 110 and 115, he married Annia Galeria

Faustina the Elder

. They had a very happy marriage. She was the daughter of

consul

Marcus Annius Verus

and

Rupilia

Faustina (a half-sister to Roman Empress

Vibia

Sabina
). Faustina was a beautiful woman, renowned for her wisdom. She spent

her whole life caring for the poor and assisting the most disadvantaged Romans.

Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters. They were:

• Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral

  inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome.

• Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus (died before 138); his sepulchral

  inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. His name

  appears on a Greek Imperial coin.

• Aurelia Fadilla (died in 135); she married Lucius Lamia Silvanus, consul

  145. She appeared to have no children with her husband and her sepulchral

  inscription has been found in

  Italy
  .

• Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or

  Faustina the Younger

  (between 125-130-175), a future Roman Empress,

  married her maternal cousin, future Roman Emperor

  Marcus Aurelius

  .

When Faustina died in 141, he was in complete mourning and did the following

in memory of his wife:

• Deified her as a goddess.
• Had a temple built in the Roman Forum in her name, with priestesses in

  the temple.

• Had various coins with her portrait struck in her honor. These coins

  were scripted ‘DIVAE FAUSTINA’ and were elaborately decorated.

• He created a charity which he founded and called it Puellae

  Faustinianae or Girls of Faustina, which assisted orphaned girls.

• Created a new alimenta (see

  Grain supply to the city of Rome

  ).

 Favour

with Hadrian

Having filled with more than usual success the offices of

quaestor

and praetor
,

he obtained the consulship in 120; he was next appointed by the Emperor

Hadrian
as

one of the four

proconsuls

to administer

Italia

, then greatly increased his reputation by his conduct as

proconsul

of

Asia

. He acquired much favor with the Emperor Hadrian, who adopted him as

his son and successor on 25 February, 138, after the death of his first adopted

son Lucius Aelius

, on the condition that Antoninus would in turn adopt Marcus

Annius Verus, the son of his wife’s brother, and Lucius, son of Aelius Verus,

who afterwards became the emperors

Marcus Aurelius

and

Lucius

Verus
(colleague of Marcus Aurelius).

 Emperor

On his accession, Antoninus’ name became “Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius

Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pontifex Maximus”. One of his first acts as Emperor

was to persuade the

Senate

to grant divine honours to Hadrian, which they had at first refused; his efforts

to persuade the Senate to grant these honours is the most likely reason given

for his title of Pius (dutiful in affection; compare

). Two other reasons for this title are that he would support his

aged father-in-law with his hand at Senate meetings, and that he had saved those

men that Hadrian, during his period of ill-health, had condemned to death. He

built temples, theaters, and mausoleums, promoted the arts and sciences, and

bestowed honours and financial rewards upon the teachers of

rhetoric

and philosophy

.

In marked contrast to his predecessors

Trajan
and

Hadrian
,

Antoninus was not a military man. One modern scholar has written “It is almost

certain not only that at no time in his life did he ever see, let alone command,

a Roman army, but that, throughout the twenty-three years of his reign, he never

went within five hundred miles of a legion”.^[2]

His reign was the most peaceful in the entire history of the

Principate
;

while there were several military disturbances throughout the Empire in his

time, in Mauretania

,

Iudaea

, and amongst the

Brigantes

in Britannia

, none of them are considered serious. The unrest in Britannia is

believed to have led to the construction of the

Antonine Wall

from the

Firth of Forth

to the

Firth of Clyde

, although it was soon abandoned. He was virtually unique

among emperors in that he dealt with these crises without leaving Italy once

during his reign, but instead dealt with provincial matters of war and peace

through their governors or through imperial letters to the cities such as

Ephesus (of which some were publicly displayed). This style of government was

highly praised by his contemporaries and by later generations.

Of the public transactions of this period we have scant information, but, to

judge by what we possess, those twenty-two years were not remarkably eventful in

comparison to those before and after his; the surviving evidence is not complete

enough to determine whether we should interpret, with older scholars, that he

wisely curtailed the activities of the Roman Empire to a careful minimum, or

perhaps that he was uninterested in events away from Rome and

Italy
and his

inaction contributed to the pressing troubles that faced not only Marcus

Aurelius but also the emperors of the third century. German historian Ernst

Kornemann has had it in his Römische Geschichte [2 vols., ed. by H. Bengtson,

Stuttgart 1954] that the reign of Antoninus comprised “a succession of grossly

wasted opportunities,” given the upheavals that were to come. There is more to

this argument, given that the Parthians in the East were themselves soon to make

no small amount of mischief after Antoninus’ passing. Kornemann’s brief is that

Antoninus might have waged preventive wars to head off these outsiders.

Scholars place Antoninus Pius as the leading candidate for fulfilling the

role as a friend of Rabbi

Judah

the Prince
. According to the

Talmud
(Avodah

Zarah 10a-b), Rabbi Judah was very wealthy and greatly revered in Rome. He had a

close friendship with “Antoninus”, possibly Antoninus Pius,^[3]

who would consult Rabbi Judah on various worldly and spiritual matters.

After the longest reign since Augustus (surpassing

Tiberius
by

a couple of months), Antoninus died of fever at

Lorium
in

Etruria
,

about twelve miles (19 km) from Rome, on 7 March 161, giving the keynote to his

life in the last word that he uttered when the

tribune
of

the night-watch came to ask the password—”aequanimitas” (equanimity). His body

was placed in

Hadrian’s mausoleum

, a

column

was dedicated to him on the

Campus Martius

, and the

temple

he had built in the Forum in 141 to his deified wife Faustina was

rededicated to the deified Faustina and the deified Antoninus.

 Historiography

The only account of his life handed down to us is that of the

, an unreliable and mostly fabricated work. Antoninus is

unique among Roman emperors in that he has no other biographies. Historians have

therefore turned to public records for what details we know.

 In

later scholarship

Antoninus in many ways was the ideal of the landed gentleman praised not only

by ancient Romans, but also by later scholars of classical history, such as

Edward Gibbon

or the author of the article on Antoninus Pius in the ninth

edition of the

Encyclopedia Britannicaca:

A few months afterwards, on Hadrian’s death, he was enthusiastically

welcomed to the throne by the Roman people, who, for once, were not

disappointed in their anticipation of a happy reign. For Antoninus came

to his new office with simple tastes, kindly disposition, extensive

experience, a well-trained intelligence and the sincerest desire for the

welfare of his subjects. Instead of plundering to support his

prodigality, he emptied his private treasury to assist distressed

provinces and cities, and everywhere exercised rigid economy (hence the

nickname κυμινοπριστης “cummin-splitter”). Instead of exaggerating into

treason whatever was susceptible of unfavorable interpretation, he

spurned the very conspiracies that were formed against him into

opportunities for demonstrating his clemency. Instead of stirring up

persecution against the Christians, he extended to them the strong hand

of his protection throughout the empire. Rather than give occasion to

that oppression which he regarded as inseparable from an emperor’s

progress through his dominions, he was content to spend all the years of

his reign in Rome, or its neighborhood.