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Greek city of Mostene in Lydia. Pseudo-Autonomous Issue
Bronze 18mm (4.00 grams) Struck circa 75-125 A.D.
Reference: RPC II 994
ΘЄON CYNKΛHTON, Draped bust of the Senate right.
MOCTHNΩN, Mên on horse trotting right, holding labrys.
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Mên – the Anatolean Moon God
Mên (MHN) was the male Anatolean Moon God. His name is corresponding to the masculine form of MHNH=Selene. In Hellenistic times his cult spread out from Phrygia over Lydia, Pisidia and the whole Asia Minor to Attica and Athens. Here he was under the name TYRANNOC the god of the slaves, and like in Asia Minor ruler of the city and owner of the land, often together with the local MHTHR. Numerous inscriptions with law character show Mên with various, not always explicable, epitheta. Mên is depicted occasionally riding on a horse, but mostly standing in Phrygian clothing with spear or sceptre, crescent with horns and cock, stepping on the head of a bull, as on this coin. As syncretistic deity he soon was melted with Attis, Sabazios, Zeus Dolichenos and Mithras. Finally he was the god of heaven (MEGAS MHN OYRANIOC) and ruler of the underworld (MHN KATACHTHONIOC), yes, even the one and only god (EIC THEOC). In Antiochia was a great sanctuary of Mên.
Roman Senate
One of the most personifications represented emissions autonomous provincial Roman is that of the Roman Senate , widely present emissions of Lydia and Phrygia , in general, much of Asia Minor (Table 9a- c ) .
The reason may be found in the fact that the province of Asia was under the control of the Senate, but this conclusion clashes with the evidence that the Senate has never shown instead in the emissions of other provinces Senators, such as Bithynia .
Emissions autonomous province with the Senate of Rome covering virtually the whole of the period from Tiberius to Philip I, with a maximum in the period of the Antonines and the Severi .
Coinage in the iconography of imperial Rome , the Senate appears robed , with a beard as a sign of maturity , the scepter as a sign of power and sometimes with an olive branch . It is often portrayed in the presence of the imperial figure , ie the emperor shaking hands as a sign of harmony or only hope for such a harmony between the parties, as it appears on a sestertius of Commodus RIC III 549 , a similar scene is found on a sestertius of Hadrian RIC II 968, but here also appears the figure of Rome holding her hands on those imperial and Senate that huddle . On a golden age of Trajan takes on a quasi-religious while sacrificing on an altar in front of the Genius of the Roman People (RIC 374). E ‘ instead of a lone Caracalla Antoninianus RIC 246 and a golden Commodus RIC 157a . The inscription Genivs SENATVS confirms that the embodiment in question is precisely that of the Roman Senate .
In contrast to what was seen for the imperial emissions , the Senate of Rome autonomous provincial emissions is depicted with a portrait male youth with medium length hair type Genio Populi Romani or Bonus Eventus , sometimes the picture is instead purely feminine and l ‘ hairstyle becomes similar to that of Plotina , wife of Trajan, or that of Longina Domitia , wife of Domitian as it appears on the issues of mint Apollonis in Lydia (fig. 14).
The legends that accompany the portrait in emissions are almost independent of the provincial type CYNKΛHTOC, ΣYNKΛHTOC, IERA CYNKΛHTOC, ΘEON CYNKΛHTON, ΣYNKΛHTON or ΘEON CYNKΛHTOY and leave no doubt on the identification. The appeal is therefore the authority of Rome through his organ very representative, who takes on a sacred (IEPA) or divine (ΘEON). As mentioned above, the period Flavio brand the passage from the use of ΘEOΣ to IEPA.
A large bronze issued to Mallus in Cilicia (BMC 30, Levante 1286) portrays the personification with head veiled in conjunction enrollment SACRED SINATVS (fig. 15). In this case, even though the Senate is in the masculine gender, the personification is typically feminine boulh in greek is in fact female and perhaps the engraver of this type did not know Latin well (considering also the obvious corruption of SENATVS in SINATVS) and has remade the genre greek. A similar issue shows instead the legend SACER SENATVS (Ovens n. 537).
How to interpret the presence of this representation emission greek imperial is not easy. It is probably limited to believe that confirmation of the subjection of the Greek cities in Rome were confirmed by the presence of a call to the Senate, since over time the importance of the same was gradually decreasing, while his cult in the provinces remained almost unchanged. It should not be forgotten that the Roman Senate assumes emissions pseudo autonomous on a religious or divine, or IEPA ΘEON (the Senate is the only cult that was called both divine and sacred), and this probably has nothing to do with the control politician of the provinces. “The deification and the consecration of the Roman Senate are a product of the school of thought of the Eastern world, who wants to be surrounded by a halo and be the object of worship every manifestation of human power, as this is considered emanation of divine power” (Forni, 1954).
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