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Greek city of Antioch on the Orontes in Seleukis and Pieria
Semi-autonomous issue struck during the reign of:
Hadrian – Roman Emperor: 117-138 A.D.
Bronze 17mm Dated year 177 of the Caesarean Era, struck 128/129 A.D.
Reference: Cf. BMC 106; cf. McAlee 124(b).
ANTIOΧEΩN THΣ MHTΡOΠΟΛEΩΣ, turreted and veiled bust of Tyche right.
Lighted and garlanded altar on stand, date ET ZOP below.
Founded by Seleukos I circa 300 B.C. with Greek and Macedonian settlers brought from the destroyed city of Antigoneia on the Orontes. The city was named after Seleukos’ father with the purpose of being a western capital to guard against the northern expansion of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Eventually as many territories were lost, Antioch became the only capital of the Seleukid kingdom. Pompey the Great deposed the last king Antiochos XIII in 64 B.C. The Romans then made it a capital of a new Roman province and the seat of the Roman governors. There were temples of Olympian Zeus, Apollo in Daphne, hippodrome (built under the Seleukids and embellished by the Romans) and colonnaded main streets (being a gift from Herod the Great). It was an important center for the arts and learning.
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 Tyche (meaning “luck”; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. She is the daughter of Aphrodite and Zeus or Hermes.
In literature, she might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite, or considered as one of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, or of Zeus. She was connected with Nemesis and Agathos Daimon (“good spirit”).
The Greek historian Polybius believed that when no cause can be discovered to events such as floods, droughts, frosts or even in politics, then the cause of these events may be fairly attributed to Tyche.
Increasingly during the Hellenistic period, cities venerated their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a mural crown (a crown like the walls of the city).
Tyche had temples at Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. In Alexandria the Tychaeon, the temple of Tyche, was described by Libanius as one of the most magnificent of the entire Hellenistic world.
She was uniquely venerated at Itanos in Crete, as Tyche Protogeneia, linked with the Athenian Protogeneia (“firstborn”), daughter of Erechtheus, whose self-sacrifice saved the city.
Stylianos Spyridakis concisely expressed Tyche’s appeal in a Hellenistic world of arbitrary violence and unmeaning reverses: “In the turbulent years of the Epigoni of Alexander, an awareness of the instability of human affairs led people to believe that Tyche, the blind mistress of Fortune, governed mankind with an inconstancy which explained the vicissitudes of the time.”
 Hadrian – Roman Emperor: 117-138 A.D.
| First-cousin-once-removed and adopted son of Trajan | Husband of Sabina | Adoptive father of Aelius and Antoninus Pius | Grand-nephew of Trajan Pater |
Publius Aelius Hadrianus (as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was emperor of Rome from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoic and Epicurean philosopher. A member of the gens Aelia, Hadrian was the third of the so-called Five Good Emperors.
Hadrian was born Publius Aelius Hadrianus in Italica or, less probably, in Rome, from a well-established family which had originated in Picenum in Italy and had subsequently settled in Italica, Hispania Baetica (the republican Hispania Ulterior), near the present day location of Seville, Spain. His predecessor Trajan was a maternal cousin of Hadrian’s father. Trajan never officially designated a successor, but, according to his wife, Pompeia Plotina, Trajan named Hadrian emperor immediately before his death. Trajan’s wife was well-disposed toward Hadrian: Hadrian may well have owed his succession to her.
Hadrian’s presumed indebtedness to Plotina was widely regarded as the reason for Hadrian’s succession. However, there is evidence that he accomplished his succession on his own governing and leadership merits while Trajan was still alive. For example, between the years AD 100-108 Trajan gave several public examples of his personal favour towards Hadrian, such as betrothing him to his grandniece, Vibia Sabina, designating him quaestor Imperatoris, comes Augusti, giving him Nerva’s diamond “as hope of succession”, proposing him for consul suffectus, and other gifts and distinctions. The young Hadrian was Trajan’s only direct male family/marriage/bloodline. The support of Plotina and of L. Licinius Sura (died in AD 108) were nonetheless extremely important for Hadrian, already in this early epoch.
Hadrian visited Italica when (or never left it until) he was 14, when he was recalled by Trajan who thereafter looked after his development. He never returned to Italica although it was later made a colonia in his honour. His first military service was as a tribune of the Legio II Adiutrix. Later, he was to be transferred to the Legio I Minervia in Germany. When Nerva died in 98, Hadrian rushed to inform Trajan personally. He later became legate of a legion in Upper Pannonia and eventually governor of said province. He was also archon in Athens for a brief time, and was elected an Athenian citizen.
His career before becoming emperor follows: decemvir stlitibus iudicandis – sevir turmae equitum Romanorum – praefectus Urbi feriarum Latinarum – tribunus militum legionis II Adiutricis Piae Fidelis (95, in Pannonia Inferior) – tribunus militum legionis V Macedonicae (96, in Moesia Inferior) – tribunus militum legionis XXII Primigeniae Piae Fidelis (97, in Germania Superior) – quaestor (101) – ab actis senatus – tribunus plebis (105) – praetor (106) – legatus legionis I Minerviae Piae Fidelis (106, in Germania Inferior) – legatus Augusti pro praetore Pannoniae Inferioris (107) – consul suffectus (108) – septemvir epulonum (before 112) – sodalis Augustalis (before 112) – archon Athenis (112/13) – legatus Syriae (117).
Hadrian was active in the wars against the Dacians (as legate of the V Macedonica) and reputedly won awards from Trajan for his successes. Due to an absence of military action in his reign, Hadrian’s military skill is not well attested; however, his keen interest and knowledge of the army and his demonstrated skill of administration show possible strategic talent.
Hadrian joined Trajan’s expedition against Parthia as a legate on Trajan’s staff. Neither during the initial victorious phase, nor during the second phase of the war when rebellion swept Mesopotamia did Hadrian do anything of note. However when the governor of Syria had to be sent to sort out renewed troubles in Dacia, Hadrian was appointed as a replacement, giving him an independent command. Trajan, seriously ill by that time, decided to return to Rome while Hadrian remained in Syria to guard the Roman rear. Trajan only got as far as Selinus before he became too ill to go further. While Hadrian may have been the obvious choice as successor, he had never been adopted as Trajan’s heir. As Trajan lay dying, nursed by his wife, Plotina (a supporter of Hadrian), he at last adopted Hadrian as heir. Since the document was signed by Plotina, it has been suggested that Trajan may have already been dead.
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