ANTONINUS PIUS 138AD Amphipolis in Macedonia TYCHE Very Rare Roman Coin i55403

$300.00 $270.00

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SKU: i55403 Category:

Item: i55403

 

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:


Antoninus Pius

Roman Emperor
: 138-161 A.D.
Bronze 21mm (5.97 grams) of
Amphipolis
in
Macedonia

Reference: RPC IV online 5018
ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑ ΚΑΙСΑΡ ΑΝΤωΝΙΝOС, Laureate head right, with slight drapery.
ΑΜΦΙΠOΛΙС, Tyche seated left on throne, holding patera and cornucopia.
Very rare

You are bidding on the exact 

item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime 

Guarantee of Authenticity.

Tyche (Greek for luck; the Roman equivalent was
Fortuna
) was the presiding
tutelary deity
that governed the fortune and 
prosperity of a city, its destiny. Increasingly during the Hellenistic period, 
cities had their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a
mural crown
(a crown like the walls of the 
city).


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.

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.”

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”).

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.

She 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.

Tyche appears on many
coins
of the Hellenistic period in the three 
centuries before the Christian era, especially from cities in the Aegean. 
Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated plotlines of
Hellenistic romances
, such as
Leucippe and Clitophon
or
Daphnis and Chloe
. She experienced a 
resurgence in another era of uneasy change, the final days of publicly 
sanctioned
Paganism
, between the late-fourth-century 
emperors
Julian
and
Theodosius I
who definitively closed the 
temples. The effectiveness of her capricious power even achieved respectability 
in philosophical circles during that generation, though among poets it was a 
commonplace to revile her for a fickle harlot.

In medieval art
, she was depicted as carrying a
cornucopia
, an
emblematic
ship’s rudder, and the
wheel of fortune
, or she may stand on the 
wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate.

The constellation of
Virgo
is sometimes identified as the heavenly 
figure of Tyche, as well as other goddesses such as
Demeter
and
Astraea
.


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

 

Antoninus Pius Glyptothek Munich 337 cropped.jpgand 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.

//

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.

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.

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

pietas

). 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, 

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

Augustan History

, 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.


   

    

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