GORDIAN III 238AD Singara Mespotamia Tyche Sagittarius Centaur Roman Coin i56583

Item: i56583

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Gordian III –
Roman Emperor
: 238-244 A.D. –
Bronze 27mm (10.50 grams) of
Singara in Mesopotamia
Reference: Sear GIC 3791; B.M.C.28.134,1; SNG Cop. 254
AVTOK. K. M. ANT. ΓOPΔIANOC CЄB., 
Radiate bust right, drapery on left shoulder.
AVP. CЄΠ. KOΛ. CINΓAPA, Veiled and turreted 
bust of City-goddess (Tyche) right; above, Centaur Sagittarius right, 
discharging bow.

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
.

Sagittarius (♐) (Greek: Τοξότης Toxotes, Latin: Sagittarius) is the ninth astrological sign, which is associated with the constellation Sagittarius and spans 240–270th degrees of the zodiac. Under the tropical zodiac, the sun transits this sign between approximately November 23 and December 20. The symbol of the archer is based on the centaur Chiron, who mentored Achilles in archery [ Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the greatest warrior of Homer’s Iliad.].

Sagittarius, half human and half horse, is the centaur of mythology, the learned healer whose higher intelligence forms a bridge between earth and Heaven. Also known as the Archer, Sagittarius is represented by the symbol of a bow and arrow.

Singara was a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of

Mesopotamiaa, which for a while, as appears from many coins still 
extant, was occupied by the
Romans
as an advanced colony against the
Persians
. It was the camp of

Parthica I legio
.

Its position, south-east of
Nisibis
, has not been clearly defined by 
ancient writers, Stephanus of Byzantium
calling it a city of
Arabia
, near
Edessa
, and
Ptolemy 
placing it on the Tigris
. There can, however, be no doubt that it 
and the mountain near it, called by Ptolemy ὸ 
Σίγγαρας ὄρος, are represented at the present day by the district of the
Singar
(in modern-day
Iraq).

It was first taken by the Romans during
Trajan‘s 
eastern campaigns, when general

Lusius Quietus captured the city without a fight in the winter of 
114; Although it was abandoned following the Roman withdrawal from

Mesopotamia in 117, the city became once again part of the Roman 
Empire with the Parthian
campaign of

Septimius Severus in 197. The city was raised by Severus to the 
status of a
Roman colony
, as is attested by the legend 
found on some of the coins minted there during the reign of
Gordian 
III: ΑΥΡ. CΕΠ. ΚΟΛ. CΙΝΓΑΡΑ., 
which is Greek script for the city’s Latin name, Aurelia Septimia Colonia 
Singara. It remained one of the easternmost outposts of the Roman Empire 
throughout the 3rd century. It was the scene of a celebrated nocturnal conflict 
during a
siege
of the city in 344 by
Sassanid
King
Shapur II, 
the result of which was so unsatisfactory that both sides claimed the victory.) 
Still later, in 359/360, during the reign of

Constantius II, it is recorded that it underwent a celebrated siege, 
and at length was carried by the Persians by storm, though gallantly defended by 
the townspeople and two legions. The country around it is stated by
Ammianus Marcellinus
and
Theophylact Simocatta
to have been extremely 
arid, which rendered it equally difficult to take or to relieve from a distance.