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Greek city Kibyra (Cibyra) in Phrygia Pseudo-autonomous issue
Bronze 15mm (3.14 grams) Struck circa 100-260 A.D.
Certification: NGC Ancients VF 4936037-012
Helmeted and cuirassed bust of Ares right.
KI/BYP within wreath.
An important city in the far south of the country, near the Lycian border, Kibyra retainer its independence until 84 B.C. when it wa added to the Roman province of Asia. It was celebrated for its iron products.
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 Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.
The Greeks were ambivalent toward Ares: although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, “overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering.” Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) were yoked to his battle chariot. In the Iliad his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. His value as a war god is even placed in doubt: during the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing side, while Athena, often depicted in Greek art as holding Nike (Victory) in her hand, favored the triumphant Greeks.
Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology as represented in literary narratives, though his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to. When Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation. He is well known as the lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of love who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship, but the most famous story involving the couple shows them exposed to ridicule through the wronged husband’s clever device.
The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people held a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion for his agricultural and tutelary functions. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares. Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures becomes virtually indistinguishable.
Kibyra (sometimes also spelled as Cibyra) is an ancient city and an archaeological site in south-west Turkey, near the modern town of Gölhisar, in Burdur Province.
Possibly originally settled by Lydians, it is also the place where, according to Strabo, the Lydian language was still being spoken among a multicultural population around his time (1st century BC), thus making Kibyra the last locality where the culture, by then extinct in Lydia proper according to extant accounts, is attested.
A tetrapolis (grouping of four cities) was formed under the leadership of Kibyra during the 2nd century BC. The Kibyran Tetrapolis included the neighboring cities of Bubon, Balbura and Oenoanda. The tetrapolis was dissolved by the Roman general Lucius Licinius Murena in 83 BC, at the time of the First Mithridatic War.
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