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Salonina
– Roman Empress: 253-268 A.D. – Wife of Gallienus
–
Bronze “Gallienic Unit” 24mm (6.08 grams) of
Aphrodisias
in
Caria
Reference: Karl 96; MacDonald Type 232f (O284/V565 – this coin referenced); SNG
München 153-4; SNG von Aulock 2477; BMC 152
KOPN CAΛΩNINA IA,
Draped bust on cresecent right, wearing stephane.
Cult statue of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias facing right; star and crescent
to upper left and right; to lower left, priestess seated right; fountain(?) to
lower right.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of
Authenticity.
Aphrodisias (//;
Ancient Greek
:
Ἀφροδισιάς Aphrodisiás)
was a small
ancient Greek
city in
Caria
. Its is located near the modern village
of Geyre
, Turkey, about 230 km (140 mi) south-east
of İzmir
and about 100 km (62 mi) inland from the
coast.
Aphrodisias was named after
Aphrodite
, the Greek
goddess
of love, who had here her unique
cult image
, the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias.
According to the Byzantine encyclopedic compilation called the
Suda, before being known as Aphrodisias, the city had held three
previous names: Lelégōn Pólis (Λελέγων πόλις, “City of the
Leleges
“), Megálē Pólis (Μεγάλη Πόλις,
“Great City”), and Ninóē (Νινόη).
Sometime before 640, in the Late Antique period, the city was renamed
Stauroúpolis (Σταυρούπολις, “City of the Cross”).
History
The city was built near a marble quarry that was extensively exploited in the
Hellenistic
and
Roman
periods, and sculpture in marble from
Aphrodisias became famous in the Roman world. Many examples of statuary have
been unearthed in Aphrodisias, and some representations of the Aphrodite of
Aphrodisias also survive from other parts of the Roman world, as far afield as
Pax Julia in Lusitania
.
Geologic history
The site is in an
earthquake zone
and has suffered a great deal
of damage at various times, especially in severe tremors of the 4th and 7th
centuries. An added complication was that one of the 4th century earthquakes
altered the water table, making parts of the town prone to
flooding
. Evidence can be seen of emergency
plumbing
installed to combat this problem.
Aphrodisias never fully recovered from the 7th century earthquake, and fell
into disrepair. Part of the town was covered by the modern village of
Geyre
; some of the cottages were removed in the
20th century to reveal the older city. A new Geyre has been built a short
distance away.
Ecclesiastical history
Le Quien
(Oriens christianus, I,
899-904) mentions twenty bishops of this see, among whom were:
- Ammonius at the
First Council of Nicæa
in 325
- Eumenius at the
First Council of Constantinople
in 381
- Cyrus at the
First Council of Ephesus
in 431
- Critonianus at the
Council of Chalcedon
in 451
- Severianus at the
Second Council of Constantinople
in 553
-
Ephraem of Caria
, a liturgical poet, etc.
Another bishop, Theopropios, is mentioned by an inscription (Revue des études
grecques, XIX, 298).
In the 7th century Stauropolis had twenty-eight
suffragan
bishops and twenty-six at the
beginning of the 10th century. Between 1356 and 1361 the see must have been
abandoned by the
metropolitan
, but the title was long retained
and he was given the revenues of other churches. Isaias of Stauropolis attended
the
Council of Florence
(1439) and fled to avoid
signing the decree of union.
Stauropolis remains a Roman Catholic
titular metropolitan see
of the former
Roman province
of
Caria
.
Buildings and
other structures
The monumental gateway or
tetrapylon
.
Temple of Aphrodite
The Temple of Aphrodite was a focal point of the town, but the character of
the building was altered when it became a Christian
basilica
. The Aphrodisian sculptors became
renowned and benefited from a plentiful supply of
marble
close at hand. The school of sculpture
was very productive; much of their work can be seen around the site and in the
museum. Many full-length statues were discovered in the region of the
agora
, and trial and unfinished pieces pointing
to a true school are in evidence.
Sarcophagi
were recovered in various locations,
most frequently decorated with designs consisting of garland and columns.
Pilasters have been found showing what are described as “peopled scrolls” with
figures of people, birds and animals entwined in
acanthus
leaves.
Monumental gateway
A monumental gateway, or
tetrapylon
, leads from the main north-south
street of the town into a large forecourt in front of the Temple or Sanctuary of
Aphrodite. The gateway was built ca. A.D. 200.
Bouleuterion
The bouleuterion
(council house), or
odeon
, is centered on the north side of the
North Agora. As it stands today, it consists of a semicircular auditorium
fronted by a shallow stage structure about 46 m wide. The lower part of the
auditorium survives intact, with nine rows of marble seats divided into five
wedges by radial stairways. The seating of the upper part, amounting to an
additional twelve rows, has collapsed together with its supporting vaults. The
plan is an extremely open one, with numerous entrances at ground level and
several stairways giving access to the upper rows of seats. A system of massive
parallel buttresses shows that the building was originally vaulted. The
auditorium would have been lighted by a series of tall, arched windows in the
curved outer wall.
Seating capacity
can be estimated at about
1750.
The available evidence indicates a construction date in the Antonine or early
Severan period (late 2nd or early 3rd century AD). The
scaenae frons
(stage front) was certainly
put up at this time, as the style of both sculpture and architectural ornament
suggest. Statue bases terminating the retaining walls of the auditorium bore the
names of two brothers, senators in the early Severan period, and two inscribed
bases placed symmetrically against the exterior facade held statues of
Aphrodisian benefactors, Claudia Antonia Tatiana and her uncle Lucius Antonius
Dometinus, who were active at the end of the 2nd century. Tatiana is known to
have had close ties with
Ephesus
, and it is possible that the striking
similarities between this building and the bouleuterion on the civic agora
there, dated by inscription to the mid-2nd century, are due to some initiative
on her part. We do not know what stood here before the 2nd century AD, but it is
likely that the present building replaced a smaller one contemporary with the
laying out of the agora in the late 1st century BC.
The bouleuterion at Aphrodisias remained in this form until the early 5th
century, when a municipal official had it adapted as a
palaestra
, recording his achievement in an
inscription on the upper molding of the pulpitum (stage). Palaestra
usually refers to a wrestling ground, but in the 5th century it could be used to
describe a hall for lectures, performances, and various kinds of competitive
displays, as suggested by a number of factional inscriptions carved on the
seats. Numerous additional cuttings in the surviving seats, probably for poles
supporting awnings, suggest that by this time the building had lost its roof.
The orchestra was lowered and provided with a marble pavement, reused, perhaps,
from the earlier phase.
Sebasteion
The Sebasteion, or
Augusteum
, was jointly dedicated, according to
a 1st-century inscription on its
propylon
, “To Aphrodite, the Divine Augusti
and the People”. A relief found in the ruins of the south portico represented a
personification of the
polis
making sacrifice to the
cult image
of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias,
venerated as promētōr, “foremother” or “ancestral mother”. “Aphrodite
represents the cosmic force that integrates imperial power with the power of
local elites,” a reader of
Chariton
romance has noted. This connection
between the goddess and the imperial house was also a particularly politic one
at the time, as the
Gens Julia
– the family of Julius Caesar,
Octavian Augustus, and their immediate successors – claimed divine descent from
Venus/Aphrodite.
Stadium
The stadium was used for athletic events until the theatre was badly damaged
by a 7th-century earthquake, requiring part of the stadium to be converted for
events previously staged in the theatre.
The stadium measures approximately 270 m (890 ft) by 60 m (200 ft). With 30
rows of seats on each side, and around each end, it would have had a maximum
capacity for around 30,000 spectators. The track measures approximately 225 m
(738 ft) by 30 m (98 ft).
As the stadium is considerably larger and structurally more extensive than
even the stadium
at the Sanctuary of
Apollo
at
Delphi
, it is probably one of the best
preserved structures of its kind in the
Mediterranean
.
Other finds
Inscriptions
The quality of the marble in Aphrodisias has resulted in an unusually large
number of inscribed items surviving in the city. As many pieces of monumental
quarried stone were reused in the Late Antique city walls, many inscriptions
could and can be easily read without any excavation; the city has therefore been
visited and its inscriptions recorded repeatedly in modern times, starting from
the early 18th century.
Upwards of 2000
inscriptions
have been recorded by excavators
under the aegis of New York University. Many of these inscriptions had been
re-used in the city walls. Most inscriptions are from the Imperial period, with
funerary and honorary texts being particularly well represented, but there are a
handful of texts from all periods from the Hellenistic to Byzantine.
Excavations in Aphrodisias have also uncovered an important Jewish
inscription whose context is unclear. The inscription, in Greek, lists donations
made by numerous individuals, of whom several are classed as ‘theosebeis’, or
Godfearers
. It seems clear through comparative
evidence from the inscriptions in the
Sardis
synagogue and from the
New Testament
that such Godfearers were
probably interested
gentiles
who attached themselves to the Jewish
community, supporting and perhaps frequenting the synagogue. The geographical
spread of the evidence suggests this was a widespread phenomenon in Asia Minor
during the Roman period.
Frieze
A frieze
discovered in 1980 showing a bare
breasted and helmeted female warrior labelled
BRITANNIA writhing in agony under the
knee of a Roman soldier with to the left and below the inscription
TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS CAESAR is assumed to
depict Britain subjugated by Rome.
Aphrodite of
Aphrodisias
The Aphrodite of Aphrodisias
The cult image
that is particular to Aphrodisias,
the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, doubtless was once housed in the Temple of
Aphrodite, She was a distinctive local goddess who became, by
interpretatio graeca
, identified with the
Greek Aphrodite. Her canonical image, typical of Anatolian cult images, shows
that she is related to the Lady of Ephesus, widely venerated in the
Greco-Roman world as
Artemis of Ephesus
. The surviving images, from
contexts where they must have been more civic than ritual, are without exception
from the late phase of the cult, in Hellenistic and Roman times. They are
rendered in the naturalistic style common to their culture, which gave the local
goddess more universal appeal. Like the Lady of Ephesus, the “Aphrodite” of
Aphrodisia wears a thick, form-disguising tunic, encasing her as if in a
columnar box, always with four registers of standardized imagery. Her feet are
of necessity close together, her forearms stretched forward, to receive and to
give. She is adorned with necklaces and wears a
mural crown
together with a
diadem
and a
wreath
of
myrtle
, draped with a long veil that frames her
face and extends to the ground. Beneath her overtunic she wears a floor-length
chiton
. The bands of decoration on the
tunic, rendered in
bas-relief
, evoke the Goddess’s cosmic powers:
the Charites
, the Three Graces that are the closest
attendants of Aphrodite; heads of a married pair (the woman is veiled),
identified by Lisa Brody as
Gaia
and
Uranos
, Earth and the Heavens, over which this
goddess reigns, rather than as
Zeus and Hera
;
Helios
and
Selene
separated by a pillar; the marine
Aphrodite, riding a
sea-goat
, and at the base a group of
Erotes
performing cult rituals.
Archaeology
The first formal excavations were undertaken in 1904-5, by a French railroad
engineer, Paul Augustin Gaudin.
The most recent, ongoing excavations were begun by
Kenan Erim
under the aegis of
New York University
in 1962 and are currently
led by Professor R. R. R. Smith (at
Oxford University
) and Professor Katharine
Welch of the NYU Institute of Fine Arts. The findings reveal that the lavish
building programme in the city’s civic center was initiated and largely funded
by one Gaius Julius Zoilus, a local who was a slave of
Gaius Julius Caesar
, set free by
Octavian
.[20]
When Zoilus returned as a
freedman
to his native city, endowed with
prestige and rich rewards for his service, he shrewdly directed it to align with
Octavian in his power struggle against
Mark Antony
. This ensured
Octavian Augustus
‘s lasting favor in the form
of financial privileges that allowed the city to prosper.
In September 2014, drones weighing about 0.5 kg were used to 3D map the
above-ground ruins of Aphrodisias. The data is being analysed by the Austrian
Archaeological Institute in Vienna.
See also
-
Alexander of Aphrodisias
- Chariton
, whose novel Chaereas and
Callirhoe reflects the power structure of Aphrodisias in the 1st-2nd
century.
Julia
Cornelia Salonina (d. 268,
Mediolanum
)
was an
Augusta
, wife of
Roman
Emperor
Gallienus
and mother of
Valerian
II
, Saloninus
, and
Marinianus
.
Julia Cornelia Salonina’s origin is unknown. According to a modern theory,
she was born of Greek
origin
in Bithynia
,
then part of the province of
Bithynia et
Pontus
,
Asia Minor
. However, there exists some scepticism on that.
She was married to Gallienus about ten years before his accession to the throne.
When her husband became joint-emperor with his father
Valerian
in 253, Cornelia Salonina was named Augusta.
Cornelia was the mother of three princes,
Valerian
II
, Saloninus
and
Marinianus
.
Her fate, after the murder of Gallienus, during the siege of
Mediolanum
in 268, is unknown. It is likely that either her life was spared
or the she was executed together with other members of her family, at the orders
of the Senate of Rome.
Her name is reported on coins with Latin legend as Cornelia Salonina;
however, from the Greek coinage come the names Iulia Cornelia Salonina,
Publia Licinia Cornelia Salonina, and Salonina Chrysogona
(attribute that means “begotten of gold”).
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