VALERIAN I 253AD Thessalonica Macedonia Kabeiros Temple RARE Roman Coin i55682

Item: i55682

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Roman Emperor: 253-260 A.D. –

Bronze 21mm (7.39 grams) of

Macedonia

AVT. K. ΠOΠ. OVAΛЄΡΙΑΝΟС, 
Radiate, draped 
and cuirassed bust right.
ΘЄCCAΛΟΝΙΚH. B. ΝЄ., 
Kabeiros standing left within two-column temple, holding rhyton and hammer; 
fiery altar in field to left; another object to right.

This coin commemorates the city’s Neocorate states for the 
second time. A rare, possibly unpublished type.

In Greek mythology, the
Cabeiri, were a group of  
enigmatic chthonic deities. They were worshiped in a mystery cult closely  
associated with that of
Hephaestus.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 

Authenticity.

In
Greek mythology
, the Cabeiri, (Cabiri,
Kabeiroi, Kabiri or
Greek
: Κάβειροι) were a group of enigmatic
chthonic
deities. They were worshiped in a
mystery cult
closely associated with that of
Hephaestus
, centered in the north Aegean 
islands of Lemnos
and possibly
Samothrace
—at the
Samothrace temple complex
— and at
Thebes
. In their distant origins the Cabeiri 
and the Samothracian gods may include pre-Greek elements Hittite, Thracian, 
proto-Etruscan, or Phrygian elements. The Lemnian cult was always local to 
Lemnos, but the Samothracian mystery cult spread rapidly throughout the Greek 
world during the
Hellenistic
period, eventually initiating 
Romans.

The ancient sources disagree about whether the deities of Samothrace were 
Cabeiri or not; and the accounts of the two cults differ in detail. But the two 
islands are close to each other, at the northern end of the Aegean, and the 
cults are at least similar, and neither fits easily into the
Olympic pantheon
: the Cabeiri were given a 
mythic genealogy as sons of Hephaestus. The accounts of the Samothracian gods, 
whose names were secret, vary in the number and sexes of the gods, usually 
between two and four, some of either sex. The number of Cabeiri also varied, 
with some accounts citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females) of 
them, and some even more, such as a tribe or whole race of Cabeiri, often 
presented as all male.

The Cabeiri were also worshipped at other sites in the vicinity, including
Seuthopolis
in
Thrace
and various sites in
Asia Minor
.

Origin of the Cabeiri

The Cabeiri were possibly originally
Phrygian
deities and protectors of
sailors
, who were imported into Greek ritual. 
Robert Beekes believes that they are of non-Indo-European,
pre-Greek
origin.

Depiction in 
literary sources

They were most commonly depicted as two people: an old man, Axiocersus, 
and his son, Cadmilus. Due to the cult’s secrecy, however, their exact 
nature and relationship with other ancient Greek and
Thracian
religious figures remained mysterious. 
As a result, the membership and roles of the Cabeiri changed significantly over 
time, with common variants including a female pair (Axierus and
Axiocersa) and twin youths who were frequently confused with
Castor and Pollux
, who were also worshiped as 
protectors of sailors. The number of Cabiri also varied, with some accounts 
citing four (often a pair of males and a pair of females) of them, and some even 
more, such as a tribe or whole race of Cabiri.

Lemnos

The Lemnians were originally non-Greek; they were Hellenized after
Miltiades
conquered the island for Athens in 
the sixth century BCE. In
Lemnos
the cult of the Cabeiri survived, 
according to achaeological evidence, through the conquest: an ancient sanctuary 
dedicated to the Cabeiri is identifiable by traces of inscriptions, and seems to 
have survived the program of Hellenization.

The geographer Strabo
reported (Geogr. 10,3,21) that in 
Lemnos, the mother (there was no father) of the Cabeiri was Kabeiro (Greek: 
Καβειρώ) herself, a daughter of
Proteus
(one of the “old men of the sea”) and a 
goddess whom the Greeks might have called
Rhea
.

In general Greek myth identifies the Cabeiri as divine craftsmen, sons or 
grandsons of
Hephaestus
, who was also chiefly worshipped on 
Lemnos. Aeschylus
wrote a play called the Cabeiri, 
and the fragments that survive have them as a chorus greeting the
Argonauts
at Lemnos. showed them as prodigious 
wine-drinkers, and wine jars are “the only characteristic group of finds” from 
the Cabeirium of Lemnos.
Walter Burkert
suggests a raucous, burlesque 
character to the mysteries of the Cabeiri and notes an inscription at Lemnos 
indicates parapaizonti, the one who “jests along the way”. First-fruits 
were offered to Zeus
,
Apollo
, and the Cabeiri; Burkert also sees the 
offerings to Zeus and Apollo, father and son, as indicating an initiatory 
ceremony

Samothrace

The Samothracians
were also originally non-Greek, 
and are associated with the

Trojans and the
Pelasgians
; they used a foreign language in the 
temple through
Julius Caesar
‘s time.

Samothrace offered an initiatory mystery, which promised safety and 
prosperity to seamen. The secret of these mysteries has largely been kept; but 
we know that of three things about the ritual, the aspirants were asked the 
worst action they had ever committed.

The archaic sanctuary of Samothrace was rebuilt in Greek fashion; by 
classical times, the Samothrace mysteries of the Cabeiri were known at Athens, 
where Herodotus
had been initiated. But at the entry 
to the sanctuary, which has been thoroughly excavated, the Roman antiquary
Varro
learned that there had been twin pillars 
of brass. He describes them as Heaven and Earth, denying the vulgar error that 
they are
Castor and Pollux
.

The mysteries of Samothrace did not publish the names of their gods; and the 
offerings at the shrine are all inscribed to the gods or to the great 
gods rather than with their names. But ancient sources tell us that there 
were two goddesses and a god: Axieros, Axiokersa, and
Axiokersos, and their servant Cadmilos or Casmilos.
Karl Kerényi
conjectured that Axieros was male, 
and the three gods were the sons of Axiokersa (Cadmilos, the youngest, was also 
the father of the three); Burkert disagrees.

In Classical Greek culture the mysteries of the Cabeiri at Samothrace 
remained popular, though little was entrusted to writing beyond a few names and 
bare genealogical connections. Seamen among the Greeks might invoke the Cabeiri 
as “great gods” in times of danger and stress. The archaic sanctuary of 
Samothrace was rebuilt in Greek fashion; by classical times, the Samothrace 
mysteries of the Cabeiri were known at Athens.
Herodotus
had been initiated. But at the entry 
to the sanctuary, which has been thoroughly excavated, the Roman antiquary
Varro
learned that there had been twin pillars 
of brass, phallic hermae
, and that in the sanctuary it was 
understood that the child of the Goddess, Cadmilus, was in some mystic sense 
also her consort.

Thebes in Boeotia

At
Thebes
in
Boeotia
there are more varied finds than on 
Lemnos; they include many little bronze votive
bulls
and which carry on into Roman times, when 
the traveller
Pausanias
, always alert to the history of
cults
, learned that it was
Demeter
Kabeiriia who instigated the 
initiation cult there in the name of
Prometheus
and his son Aitnaios.
Walter Burkert
(1985) writes, “This points to 
guilds of smiths analogous to the Lemnian Hephaistos.” The votive dedications at 
Thebes are to a Kabeiros (Greek: Κάβειρος) in the singular, and childish 
toys like votive spinning tops for Pais suggest a manhood initiation. 
Copious wine was drunk, out of characteristic cups that were ritually smashed. 
Fat, primitive dwarves (similar to the followers of
Silenus
) with prominent genitalia were painted 
on the cups.

Thebes is connected to Samothrace in myth, primarily the wedding of
Cadmus
and
Harmonia
, which took place there.

Etymology

The
Semitic
word kabir (“great”) has been 
compared to Κάβειροι since at least
Joseph Justus Scaliger
in the sixteenth 
century, but nothing else seemed to point to a Semitic origin, until the idea of 
“great” gods expressed by the Semitic root kbr was definitiely attested 
for North Syria in the thirteenth century BCE, in texts from

Emar published by D. Arnaud in 1985/87 (see

Emar). TJ. Wackernagel had produced an Indian etymology in 1907;^[14] 
in 1925
A. H. Sayce
had suggested a connection to
Hittite

habiri
(“looters”, “outlaws”), but 
subsequent discoveries have made this implausible on phonological grounds. 
Dossein compares Κάβειροι to the
Sumerian
word kabar,
copper
.^[15]

The name of the Cabeiri recalls Mount Kabeiros, a mountain in the 
region of Berekyntia in Asia Minor, closely associated with the
Phrygian

Mother Goddess
. The name of Kadmilus (or
Kasmilos), one of the Cabeiri who was usually depicted as a young boy, was 
linked even in
antiquity
to camillus, an old
Latin
word for a boy-attendant in a cult, which 
is probably a loan from the
Etruscan language
^{[citation 
needed]}, which may be related to Lemnian.^[16]

Myth

In myth, the Cabeiri bear many similarities to other fabulous races, such as 
the Telchines
of
Rhodes
, the
Cyclopes
, the
Dactyls
, the
Korybantes
, and the Kuretes. These different 
groups were often confused or identified with one another since many of them, 
like the Cyclopes and Telchines, were also associated with
metallurgy
.

Diodorus Siculus
said of the Cabeiri that they 
were Idaioi dactyloi (“Idaian
Dactyls
“). The Idaian Dactyls were a race of 
divine beings associated with the
Mother Goddess
and with
Mount Ida
, a mountain in
Phrygia
sacred to the goddess.
Hesychius of Alexandria
wrote that the Cabeiri 
were karkinoi (“crabs“, 
in modern Greek: “Καβούρια” 
(kavouria)). The Cabeiri as Karkinoi were apparently thought of as amphibious 
beings (again recalling the Telchines). They had pincers instead of hands, which 
they used as tongs
(Greek: karkina) in metalworking.

It has been suggested that the
Orphic
mysteries may have had their origins 
with the Cabeiri.

The city Thessalonica in Macedonia

was founded around

315 BC
by the

King 

Cassander of Macedon
, on or near the site of the ancient town of

Therma
and 

twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife

Thessalonike

, a half-sister of

Alexander the Great

. She gained her name (“victory of Thessalians”: Gk

“victory”) from her father,

Philip II

, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over 

the

Phocians

, who were defeated with the help of

Thessalian

horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki developed 

rapidly and as early as the

2nd 

century BC
the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was an 

autonomous part of the Kingdom of

Macedon

, with its own parliament where the King was represented and could 

interfere in the city’s domestic affairs.

 Roman 

era

After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in

168 BC
, 

Thessalonica became a city of the

Roman Republic

. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the

Via 

Egnatia
, the

Roman road

connecting

Byzantium
 

(later

Constantinople

), with

Dyrrhachium
 

(now Durrës
in

Albania
), and 

facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one 

of the four Roman districts of Macedonia; it kept its privileges but was ruled 

by a praetor
 

and had a Roman garrison, while for a short time in the

1st 

century BC
, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form 

of the name). Due to the city’s key commercial importance, a spacious harbour 

was built by the Romans, the famous Burrowed Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that 

accommodated the town’s trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help 

of silt deposits from the river

Axios
, it was 

reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour’s 

docks can be found in the present day under Odos Frangon Street, near the 

Catholic Church.

Thessaloniki’s

acropolis
, 

located in the northern hills, was built in

55 BC
after

Thracian

raids in the city’s outskirts, for security reasons.

The city had a

Jewish

colony, established during the

first 

century
, and was to be an early centre of

Christianity

. On his second missionary journey,

Paul

of Tarsus

, born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city’s synagogue, 

the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the 

foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and 

he fled to

Veroia

. Paul wrote two of his

epistles

to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the

First Epistle to the Thessalonians

and the

Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

.

Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint,

St. Demetrius

, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved 

the city, and was the Roman

Proconsul
 

of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor

Maximian
, 

later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies the

Church of St. Demetrius

, first built by the Roman sub-prefect of

Illyricum

Leontios in 463. Other important remains from this period include 

the

Arch and Tomb of Galerius

, located near the centre of the modern city.

Publius Licinius Valerianus

(c. 200 – after 260), commonly known in

English

as Valerian or Valerian I, was the

Roman 

Emperor
from 253 to 260.

Origins and rise to power

Unlike the majority of the pretenders during the

Crisis of the Third Centuryy

, Valerian was of a noble and traditional

senatorial

family. Details of his early life are elusive, but for his 

marriage to Egnatia Mariniana

, who gave him two sons: later emperor

Publius 

Licinius Egnatius Gallienus
and

Valerianus Minor

.

In 238 he was

, and

Gordian I

negotiated through him for Senatorial acknowledgement for his claim as emperor. 

In 251, when Decius

revived the censorship with legislative and executive powers so extensive that 

it practically embraced the civil authority of the emperor, Valerian was chosen

censor

by the Senate, though he declined to accept the post. Under Decius he 

was nominated governor of the

Rhine
provinces 

of Noricum

and Raetia
and 

retained the confidence of his successor,

Trebonianus Gallus

, who asked him for reinforcements to quell the rebellion 

of Aemilianus

Rule and fall

Valerian’s first act as emperor was to make his son Gallienus 

his colleague. In the beginning of his reign the affairs in Europe went from bad 

to worse and the whole West fell into disorder. In the East,

Antioch
had 

fallen into the hands of a

Sassanid

vassal,

Armenia

was occupied by

Shapur I
(Sapor). 

Valerian and Gallienus split the problems of the empire between the two, with 

the son taking the West and the father heading East to face the

Persian

threat.

By 257, Valerian had already recovered Antioch and returned 

the province of

Syria

to Roman control but in the following year, the

Goths
ravaged

Asia Minor

. Later in 259, he moved to

Edessa

, but an outbreak of

plague

killed a critical number of

legionaries
, 

weakening the Roman position in Edessa which was then besieged by the Persians. 

At the beginning of 260, Valerian was defeated in the

Battle of Edessa

and he arranged a meeting with Shapur to negotiate a peace 

settlement. The ceasefire was betrayed by Shapur who seized him and held him 

prisoner for the remainder of his life. Valerian’s capture was a humiliating 

defeat for the Romans.

Gibbon

, in

describes 

Valerian’s fate:

The voice of history, which is often little more than the 

organ of hatred or flattery, reproaches Sapor with a proud abuse of the rights 

of conquest. We are told that Valerian, in chains, but invested with the 

Imperial purple, was exposed to the multitude, a constant spectacle of fallen 

greatness; and that whenever the Persian monarch mounted on horseback, he placed 

his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. Notwithstanding all the remonstrances 

of his allies, who repeatedly advised him to remember the vicissitudes of 

fortune, to dread the returning power of Rome, and to make his illustrious 

captive the pledge of peace, not the object of insult, Sapor still remained 

inflexible. When Valerian sunk under the weight of shame and grief, his skin, 

stuffed with straw, and formed into the likeness of a human figure, was 

preserved for ages in the most celebrated temple of Persia; a more real monument 

of triumph, than the fancied trophies of brass and marble so often erected by 

Roman vanity.

The tale is moral and pathetic, but the truth of it may very fairly be called in 

question. The letters still extant from the princes of the East to Sapor are 

manifest forgeries;

nor is it natural to suppose that a jealous monarch should, even in the person 

of a rival, thus publicly degrade the majesty of kings. Whatever treatment the 

unfortunate Valerian might experience in Persia, it is at least certain that the 

only emperor of Rome who had ever fallen into the hands of the enemy, languished 

away his life in hopeless captivity.

Valerian’s massacre of 258

According to the

Catholic Encyclopedia

article on

Valerian

:

Pope Sixtus

was seized on 6 August, 258, in one of the Catacombs and was put 

to death;

Cyprian of Carthage

suffered martyrdom on 14 September. Another celebrated 

martyr was the Roman deacon

St. Lawrence

. In Spain Bishop

Fructuosus of Tarragona

and his two deacons were put to death on 21 January, 

259. There were also executions in the eastern provinces (Eusebius, VII, xii). 

Taken altogether, however, the repressions were limited to scattered spots and 

had no great success..

Death in captivity

An early Christian source,

Lactantius
, 

maintained that for some time prior to his death Valerian was subjected to the 

greatest insults by his captors, such as being used as a human footstool by 

Shapur when mounting his horse. According to this version of events, after a 

long period of such treatment Valerian offered Shapur a huge ransom for his 

release. In reply, according to one version, Shapur was said to have forced 

Valerian to swallow molten gold (the other version of his death is almost the 

same but it says that Valerian was killed by being flayed alive) and then had 

the unfortunate Valerian skinned and his skin stuffed with straw and preserved 

as a trophy in the main Persian temple. It was further alleged by Lactantius 

that it was only after a later Persian defeat against Rome that his skin was 

given a cremation and burial.

The role of a Chinese prince held hostage by Shapur I, in the events following 

the death of Valerian has been frequently debated by historians, without 

reaching any definitive conclusion.