Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
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Severus Alexander Æ Drachm of Alexandria, Egypt. Dated RY 10 = AD 230/231. Α ΚΑΙ ΜΑΡ ΑΥΡ СЄV ΑΛЄΞΑΝΔΡΟС ЄΥϹЄ, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Hermanubis standing right wearing kalathos, holding winged caduceus and palm branch, jackal behind to left, palm branch to right; L I (date) to left. Emmett 3165A.10; Dattari (Savio) -; RPC VI Online 10455 (temporary). 26.22g, 34mm, 12h.
Good Extremely Fine, the finest known example. Extremely Rare.
The reign of Severus Alexander witnessed what is probably quite fair to describe as the last great flourishing of numismatic art at the mint of Alexandria, before several centuries of steady decline. The mint had ceased operations following the great massacre perpetrated by Caracalla in 215, and was only reopened after his assassination and the accession of Macrinus, under whose rule it produced an extremely limited coinage. Under Elagabalus output increased markedly, though by now the principal denomination had long been the tetradrachm, and the bronze drachm was struck in very limited numbers. In the reign of Severus Alexander a renewed threat from the East presented by the Sassanids, who had entirely overwhelmed Rome's old adversary the Parthian Empire, required a fresh output of coinage on a larger scale than Alexandria could fulfil. As a result, tetradrachms were struck both at Alexandria and at Rome, whence they were imported into Egypt. Severus Alexander's reign also saw the reintroduction of the drachm on a much greater scale (only two types had been struck under his predecessor), with a wide variety of types both old and new, fully utilising the skills of the engravers evidently brought back to work at Alexandria under Elagabalus. Struck on large flans with dies engraved as competently as any during the 'golden age' reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, this would be the last ever issue of bronze drachms from Alexandria before the demonination was forever rendered obsolete by inflationary forces and retained only as a unit of account.
In his paper entitled "The Onomastic Evidence for the God Hermanubis" (Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 2007), Amin Benaissa succinctly describes the conflation of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis: "Hermanubis is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his underworldly aspect (De Is. et Os. 375e), while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as 'composite,' and 'half-Greek' (De imaginibus fr. 8, p. 18.1–2 Bidez). The name has been restored in a second-century BC dedicatory inscription from Delos (ID 2156.2), which would be its earliest attestation, but otherwise it appears in three inscriptions of the Roman period, two from Egypt and one from Thessalonike. It is clear that the name is a result of the assimilation of the Egyptian god Anubis to the Greek god Hermes, which is well attested in a number of literary, epigraphic, and artistic sources. Although Hermes was traditionally equated with the Egyptian Thoth, his function as psychopompos encouraged his association with Anubis given the latter's comparable funerary role in Egyptian religion as embalmer and guardian of the dead and as leader of the deceased to the tribunal of Osiris. This assimilation resulted in widespread Greco-Roman representations of the canine-headed Anubis with attributes of the Greek Hermes, such as the distinctive staff known as the kerykeion or winged sandals. In Roman Alexandria there emerges a new iconographical type, well represented in coins and sculpture, in which a fully anthropomorphic young god is flanked by a dog and holds the same attributes as the said Anubis, in addition to wearing the kalathos headdress. It is this type that art historians have traditionally labelled 'Hermanubis'."
Good Extremely Fine, the finest known example. Extremely Rare.
The reign of Severus Alexander witnessed what is probably quite fair to describe as the last great flourishing of numismatic art at the mint of Alexandria, before several centuries of steady decline. The mint had ceased operations following the great massacre perpetrated by Caracalla in 215, and was only reopened after his assassination and the accession of Macrinus, under whose rule it produced an extremely limited coinage. Under Elagabalus output increased markedly, though by now the principal denomination had long been the tetradrachm, and the bronze drachm was struck in very limited numbers. In the reign of Severus Alexander a renewed threat from the East presented by the Sassanids, who had entirely overwhelmed Rome's old adversary the Parthian Empire, required a fresh output of coinage on a larger scale than Alexandria could fulfil. As a result, tetradrachms were struck both at Alexandria and at Rome, whence they were imported into Egypt. Severus Alexander's reign also saw the reintroduction of the drachm on a much greater scale (only two types had been struck under his predecessor), with a wide variety of types both old and new, fully utilising the skills of the engravers evidently brought back to work at Alexandria under Elagabalus. Struck on large flans with dies engraved as competently as any during the 'golden age' reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, this would be the last ever issue of bronze drachms from Alexandria before the demonination was forever rendered obsolete by inflationary forces and retained only as a unit of account.
In his paper entitled "The Onomastic Evidence for the God Hermanubis" (Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 2007), Amin Benaissa succinctly describes the conflation of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis: "Hermanubis is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his underworldly aspect (De Is. et Os. 375e), while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as 'composite,' and 'half-Greek' (De imaginibus fr. 8, p. 18.1–2 Bidez). The name has been restored in a second-century BC dedicatory inscription from Delos (ID 2156.2), which would be its earliest attestation, but otherwise it appears in three inscriptions of the Roman period, two from Egypt and one from Thessalonike. It is clear that the name is a result of the assimilation of the Egyptian god Anubis to the Greek god Hermes, which is well attested in a number of literary, epigraphic, and artistic sources. Although Hermes was traditionally equated with the Egyptian Thoth, his function as psychopompos encouraged his association with Anubis given the latter's comparable funerary role in Egyptian religion as embalmer and guardian of the dead and as leader of the deceased to the tribunal of Osiris. This assimilation resulted in widespread Greco-Roman representations of the canine-headed Anubis with attributes of the Greek Hermes, such as the distinctive staff known as the kerykeion or winged sandals. In Roman Alexandria there emerges a new iconographical type, well represented in coins and sculpture, in which a fully anthropomorphic young god is flanked by a dog and holds the same attributes as the said Anubis, in addition to wearing the kalathos headdress. It is this type that art historians have traditionally labelled 'Hermanubis'."