Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XVI 26 Sep 2018
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Cilicia, Tarsos AR Stater. Circa 440-400 BC. Horseman (Syennesis?) riding to left, wearing kyrbasia, holding lotus flower in right hand and reins in left, bow in bowcase on saddle; Key symbol below horse / Nergal of Tarsos standing to left, holding lotus flower in right hand and spear in left, bow in bowcase and lion skin over shoulder; Tree of Life behind, Aramaic legend 'LNRGL' (to/for Nergal) to left. BMC -; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG France -; SNG Levante -; Traité -; Casabonne -; MIMAA -; for obv. type cf. SNG France 213 = Casabonne pl. 2, 10; for rev. type cf. MIMAA type D4, pl. V, 7. 10.66g, 20mm, 10h.
Extremely Fine. Unique and unpublished; of great numismatic interest.
From a private North American collection.
'Syennesis' was the title held by the local Tarsiote dynasts of Cilicia, at least three of whom figured prominently in Near-Eastern history. The first, an independent monarch in his own right, joined with Nebuchadnezzar in mediating between Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes of Lydia in circa 610 BC. The second appears as a vassal of the Achaemenid king Darius I, and whose daughter was married to Pixodaros, son of Maussolos. He was perhaps the same man whom Herodotos mentioned as one of the most distinguished of the subordinate commanders in the fleet of Xerxes I. The last recorded Syennesis participated in the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II as described in detail in Xenophon's Anabasis. The lack of any further mention of this dynasty following the events of Cyrus' rebellion has long been taken as meaning that the syennesis was forcibly retired and a satrapy established in his place; the general and long-held acceptance by numismatists such as J. P. Six, E. Babelon and C. M Kraay of the obverse horseman portraying the Tarsiote syennesis has therefore complicated the dating of such issues (for an in-depth discussion see Casabonne, Le syennésis cilicien et Cyrus : l'apport des sources numismatiques, 1995).
Casabonne does not refute the identification of the obverse figure as the syennesis, but he cautions against attempting to identify particular individuals within the series, rather suggesting the type should be considered in a less literal manner, and, viewed as evidence that the "Tarsiote monetary iconography attests to a certain continuity of relations between the central and local powers", he accepts the type as being certainly "charged with political significance". This being the case, and despite the fact that numismatists and historians alike have long seen the Tarsiote coinage as probably struck (at least in part) for the payment of such tribute to the Achaemenid king as is attested in several sources (see, for example Strabo XV.3.21), it should nonetheless be viewed primarily as a civic and not military coinage, regardless of what it may eventually have been used to finance. This is amply demonstrated by the reverse of this remarkable coin, which employs a highly intriguing design.
The standing figure wearing a Persian kandys and carrying both bow and spear is named by the inscription as Nergal, the Babylonian-Assyrian god of the hunt, of war, pestilence and death. Cults at Hatra in Mesopotamia and much later, at Palmyra, have shown that Nergal was equated with the Hellenic Herakles, an assimilation probably begun by the Assyrians who seem to have equated Nergal to Melqart (see Jenkins, Two New Tarsos Coins 1973). Mary Boyce (A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume II: Under the Achaemenians pp. 272) notes that the cult of Nergal "appears to have been well established in Tarsus... there would appear to be a deliberate attempt here at religious syncretism of a sort, in the interests of secular power"; the unique addition of what appears to be a lion-skin hanging from behind Nergal would seem to support this notion. However, Seyrig (Cylinder Seals, 1939) in tracing the existence of the cult of Nergal also to Palestine, Syria and Cyprus, renders his appearance at Tarsos less surprising, and his depiction, while helping to bridge the gap between older periods and the Greco-Roman times, may not simply be a casual attempt at religious conflation but may reflect some deeper metaphor.
Nergal, apart from being a god of war and death, was also a god of vegetation and rebirth, attributes that the Greeks associated with Kore-Persephone. The manner of Nergal's depiction here - specifically, holding a lotus flower - together with the placement of a sacred tree or 'tree of life' (which had ancient, but now poorly understood significance in Assyrian religion) behind him, may be indicative of the reason for his appearance. While the tree may also potentially have roots in the Epic of Gilgamesh, wherein Etana searches for a 'plant of birth' to provide him with a son, its meaning is less clear than that of the the lotus flower. The lotus appears only sporadically in Greek and near-Eastern mythology, though it has a well attested use in Egyptian art and legend, where it was taken as a symbolic representation of the sun on account of its physical behaviour: it closes at night time and descends into the water, rising and flowering again at dawn, thus also becoming by extension a symbol of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. A potential interpretation of Nergal in this context could therefore indicate his favour being sought for a transition of some sort, to preside over a death and a rebirth, an ending and a beginning, past and future.
Extremely Fine. Unique and unpublished; of great numismatic interest.
From a private North American collection.
'Syennesis' was the title held by the local Tarsiote dynasts of Cilicia, at least three of whom figured prominently in Near-Eastern history. The first, an independent monarch in his own right, joined with Nebuchadnezzar in mediating between Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes of Lydia in circa 610 BC. The second appears as a vassal of the Achaemenid king Darius I, and whose daughter was married to Pixodaros, son of Maussolos. He was perhaps the same man whom Herodotos mentioned as one of the most distinguished of the subordinate commanders in the fleet of Xerxes I. The last recorded Syennesis participated in the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II as described in detail in Xenophon's Anabasis. The lack of any further mention of this dynasty following the events of Cyrus' rebellion has long been taken as meaning that the syennesis was forcibly retired and a satrapy established in his place; the general and long-held acceptance by numismatists such as J. P. Six, E. Babelon and C. M Kraay of the obverse horseman portraying the Tarsiote syennesis has therefore complicated the dating of such issues (for an in-depth discussion see Casabonne, Le syennésis cilicien et Cyrus : l'apport des sources numismatiques, 1995).
Casabonne does not refute the identification of the obverse figure as the syennesis, but he cautions against attempting to identify particular individuals within the series, rather suggesting the type should be considered in a less literal manner, and, viewed as evidence that the "Tarsiote monetary iconography attests to a certain continuity of relations between the central and local powers", he accepts the type as being certainly "charged with political significance". This being the case, and despite the fact that numismatists and historians alike have long seen the Tarsiote coinage as probably struck (at least in part) for the payment of such tribute to the Achaemenid king as is attested in several sources (see, for example Strabo XV.3.21), it should nonetheless be viewed primarily as a civic and not military coinage, regardless of what it may eventually have been used to finance. This is amply demonstrated by the reverse of this remarkable coin, which employs a highly intriguing design.
The standing figure wearing a Persian kandys and carrying both bow and spear is named by the inscription as Nergal, the Babylonian-Assyrian god of the hunt, of war, pestilence and death. Cults at Hatra in Mesopotamia and much later, at Palmyra, have shown that Nergal was equated with the Hellenic Herakles, an assimilation probably begun by the Assyrians who seem to have equated Nergal to Melqart (see Jenkins, Two New Tarsos Coins 1973). Mary Boyce (A History of Zoroastrianism: Volume II: Under the Achaemenians pp. 272) notes that the cult of Nergal "appears to have been well established in Tarsus... there would appear to be a deliberate attempt here at religious syncretism of a sort, in the interests of secular power"; the unique addition of what appears to be a lion-skin hanging from behind Nergal would seem to support this notion. However, Seyrig (Cylinder Seals, 1939) in tracing the existence of the cult of Nergal also to Palestine, Syria and Cyprus, renders his appearance at Tarsos less surprising, and his depiction, while helping to bridge the gap between older periods and the Greco-Roman times, may not simply be a casual attempt at religious conflation but may reflect some deeper metaphor.
Nergal, apart from being a god of war and death, was also a god of vegetation and rebirth, attributes that the Greeks associated with Kore-Persephone. The manner of Nergal's depiction here - specifically, holding a lotus flower - together with the placement of a sacred tree or 'tree of life' (which had ancient, but now poorly understood significance in Assyrian religion) behind him, may be indicative of the reason for his appearance. While the tree may also potentially have roots in the Epic of Gilgamesh, wherein Etana searches for a 'plant of birth' to provide him with a son, its meaning is less clear than that of the the lotus flower. The lotus appears only sporadically in Greek and near-Eastern mythology, though it has a well attested use in Egyptian art and legend, where it was taken as a symbolic representation of the sun on account of its physical behaviour: it closes at night time and descends into the water, rising and flowering again at dawn, thus also becoming by extension a symbol of the eternal cycle of death and rebirth. A potential interpretation of Nergal in this context could therefore indicate his favour being sought for a transition of some sort, to preside over a death and a rebirth, an ending and a beginning, past and future.