Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXI 24-25 Mar 2021
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Pontos, 'Areos' Æ 15mm. Circa 88-65 BC. Male head (Perseus?) to right, wearing Phrygian-style helmet ending in griffin's head / Humped Zebu bull butting to right on ground line; ΑΡΕΩΣ above, sunburst in right field. Unpublished in the standard references. 1.45g, 15mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine; flan crack. Unique and unpublished, and of great numismatic interest.
From the inventory of Roma Numismatics Ltd.
Areos can be translated from Greek as 'of Ares', and may have been applied to an unknown location or temporary camp in the Pontic area during the Mithridatic Wars of 88-63 BC. This would be similar to the appellation given in Athens to Πεδίον Άρεως ('Field of Ares'), a term also present in Latin as the 'Field of Mars' , the military exercise area in the flood plain of the Tiber north of Rome. Alternatively, Areos may be an indication that this coin could have been issued by a mercenary band; the Mamertinoi in Sicily two centuries earlier had employed a similar legend "ΑΡΕΟΣ" on their coinage, also in conjunction with a bull reverse type.
In either case, the issue was evidently extremely limited in size and must have served to fulfil only a localised or immediate expenditure.
The obverse type is usually referred to as the helmeted head of the hero Perseus, inspired by the coinage Philip V and Perseus of Macedon and employed by the most of the Pontic mints allied to Mithradates during the wars against Rome. The reverse type depicts a sacrificial humped bull or Zebu which can also be seen on the reverse on the bronze coinage of the same period at Pharnakeia, while the sunburst is one of the most common astrological symbols used by Mithradates VI on much of his coinage.
Extremely Fine; flan crack. Unique and unpublished, and of great numismatic interest.
From the inventory of Roma Numismatics Ltd.
Areos can be translated from Greek as 'of Ares', and may have been applied to an unknown location or temporary camp in the Pontic area during the Mithridatic Wars of 88-63 BC. This would be similar to the appellation given in Athens to Πεδίον Άρεως ('Field of Ares'), a term also present in Latin as the 'Field of Mars' , the military exercise area in the flood plain of the Tiber north of Rome. Alternatively, Areos may be an indication that this coin could have been issued by a mercenary band; the Mamertinoi in Sicily two centuries earlier had employed a similar legend "ΑΡΕΟΣ" on their coinage, also in conjunction with a bull reverse type.
In either case, the issue was evidently extremely limited in size and must have served to fulfil only a localised or immediate expenditure.
The obverse type is usually referred to as the helmeted head of the hero Perseus, inspired by the coinage Philip V and Perseus of Macedon and employed by the most of the Pontic mints allied to Mithradates during the wars against Rome. The reverse type depicts a sacrificial humped bull or Zebu which can also be seen on the reverse on the bronze coinage of the same period at Pharnakeia, while the sunburst is one of the most common astrological symbols used by Mithradates VI on much of his coinage.