Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 108 13 Apr 2023
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Septimius Severus Æ 29mm of Amblada, Pisidia. AD 193-211. ΑΥ ΚΑΙ ΛΟΥ ϹЄΠ ϹЄΥΗΡΟϹ ΠЄΡ, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / ΑΜΒΛΑΔЄѠΝ ΛΑΚ[Є]ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙѠΝ ΦΙΛΟϹΟ ΑΡΤЄΜΙΔ, Tychai of Amblada and Sparta standing facing each other, clasping hands, each wearing kalathos and holding long sceptre. Peus 431, 3663 = Asia Minor Coins #5595 (same dies); otherwise unpublished, although a similar rev. type is known for Commodus (von Aulock, Pisidia I, 123). 18.84g, 29mm, 12h.
Very Fine; heavy earthen encrustations. Possibly the second known example of the type.
The reverse type of the present coin sees the citizens of Amblada celebrating their alleged ancestry as descendants of the Spartans, as other communities local to the city did also in Imperial times. However, it also serves possibly to answer the most enigmatic question in Pisidian numismatics, that of the meaning of the Greek legend ΦΙΛ(Ο) ΑΡΤEΜΙΔ as seen on other coins from this city, but seen on the present coin more completely as reading ΦΙΛΟϹΟ ΑΡΤЄΜΙΔ.
Héctor Arroyo-Quirce argues in his paper on this subject ("An Enigmatic Coin Legend from Amblada in Pisidia", in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 216 (2020), pg. 129-132) that this legend directly refers to a 'philosophos' by the name of Artemidoros, son of an otherwise unknown Agrippas, a patriotic man who performed some deed of good merit that afforded him the honour of a statue being erected in his hometown. It is from the base of this statue, which was excavated 50 years ago, that the inscription which provided the vital clue to the identity of this man was read.
Very Fine; heavy earthen encrustations. Possibly the second known example of the type.
The reverse type of the present coin sees the citizens of Amblada celebrating their alleged ancestry as descendants of the Spartans, as other communities local to the city did also in Imperial times. However, it also serves possibly to answer the most enigmatic question in Pisidian numismatics, that of the meaning of the Greek legend ΦΙΛ(Ο) ΑΡΤEΜΙΔ as seen on other coins from this city, but seen on the present coin more completely as reading ΦΙΛΟϹΟ ΑΡΤЄΜΙΔ.
Héctor Arroyo-Quirce argues in his paper on this subject ("An Enigmatic Coin Legend from Amblada in Pisidia", in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 216 (2020), pg. 129-132) that this legend directly refers to a 'philosophos' by the name of Artemidoros, son of an otherwise unknown Agrippas, a patriotic man who performed some deed of good merit that afforded him the honour of a statue being erected in his hometown. It is from the base of this statue, which was excavated 50 years ago, that the inscription which provided the vital clue to the identity of this man was read.