Non-Greek religious iconography on the coinage of Seleucid Syria. more

MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL FOR THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD Vol. 22/23, 2009/10 OFFPRINT OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE A U S T R A L I A N A R C H A E O L O G I C A L I N S T I T U T E AT AT H E N S Australian and New Zealand Journal for the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Editor: Jean-Paul Descœudres Assistant Editor: Derek Harrison Editorial Board Camilla Norman, Ted Robinson, Michael Turner, Gaye Wilson Advisory Board D. Anson (Otago Museum, Dunedin), A. Betts (The University of Sydney), T. Bryce (The University of Queensland, Brisbane), A. Cambitoglou (The Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens), M. Campagnolo (Cabinet de numismatique, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva), L. Capdetrey (University of Poitiers), J. Chamay (Geneva), G. W. Clarke (The Australian National University, Canberra), Chr. Forbes (Macquarie University), D. Frankel (La Trobe University, Melbourne), M. Gras (CNRS, Nanterre), J. R. Green (Sydney), R. Hannah (The University of Otago, Dunedin), M. Harari (University of Pavia), V. Karageorghis (University of Cyprus), R. Kearsley (Macquarie University, Sydney), A. Laronde (Sorbonne, Paris), J. V. S. Megaw (Adelaide), J. Melville-Jones (The University of Western Australia, Perth), J.-M. Moret (Geneva), B. Ockinga (Macquarie University, Sydney), I. Pini (University of Marburg), R. Ridley, A. Sagona, F. Sear (The University of Melbourne), M. Strong (Abbey Museum, Caboolture), M. Wilson Jones (Rome), R. V. S. Wright (Sydney), J.-L. Zimmermann (Geneva). Managerial Committee A. Cambitoglou (Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens), G. W. Clarke (The Australian National University, Canberra), R. Hannah (The University of Otago, Dunedin), C. A. Hope (Dept. of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian Studies, Monash University, Melbourne), J. Melville-Jones (Dept. of Classics and Ancient History, The University of Western Australia, Perth), A. Moffatt (Canberra), T. Hillard (Dept. of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Sydney), M. O’Hea (Classics Dept., The University of Adelaide), A. Sagona (Dept. of Classics and Archaeology, The University of Melbourne), M. Strong (Abbey Museum, Caboolture). Statement of Purpose Mediterranean Archaeology (abbreviated Meditarch) is published annually. One of its main objectives is to provide a forum for archaeologists in Australia and New Zealand whose research and field work focus on the Mediterranean region. At the same time, it responds to the need for an international journal that treats the Mediterranean region as an entity. It is open to contributors from any country and publishes papers in English, French, German, and Italian. All articles (but not reports) published in Mediterranean Archaeology have been reviewed by at least two members of the Advisory Board. Manuscripts and inquiries about the journal should be addressed to: The Editor Mediterranean Archaeology Box 243 Holme Building The University of Sydney Sydney NSW 2006 Australia phone: +61 2 9351 2079; fax: +61 2 9351 2079 e-mail: info.meditarch@sydney.edu.au Mediterranean Archaeology is produced and distributed by MEDITARCH, P.O. Box 243, Holme Building, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia phone/fax: +61 2 9351 2079 Price per double volume: Aus$ 160.00 (institutional) Aus$ 130.00 (personal) Aus$ 100.00 (student) Printed by Ligare on archive-quality paper (March 2011). The OdysseaU font used to print the Greek characters in this work is available from Linguist’s Software, www.linguistsoftware.com, +1-425-775-1130. MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY All rights reserved. ISSN 1030-8482 CONTENTs Articles Sarah P. Morris Prehistoric Torone: A Bronze Age Emporion in the Northern Aegean. Preliminary report on the Lekythos excavations 1986 and 1988–1990 J. Lea Beness, Richard Dunn, Tom Hillard, Anthony Sprent The Coastal Topography of Ancient Torone Hélène Cassimatis Un nouveau lécythe apulien: analyse iconographique Dalit Regev ‘Akko–Ptolemais, a Phoenician City: the Hellenistic Pottery Nicholas L. Wright Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 1 69 101 115 193 Recent Australian and New Zealand Field Work in the Mediterranean Region Graeme Clarke, Heather Jackson, John Tidmarsh, Ted Nixon 207 Jebel Khalid: the 2008 Season Abstracts Addresses of contributors to Meditarch Vol. 22/23 Colour Plates I–XI Plates 1–14 221 223 ABBREVIATIONs The reference system adopted by Meditarch is modelled on that of the German Archaeological Institute, and the bibliographical abbreviations are those listed in Archäologischer Anzeiger 1997, 612–24, with the addition of the following: ABNGV ABVic Atti I CMGr Beazley, ABV Beazley, Addenda Beazley, Addenda2 Beazley, ARV Beazley, EVP Beazley, Paralipomena BTCGI DACL DOP OEANE ProcBritAc QBNGV RGVV SHAJ Annual Bulletin of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Art Bulletin of Victoria, Melbourne Atti del primo Convegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure Vase-painters (1956) Beazley Addenda. Additional References to ABV, ARV (2nd ed.) & Paralipomena, compiled by L. Burn & R. Glynn (1982) Beazley Addenda. Additional References to ABV, ARV (2nd ed.) & Paralipomena, ed. by T. H. Carpenter (1989) J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters (2nd ed., 1963) J. D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase Painting (1947) J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena. Additions to Attic Black-figure Vase-painters and to Attic Red-figure Vase-painters (1971) G. Nenci–G. Vallet (eds.), Bibliografia topografica della colonizzazione Greca in Italia, Iff. (1977ff.) Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie Dumbarton Oaks Papers E. M. Meyers (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (1997) Proceedings of the British Academy Quarterly Bulletin of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan (Department of Antiquities, Amman) Abbreviations of ancient authors and works, and transliterations of Greek names conform to those listed in The Oxford Classical Dictionary.  NON-GREEK RELIGIOUs IMAGERY ON THE COINAGE OF sELEUCID sYRIA* Nicholas L. Wright When Alexander the Great died in 323 bc, he left no suitable heir, and his royal powers were divided between his officers. These marshals carved independent kingdoms out of the Alexandrian empire. Perhaps the most successful of these successors was Seleucus Nicator. Firmly established in Babylon by 312, he forged an empire sprawling from Thrace to Sogdiana before his murder in 281 bc. He had occupied northern Syria, an area roughly equivalent to the modern Arab republic of the same name, late in 301 and Cilicia shortly afterwards. From that time until the kingdom’s dissolution in 64 bc, Syria and Cilicia would form the hub of the Seleucid world. Throughout this period, the region perpetuated its geographic role as entrance and frontier but in addition, northern Syria now included a densely populated, Hellenized, urban core established by the Seleucids. The colonists brought their own Hellenic deities to look after them in their new lands, although older Semitic gods still inhabited the landscape and they in turn infiltrated the Greco-Macedonian pantheon.1 Before the last Seleucid principalities were destroyed, Semitic gods like Hadad and Atargatis would stand beside Zeus and Apollo as royal patrons. Southern Syria (Phoenicia and CoeleSyria), was initially under Ptolemaic control but fell to the Seleucids in 200 bc.2 Together with Cilicia, it already housed a pre-Greek urbanized population and does not appear to have been as intensively colonized by Greco-Macedonians. The pre-Macedonian traditions of all these areas were to have a clearly visible (if limited) impact on Seleucid minting practice. To a large extent Seleucus Nicator continued Alexander’s main silver-coin type depicting the youthful head of Heracles paired with an enthroned Zeus, initially Aetophorus (pl. 6: 1), switching to Nicephorus after c.301 bc. However, he also introduced new types in both silver and bronze utilizing Athena (and to a lesser extent Apollo), stressing his prowess and military vigour. The silver coinage produced under the subsequent Seleucid kings of the early period (Antiochus I–Seleucus IV, 281–175) came to focus exclusively upon a type that combined the king’s diademed head on the obverse with Apollo on the reverse, usually seated on * I would like to express my gratitude to Ken Sheedy of the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, and to Ina Kehrberg of the University of Sydney, as well as to the two anonymous Meditarch reviewers for reading drafts of this paper and making several useful suggestions. My thanks also to Laura Wright for her assistance and encouragement and to the British Museum, Classical Numismatic Group, and Colin Pitchfork for the provision of various images. All responsibility for inaccuracies remain my own. Note the following abbreviation used in addition to the usual ones: SC A. Houghton–C. Lorber–O. Hoover, Seleucid Coins. A Comprehensive Catalogue, Part II: Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII (2008). in the Levant since the Early Iron Age, see for example J. Teixidor, ‘Sur quelques aspects de la vie religieuse dans la Syrie à l’époque hellénistique et romaine’, in: J. Dentzer– W. Orthmann (eds.), Archéologie et histoire de la Syrie, II: La Syrie de l’époque achéménide à l’avènement de l’Islam (1989) 83–4. 2 1 The term ‘Semitic’ is used throughout this text to refer to the deities of pre-Hellenistic Syria derived from both the Aramaic (west Semitic) and Babylonian (east Semitic) pantheons. Gods such as Ba’al-Shamin, though ultimately stemming from Babylonian cosmology, had been worshipped The exact parameters of Coele-Syria as a geographic unit were confused and changed throughout antiquity (see E. Bickerman, ‘La Cœlé-Syrie: notes de géographie historique’, RBi 54, 1947, 256–68). It is used here in the general sense known to Polybius (I 3: 1; II 71: 9; V 67: 3–8; XXVIII 1: 1–9) and later specified by Strabo (XVI 2: 21) as ‘. . . the whole of the country above the territory of Seleuceia [the Syrian tetrapolis], extending approximately to Egypt and Arabia. . . ’ (Loeb translation), which by and large corresponds with the inland area of the Ptolemaic province of ‘Phoenicia and Syria’ before its incorporation within the Seleucid empire. Under the Seleucids, the same territory was known as ‘Phoenicia and Coele-Syria’ to distinguish it from the northern satrapy. MEDITARCH 22/23, 2009/10, 193–206 194 Nicholas L. Wright the omphalos (pl. 6: 2) or else leaning on a tripod—both attributes indicating the Delphic (Greek) nature of the god. Apollo was the mythical ancestor of the Seleucidae, and his priests had foretold the establishment of the kingdom.3 It is understandable that his image became inexorably linked to the royal ideology—a link manifested through the state’s coinage. A clearly defined break in coin types occurred in the years following the usurpation of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 175 bc. At some stage early in his reign, Epiphanes re-introduced Zeus Nicephorus as the dominant reverse type for his silver issues (pl. 6: 3) and opened the proverbial gate to a flood of new variations within the corpus of bronze-coin types. By using the enthroned Zeus, Epiphanes may have been associating himself with the kingdom’s glorious founder, although—as I have discussed elsewhere—there is good reason to see Epiphanes’ Zeus as a syncretic deity who could be understood as any number of Semitic sky gods in a Hellenized render.4 Considering the antipathy between the Seleucids and Ptolemaic Egypt, it is perhaps surprising to note that the first non-Greek deities to emblazon Seleucid coinage appear to have been Hellenized Egyptians. Two Egyptianizing types were produced at Antioch during the sixth Syrian war (170–168). The obverses carried the corn-wreathed head of Isis and the curly-haired head of Zeus-Sarapis respectively. Both types utilize the Ptolemaic eagle standing on the thunderbolt on the reverse, although the Seleucid bird faces left rather than the more customary right of its Ptolemaic counterparts. E. T. Newell linked the issues to Epiphanes’ victories over Egypt, suggesting a celebratory nature for the iconography, but the lack of any reference on the coins to Nike (or even the military) weakens the suggestion.5 It is clear that prior to the Day of Eleusis (168 bc), Antiochus planned to annex Cyprus and possibly parts of Egypt proper. The Egyptianizing series was perhaps produced in anticipation of the need for an acceptable, familiar currency in the newly acquired Ptolemaic territories.6 An independent set of Egyptianizing imagery appeared simultaneously in Phoenicia. The millennia of contact between Egypt and Phoenicia was visibly emphasized under Epiphanes at the port of Byblos which employed Egyptian cultic imagery on four denominations of its regal bronze coinage.7 Whilst the obverse of each denomination carried the usual royal portrait, the reverses bore an Isis Pharia (pl. 6: 4), a standing Isis wearing a kalathos and holding a sceptre, the child Harpocrates squatting on a lotus flower sucking his thumb, or a facing bovine head crowned by the headdress of Isis. Alongside the four Egyptian types at Byblos, Epiphanes produced a fifth bronze denomination showing the local (Semitic) sky god El, syncretized with Cronus by the Greek colonists. The exceptional aspect of the Byblian Cronus is the triple set of wings that extend from behind each shoulder which distinguish the type from any Greek iconographic traditions (pl. 6: 5).8 3 App. Syr. 56; Just. XV 4: 3–9. However, on the flexibility of the iconography of Apollo in the Seleucid Iranian satrapies, see K. Erickson–N. L. Wright, ‘The “royal archer” and Apollo in the east: Greco-Persian iconography in the Seleukid Empire’, Proceedings of the 14th International Numismatic Congress in Glasgow, 2010 (forthcoming). 4 SC nos. 1413–4. 6 Diod. XXXI 1-2; Livy XLV 11; Polyb. XXXIX 27: 1–9; D. Plantzos, ‘A royal seal of Antiochos IV of Syria and some contemporary minima Ptolemaica’, RBelgNum 148, 2002, 33–9; C. Lorber, ‘Ptolemaic bronzes of Antiochus IV’, RBelgNum 153, 2007, 31–44. 7 N. L. Wright, ‘Seleucid royal cult, indigenous religious traditions, and radiate crowns: the numismatic evidence’, Meditarch 18, 2005, 71; id., ‘From Zeus to Apollo and back again: a note on the changing face of western Seleucid coinage’, Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 39–40, 2007–08, 536. 5 SC nos. 1442, 1445–7. Evidence for the Egyptianized nature of Phoenician cult under the Seleucids is best illustrated by the imagery at the temple of Milk’astart at Umm el-Amed near Tyre, see M. Dunand–R. Duru, Oumm el-‘Amed, une ville de l’époque hellénistique aux échelles de Tyr (1962) esp. 25–6, 48, 69–75, 156–7. 8 E. T. Newell, The Seleucid mint of Antioch (1918) 26–7; SC nos. 1443–4.  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 195 In the generations that succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes, military and financial support from Ptolemaic Egypt saw an epoch of perpetual dynastic strife within the Seleucidae.9 It benefited Egypt to prevent the Seleucid kingdom from dominating its neighbours as it had during the early decades of the second century. Ptolemaic support in the period 150–121 was conveyed in the guise of the princess Cleopatra Thea who was married in turn to three successive Seleucid kings as their predecessors lost favour with the court in Alexandria. With Cleopatra’s ascendancy, Egyptian themes further influenced Seleucid coinage. The headdress of Isis became the most common reverse type on the bronze coinage of Antioch under her third husband Antiochus VII Sidetes (pl. 6: 6) and reappeared on the coinage of AcePtolemais during her joint reign with her son Antiochus VIII Grypus (125–96).10 Further north in Cilicia, Tarsus (under the dynastic name Antioch-on-the-Cyndus) received special minting rights during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Perhaps in acknowledgement of the importance of the city as the main centre of Cilicia—the kingdom’s north-western border following 188 bc—the city continued to mint standard regal silver issues but was allowed to produce a parallel autonomous bronze coinage that replaced the king’s obverse portrait with the turreted head of the Tyche of the city.11 The reverse of these issues depict a Luwian god in purely vernacular form which echoes Hittite prototypes (pl. 6: 7). The god, Sandan, was shown as a bearded deity standing stiffly in profile. He wears either a tall conical hat or the kalathos typical of Eastern fertility gods. The right hand is raised in salute and the left holds a labrys or double-headed axe. Sandan stands on the back of a horned lion whose folded wings are sometimes visible. The image is a world away from contemporary Greek conventions but occurs on terracotta votive plaques found in Hellenistic contexts during the Tarsus excavations.12 It is clear that whilst indigenous cult flourished at Tarsus following the Greco-Macedonian conquest, it did not find expression on a state level until the mid-second century. Epiphanes’ nephew Demetrius I (162–150) went further still in acknowledging the vernacular religious traditions of Cilicia. At some late stage in his reign, a small workshop was opened in the city of Mallus and began striking regal silver coins in the king’s name and bearing the royal portrait as the obverse type. The reverse depicted the cult statue of the goddess of Magarsus (a sanctuary attached to Mallus), identified by the Greeks as Athena Magarsia—the same type was continued under Demetrius’ successors, on the autonomous bronze coinage of the first century bc and as the symbol of the city on the coinage of the Imperial period (pl. 6: 8).13 The deity is depicted standing in a stiff frontal pose, her upper arms held close to her body, and her forearms extend to either side. She wears a crested helmet such as the one used on the Classical coinage of the city. The figure is dressed in a long peplos with a circular disk between her breasts reminiscent of both Athena’s gorgoneion and the Semitic tradition of using celestial deities as pectorals. Multiple snake heads fringe the statue below the arms to complete the allusion to the aegis. A spear is held in the right hand, and two stars or suns float either side of her head. Whilst helmet, aegis, and spear make it clear that the goddess was to be understood as Athena, the very Eastern nature of the representation suggests that the Athena identity had been grafted onto an earlier cult, perhaps 9 See A. R. Bellinger, ‘The end of the Seleucids’, Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 38, 1949, 51–102; J. Whitehorne, Cleopatras (2001) 149–73. 10 11 12 SC nos. 2066–7 (Antiochus VII), 2274 (Antiochus VIII). SNG Paris 2 (Cilicie) nos. 1270–6. H. Goldman, ‘The Sandon Monument of Tarsus’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 60.4, 1940, 544–5; ead., ‘Sandon and Herakles’, in: Commemorative studies in honor of Theodore Leslie Shear, Hesperia Suppl. 8 (1949) 169–70, 174. 13 SC nos. 1618–9. 196 Nicholas L. Wright involving a local variant of one of the Semitic warrior goddesses, Ishtar/Astarte or Anat.14 Whilst Sandan had already occupied the reverse of bronze coinage for local use, the Malliote coins of Demetrius I represent the first instance of an indigenous cult figure to adorn Seleucid regal silver issues. Under Alexander I Balas (150–145), the precedent set by Demetrius I at Mallus spread back to Tarsus, and Sandan began to appear on Tarsiote regal silver coinage where it would preside as the main reverse type of the mint until the city seceded from Seleucid control in the first century (pl. 7: 1).15 At the same time as Antiochus IV Epiphanes allowed Tarsus to produce its pseudoautonomous bronze coinage, the privilege was extended to 14 other cities across the kingdom. Throughout Syria, these issues gave voice to the indigenous gods worshipped in the Seleucid heartland—both in syncretized and in a purely vernacular form—for the first time. The pseudo-autonomous bronzes almost exclusively used the radiate royal portrait as the obverse type but combined it with a reverse type of local significance.16 The holy city of HierapolisBambyke in Kyrrhestis was among the mints granted pseudo-autonomy in this period. The radiate king’s head took up the obverse whilst the reverse utilized an image of a standing Zeus holding out a wreath. The Zeus appears to resemble one of the most popular reverse types used across the Levant under Epiphanes except for the addition of a lion sub-type.17 The lion was known as the companion and avatar of Atargatis, and its appearance beside the Zeus of Hierapolis cements the type to the sanctuary and its Semitic divine couple, Hadad and Atargatis. The local religious significance was apparent but the iconography had been Hellenized to a point where Hadad was indistinguishable from Zeus and indeed, so it was with the deity’s cult statue at Hierapolis.18 In 162, Demetrius I introduced a new reverse type as his personal badge on his tetradrachms across the kingdom. The type depicted a seated goddess of uncertain origin.19 The figure, commonly accepted as representing Tyche, sits on a stool supported by a winged tritoness. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, and when she wears any form of headdress it is usually the kalathos. Her lower half is always draped, although she initially appeared naked to the waist. She holds a sceptre in her extended right hand and cradles a cornucopia in her left arm (pl. 7: 2). Demetrius’ goddess is certainly expressed in a Greek style, although her 14 A. Houghton, ‘The Seleucid mint of Mallus and the cult figure of Athena Magarsia’, in: A. Houghton et al. (eds.), Festschrift für Leo Mildenberg: Numismatik, Kunstgeschichte, Archäologie (1984) 104–10. 15 16 18 19 Lucian, Syr. D. 31-2. SC no. 1778. The radiate crown was the physical manifestation of a process which saw the king assume living godhead during this period. Earlier kings had not taken this official stance, even though a dynastic cult had been functioning in some form since 281 bc. See App. Syr. 65; J. G. Bunge, ‘“AntiochosHelios”: Methoden und Ergebnisse der Reichspolitik Antiochus IV Epiphanes von Syrien im Spiegel seiner Münzen’, Historia 24, 1975, 164–88; J. Zahle, ‘Religious motifs on Seleucid coins’, in: P. Bilde et al. (eds.), Religion and religious practice in the Seleucid kingdom (1990) 127; Wright in Meditarch 18 art. cit. (n. 4) 72–3. The relationship between king and city shifted after 175 from one of monarch and dependant to one of deity and devotee. 17 See for example SC nos. 1432–3 (Hierapolis), 1416–8 (Antioch), 1480 (Ace-Ptolemais). Similar ‘Zeus with animal’ types occurred under Epiphanes’ son Alexander I Balas at Cyrrhus (an owl, see SC no. 1809) and Laodicea (a dolphin, see SC no. 1807). The confused identity of the figure was noted but left unexplored by Newell op. cit. (n. 5) 37–8. J. M. Helliesen, ‘Demetrios I Soter: a Seleucid king with an Antigonid name’, in: H. J. Dell (ed.), Ancient Macedonian Studies in Honour of Charles F. Edson (1981) 219–28 explored the question more thoroughly although here, too, the conclusions reached are not totally satisfactory. SC pp. 154-5 designates the figure as Agathe Tyche but does not make the apparently obvious connection between Demetrius’ goddess and the grain-and-poppy-bearing goddess produced later (SC no. 2376) which suggests a more specific, fertilitydriven role for the deity. Helliesen thinks that the wreath surrounding the obverse portrait may allude to Apollo and the return of the legitimate Seleucidae. However, the wreath borders utilized on the silver tetradrachms of Demetrius I and his successors (Demetrius II, Antiochus VII, VIII, IX, Demetrius III, and Antiochus XII) have lanceolate leaves which sprout opposite each other from the stems, as an olive or myrtle bough, rather than sprouting alternatively as a laurel. These coins may perhaps be intended to fit within a local ‘stephanophoroi’ tradition, but the wreaths should not be seen as allusions to Apollo.  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 197 various attributes preclude her identification as any of the Olympian goddesses, and the type is certainly distinct from the polis Tyche produced on the coins of Antioch and Damascus during the later occupation of Tigranes II (75–69). I am unaware of a Hellenistic Tyche ever being depicted in an undraped state nor, with the exception of Aphrodite, do the Olympian goddesses appear naked or semi-naked. As with Aphrodite’s nudity, we can perhaps read in Demetrius’ goddess a reproductive, motherly aspect. Likewise, the cornucopia continues to stress the fecund, productive nature of the figure, whilst the sceptre speaks of sovereignty and authority. Lucian’s description of the great Syrian mother goddess, Atargatis, states that her image takes many forms, resembling at once Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Selene, Rhea, Artemis, Nemesis, and the Moirai.20 Certainly Demetrius’ goddess amalgamated aspects of some of these figures, particularly Aphrodite, Rhea, and Hera. In addition, the tritoness figure who supports the goddess’ seat recalls both Atargatis’ alter ego Derketo and a relief sculpture noted at Hierapolis (modern Membij) by several early European travellers which featured two tritonesses supporting the Syrian Goddess on their joined fish tails.21 In Coele-Syria, local cult was by no means ignored. At Gaza, Alexander Balas produced three bronze denominations utilizing images of the local Ba’al, Marnas, as the reverse type. Although the worship of the god was assimilated with that of Zeus, Marnas was often depicted as a youthful figure, more akin to the Greek Apollo.22 At Jerusalem, more often than not a problematic city for the Seleucids, strong indigenous religious traditions were also maintained. However, unlike other centres, the vernacular traditions were reflected on the city’s coinage through not displaying the local cult. Under Antiochus VII Sidetes (138–129), the only Seleucid known to have minted coins in the city, the Jewish prohibition on graven images was respected (pl. 7: 3).23 Rather than the king’s divine head, the obverse of Antiochus’ Jerusalemite bronzes was occupied by a lily flower, an inoffensive symbol of prosperity. The reverse bore the king’s name and title around an anchor, a symbol of stability but also one of the dynastic symbols that had been in use as a sub-type since the earliest coins of Seleucus I. Seleucid rule and the benefits it brought were plainly alluded to by the Jerusalem series, although Antiochus Sidetes clearly appreciated the vigour of contemporary Jewish sensibilities. During this period, the rise in popularity of the syncretic Zeus is evident. Antiochus Epiphanes and his descendants had used Zeus as the badge of their branch. Following the extinction of the Epiphanaic line in 123, Antiochus VIII Grypus and Cleopatra Thea adopted the enthroned Zeus Nicephorus type for their co-regency silver coinage.24 From the beginning of his sole reign (121), Grypus experimented with an innovative approach to the depiction of Zeus. Grypus’ adaption took the form of Zeus Uranius.25 The god was shown as a standing bearded male holding a sceptre in his left hand in the manner of the seated Zeus, but holding a star or sun in his right hand and crowned by a horizontal crescent moon (pl. 7: 4). Just as the Epiphanaic Zeus was syncretizable on an individual basis with regional Ba’als, Zeus Uranius can be seen as the direct Hellenization of the Semitic ‘master of the heavens’, Ba’al-Shamin. 20 21 Lucian, Syr. D. 31–2. Lucian, Syr. D. 14; J. L. Lightfoot, Lucian: On the Syrian Goddess (2003) 67 n. 179. 22 SC nos. 1852–3; G. Mussies, ‘Marnas god of Gaza’, ANRW 18.4 (1990) 2446–7. 23 numismatic evidence on the prelude to the Maccabean revolt’, Israel Numismatic Journal 14, 2000–2: 59–77, although the rationale behind the attribution is somewhat flawed, and the suggestion has been dismissed by Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover (SC 94–5). 24 SC no. 2123; an earlier series of bronze coins depicting the radiate head of Antiochus IV Epiphanes on the obverse and a seated goddess on the reverse were attributed to Jerusalem by D. Barag, ‘The mint of Antiochus IV in Jerusalem, Wright in Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 2007–08, art. cit. (n. 4) 536–8. 25 SC p. 486, nos. 2297–8, 2302 (Antioch), 2335–6 (AcePtolemais), 2321–4 (Damascus), 2329–30 (Sidon). 198 Nicholas L. Wright The astrological attributes distinguish the figure from the earlier representations of Zeus and depict him as a truly enlightened and universal figure.26 One last development occurred during the next generation of Seleucid kings that would demonstrate beyond all doubt the continued strength of the pre-Greek cults. Throughout the reigns of Demetrius III Eucaerus (96–87) and Antiochus XII Dionysus (87–84), the indigenous cult statues of Atargatis and Hadad respectively were employed as the reverse type on the primary series of the kings’ silver tetradrachms.27 The two kings successively ruled a Seleucid principality based on Damascus, an ancient centre with enduring indigenous religious traditions. The contemporary bronze coinage employed the royal portrait on the obverse, with classical Greek-styled deities—Zeus, Tyche, Apollo, Hermes, and Nike—taking up the reverse. Whilst silver coinage of Demetrius III still carried the king’s head on the obverse, the reverse depicted Atargatis at her most Eastern (pl. 7: 5). The frontal cult statue stands rigidly with the upper arms close against the body and forearms extended to either side in the same pose as the statue of Athena Magarsia. Atargatis’ head emanates rays suggesting celestial light while her body and legs are covered in small circular objects reminiscent of the cult statue of Artemis Ephesia but perhaps representing the snake scales of an aegis. A facing head adorns her chest which should be understood as either a gorgoneion or one of the celestial bodies. In her left hand she holds a flower, and an ear of grain appears to sprout from behind either shoulder. The overall composition presents Atargatis as an all-powerful goddess with control over the earth and the stars. The link between Athena and Atargatis is perhaps indicated by the statue’s aegis and gorgoneion. Likewise, the tetradrachms of Antiochus XII bore the king’s diademed head on the obverse, whilst the reverse carried the Eastern cult statue of Hadad with none of the familiar Hellenizing that had been present in the reigns of his predecessors (pl. 7: 6). The god stands in the same stiff manner as his consort Atargatis, with his arms projecting away from the body at the elbows. He is bearded and cloaked and wears a conical hat previously worn by Sandan at Tarsus. The cult statue holds a large ear of grain in his left hand, and the figure is flanked by bulls, both symbols emphasizing his original role as a fertility deity. The Damascene Seleucids produced silver coinage that emphasized the importance of local religious traditions. Indeed, as far as kingdoms were concerned, there were few Seleucid kings whose territories were so limited in their extent as those of Demetrius III and Antiochus XII. The kings clearly accepted that the importance of the local indigenous cult heightened in inverse proportion with their reduced territorial state. In the later half of the reign of Demetrius III, the king occupied Antioch. Once he had the Syrian metropolis under his control, he began producing tetradrachms there that reverted to the seated Zeus Nicephorus type, while Atargatis continued to appear at Damascus. Zeus was the dominant and traditional type of Antioch by this date (pl. 7: 7) and kept this position on the Antiochene coins of Demetrius III.28 Antiochus XII was preoccupied with maintaining his hold on Damascus, and so Hadad remained unchallenged as the sole imagery on his silver coinage. Following the Nabataean annexation of Damascus, bronze-coin production continued, but all Seleucid types were replaced with a simple seated or standing Tyche. When Tigranes II of Armenia annexed Syria and Cilicia in the mid-70s he also replaced the numerous Seleucid/indigenous types with depictions of various statues of Tyche. Zeus returned briefly as a reverse type 26 H. Seyrig, ‘Antiquités Syriennes 29: A propos du culte de Zeus à Séleucie’, Syria 20, 1939, 300. 27 28 SC nos. 2450–1 (Demetrius III), 2471–2a (Antiochus XII). SC nos. 2445–6. Although Apollo has a famous sanctuary in the Antiochene suburb of Daphne, Zeus had always remained the patron of Antioch itself, see Libanius, Orations XI 85–8; Malalas, Chronicle VIII 12–3; Strabo II 6; CIG 4458; G. Downey, A history of Antioch in Syria: from Seleucus to the Arab conquest (1961) 67–8, 82–6; B. Cabouret, ‘Les Cultes grecs d’Antioche’, Topoi 7, 1997, 1007–13.  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 199 during the troubled reign of the restored Antiochus XIII Asiaticus (69–64) and was continued during the early Roman Republican era at Antioch.29 However, by the Julio-Claudian period, a ubiquitous Tyche dominated the Levant as the most common type. In the centres that had seceded from the Seleucid kingdom before the Roman annexation, certain indigenous figures such as Athena Magarsia and Sandan continued to appear on civic bronze issues in the company of Tyche, but the cult statues of Atargatis and Hadad were never to be reproduced on the coinage of Damascus. On the basis of the above survey, it would appear that non-Greek religious traditions were not given any official numismatic expression during the Early Hellenistic period. Under the Late Seleucids—from the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes—increasing localized autonomy was mirrored by the increasing visibility of Semitic, Luwian, and Egyptian cults as coin types. Antiochus VIII Grypus (125–96) provides the exemplar of this phenomenon. During his reign he issued silver coinage emblazoned with pre-Greek Luwian deities (Athena Margasia and Sandan) in Cilicia, a Hellenized Semitic deity (or naturalized Hellenic—Ba’al Shamin/Zeus Uranius) in Syria and Phoenicia. Meanwhile, his bronze coinage continued to display traditional Greek gods such as Apollo and Artemis alongside an Egyptian headdress of Isis. It would appear that such regionalism of type choices illustrates the kings’ awareness of specific target audiences. In Damascus, Demetrius III and Antiochus XII combined Semitic cult statues on their silver issues, with Hellenized figures on their bronzes. Within the larger heterogeneous Seleucid kingdom, the religious traditions of the colonists met, vied, and merged with those of the colonized, and by the late second century, there does not appear to have been any one overriding tradition. As the territory under royal control gradually shrank, the relative importance of each of the component parts increased; with that importance, the local gods rose to a new prominence, and the iconography became ever more localized. With the absorption of the former Seleucid territories into the Roman empire, some of these indigenous types such as Athena Magarsia flourished whilst others, such as Atargatis and Hadad, were once more suppressed. It is difficult to satisfactorily explain why select non-Greek deities were retained whilst others were discarded. It may very well be that there was enough recognizably Greek about Athena Magarsia to facilitate her retention whilst the abandoned types were just too foreign for the new rulers and their Mediterranean-wide empire. Eastern deities would not appear in such strength again until the period of the Severan emperors of Rome where, in a reverse of fortune, Semitic gods actively went West. APPENDIX The following tables provide a synthesis of Late Seleucid minting patterns with reference to the choice of reverse type. For the purpose of the tables, Seleucid Syria has been divided into three discreet units which are treated separately: Cilicia (including both Cilicia Trachia and Cilicia Pedias), Syria Seleucis and Cyrrhestis (northern Syria, between the Amanus and Taurus ranges and the Eleutherus river), and Phoenicia and Coele Syria (south of the Eleutherus). The minting patterns for precious metal issues are treated separately from those regarding bronze issues. The intrinsic worth of gold and silver coins generally resulted in a wider distribution than their fiduciary bronze counterparts which tended to remain in the area of their production, where inflated face values were respected. 29 SC nos. 2487 (Antiochus XIII), 2487a–91 (posthumous Philip I, Philip II or Roman administrators). 200 Nicholas L. Wright The y axis of each table arranges the Late Seleucids in the order they appear in SC. That is, the rulers are listed in roughly chronological order based upon the date of the beginning of their reigns. The x axis provides a breakdown of the iconographic types used on the coin reverses. In order to provide workable tables, deities and their attributes are classed as one and the same. Thus Apollo (seated or standing), a tripod, a lyre or a cithara are all considered to refer to Apollo with the same meaning and intended audience. In like manner, Zeus (both Aetophorus and Nicephorus), an eagle or a thunderbolt are all considered together as images of Zeus. The religious types are further grouped into what are considered to be Hellenic, syncretic, Semitic, Luwian, or Egyptian sets of images. The Hellenic category includes those deities which appear in an unambiguous Greek form. Syncretic or Greco-Semitic iconography covers the deities whose manner of representation is essentially Greek but for whom evidence exists to suggest a double meaning or secondary understanding of the figure, for example: Zeus Uranius/Ba’al Shamin, Poseidon/Ba’al Berit or Tyche/Astarte/Atargatis. The Semitic, Luwian, and Egyptian groups include those deities who are depicted in a vernacular style, represent indigenous cult statues or traditional non-Greek attributes, such as the dove or sheath of wheat of Atargatis and the headdress of Isis. Unfortunately, such broad distinctions must draw an arbitrary line which has the potential to cloud the overall image. Even deities grouped here as ‘Hellenic’ were sometimes used as the interpretatio graeca of indigenous figures, for example: Apollo for Nabu, the Dioscuri for Azizos and Monimos, Dionysus as yet another incarnation of Ba’al. Furthermore, each tick on the tables indicates merely the presence of an iconographic type but provides no sense of the quantity of each type of image presented. To a certain degree the tables provide a visual guide to the distribution of iconographic types, and clear patterns do emerge. Much more iconographic variety is present on the bronze coinage in most areas than on contemporary silver. This may reflect sub-regional preferences for certain image types on bronzes as opposed to a kingdom-wide dynastic choice for the output of silver. However, this pattern does not apply to Cilicia where little royal bronze coinage was struck – instead, indigenous Luwian imagery found its way onto silver issues. It is also clear that Luwian imagery appears nowhere but in Cilicia. Likewise, Semitic deities are absent on Cilician issues. Where Egyptian motifs are used, they occur in Phoenicia (testimony to millennia of cultural exchange) or else in Syria Seleucis during the reigns of kings who were married to, or sons of, the Ptolemaic princess Cleopatra Thea. Types utilizing ‘Hellenic’ deities were more commonly struck on the silver coinage of Syria Seleucis than elsewhere, perhaps representing the higher proportion of GrecoMacedonian colonists in that area. The gradual disappearance of Apollinian imagery on silver issues was not reflected on local bronzes, where the Seleucidae’s divine progenitor continued to appear until the very end of the dynasty. The two figures who really replaced Apollo as a preferred silver type were Zeus and the uncertain Tyche-like goddess. As I have argued above, they almost certainly represent the Syrian gods Ba’al Hadad and Atargatis in Hellenic guise.  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 201 Cilicia Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? x x x x x x x x x x Heracles/club Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Dionysus/panther/cantharus Europa Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Ba’al Hadad Cronus-El Rose (Adonis) Sandan Athena Margasia Isis/headdress of Isis Harpocrates Military, hunting & misc. types/ Nike/palm/anchor Apollo/tripod/lyre Artemis/bow and quiver Athena/owl/aegis AV & AR reverse types Hellenic x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x syncretic/GrecoSemitic Semitic Luwian Egyptian Hellenic Military, hunting & misc. types /Nike/palm/anchor Dionysus/panther/cantharus syncretic/GrecoSemitic Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Semitic Luwian Egyptian Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Artemis/bow and quiver Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Athena/owl/aegis Athena Margasia Heracles/club Apollo/tripod/lyre AV & AR reverse types Isis/headdress of Isis Europa Rose (Adonis) Ba’al Hadad Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? Syria Seleucis & Cyrrestis x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 202 Nicholas L. Wright x x x x x x x x x Harpocrates Cronus-El Sandan  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 203 Phoenicia & Coele Syria Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Heracles/club Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Dionysus/panther/cantharus Europa Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Ba’al Hadad Cronus-El Rose (Adonis) Sandan Athena Margasia Isis/headdress of Isis Harpocrates Military, hunting & misc. types/ Nike/palm/anchor Apollo/tripod/lyre Artemis/bow and quiver Athena/owl/aegis AV & AR reverse types Hellenic syncretic/GrecoSemitic Semitic Luwian Egyptian 204 Nicholas L. Wright Cilicia Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? x x x x x x x x x Heracles/club Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Dionysus/panther/cantharus Europa Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Ba’al Hadad Cronus-El Rose (Adonis) Sandan Athena Margasia Isis/headdress of Isis Harpocrates Military, hunting & misc. types/ Nike/palm/anchor Apollo/tripod/lyre Artemis/bow and quiver Athena/owl/aegis Æ reverse types Hellenic syncretic/GrecoSemitic Semitic Luwian Egyptian  Non-Greek Religious Imagery on the Coinage of Seleucid Syria 205 Syria Seleucis & Cyrrestis Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Europa Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Ba’al Hadad Cronus-El Rose (Adonis) Sandan Athena Margasia Isis/headdress of Isis Harpocrates Military, hunting & misc. types/ Nike/palm/anchor Apollo/tripod/lyre Artemis/bow and quiver Athena/owl/aegis Heracles/club Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Dionysus/panther/cantharus Æ reverse types Hellenic syncretic/GrecoSemitic Semitic Luwian Egyptian Hellenic Military, hunting & misc. types/ Nike/palm/anchor Dionysus/panther/cantharus syncretic/GrecoSemitic Poseidon-Ba’al/dolphin/trident Zeus-Ba’al/eagle/thunderbolt Zeus Uranius-Ba’al Shamin Atargatis/dove/ear of grain Semitic Luwian Egyptian Tyche-Astarte/uncertain goddess/cornucopia Artemis/bow and quiver Hermes/caduceus Dioscuri/piloi caps Athena/owl/aegis Athena Margasia Heracles/club Apollo/tripod/lyre Æ reverse types Isis/headdress of Isis Rose (Adonis) Ba’al Hadad Antiochus IV Antiochus V Demetrius I Alexander I Demetrius II (1st reign) Antiochus VI Tryphon Antiochus VII Demetrius II (2nd reign) Young Antiochus Alexander II Cleopatra Thea Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII Antiochus VIII Antiochus IX Seleucus VI Antiochus X Antiochus XI & Philip I Antiochus XI Demetrius III Philip I Antiochus XII Cleopatra Selene & Antiochus XIII Antiochus XIII Philip II? x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Phoenicia & Coele Syria x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 206 Nicholas L. Wright x x x x Harpocrates Europa Cronus-El Sandan x x Plate 6 Nicholas L. Wright 1. AR tetradrachm, Seleucus I; Zeus Aetophorus, Ecbatana (©Trustees of the British Museum). 2. AR tetradrachm, Antiochus I; Apollo on the omphalos, Seleucia on the Tigris (private coll.). 3. AR tetradrachm, Antiochus IV; Zeus Olympius, Antioch-on-the-Orontes (private coll.). 4. Æ unit, Antiochus IV; Isis Pharia, Byblos (©Classical Numismatic Group). 5. Æ unit, Antiochus IV; Cronus-El, Byblos (©Classical Numismatic Group). 6. Æ unit, Antiochus VII; headdress of Isis, Antioch on the Orontes (private coll.). 7. Æ unit, reign of Antiochus IV; Sandan, Tarsus (©Classical Numismatic Group). 8. AR drachm, Antiochus VII; Athena Margasia, Mallos (©Classical Numismatic Numismatic Group). Nicholas L. Wright Plate 7 1. AR drachm Antiochus VII; Sandan, Tarsus, (private coll.). 2. AR tetradrachm, Demetrius I; ‘Tyche’, Antioch-on-the-Orontes (©Trustees of the British Museum). 3. Æ unit, Antiochus VII; lily and anchor, Jerusalem (©Classical Numismatic Group). 4. AR tetradrachm, Antiochus VIII; Zeus Uranius, Damascus (private coll.). 5. AR tetradrachm, Demetrius III; Atargatis, Damascus (private coll.). 6. AR tetradrachm, Antiochus XII; Hadad, Damascus (©Classical Numismatic Group). 7. AR tetradrachm, Philip I; Zeus Olympius, Antioch-on-the-Orontes or East Syrian mint (private coll.).