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Æ21 - Marcus Aurelius C L I COR
| Issuer | Corinth (Achaea) |
|---|---|
| Year | 161-169 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Reverse description | The infant Melikertes-Palaimon, the divine child of Corinthian mythology, depicted reclining or riding upon a dolphin moving to the right, evoking the legend of his sea-borne arrival at the Isthmus of Corinth. The figure is rendered in typical provincial style with the dolphin's arched body clearly delineated beneath the child. The colonial abbreviation C L I COR appears in the field, identifying the issuing authority as the Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis. The reverse type is closely associated with the Isthmian Games and the cult of Palaimon, which were of central religious and civic importance to Roman Corinth. |
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| Mint | Corinth |
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| Additional information |
Corinth's provincial bronze issues under Marcus Aurelius occupy an awkward historiographical position — the city had been refounded as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, effectively erasing the Greek polis and replacing it with Latin-speaking settlers. By the Antonine period, two centuries on, the colony had drifted back toward Greek cultural identity, and the coinage reflects this tension in its bilingual civic titulature. The abbreviation C L I COR — Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis — preserves Caesar's honorific in every coin struck, long after anyone in the city could have explained why.