Catalog
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| Issuer | Edessa (Mesopotamia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 218-222 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | The Tyche of Edessa enthroned upon a rocky outcrop, seated to the left, holding a patera in her extended right hand before a small cult statue of Marsyas standing atop a column to the right — an allusion to Edessa's civic identity and local mythology. In the lower field, a river god swims to the right, personifying one of the local waterways associated with the city. The reverse composition follows the standard typology for civic coinage of Edessa during the Roman Imperial period. The partially preserved legend reads ... Κ ΕΔΕϹϹΑ, referencing the colony or city of Edessa. |
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| Additional information |
Edessa's civic coinage under Elagabalus reflects the city's unusual status as a client kingdom that had only recently lost its dynastic independence — Abgar X was deposed around 214 AD under Caracalla, ending the Abgarid line that had ruled Edessa for centuries. The city continued striking bronze issues under its own civic types, a concession Rome permitted in the Greek-speaking east far more readily than in western provinces.