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Æ26 - Commodus ΤΑΝΑΓΡΑΙωΝ
| Issuer | Tanagra (Achaea) |
|---|---|
| Year | 184-192 |
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| Reference(s) | RPC IV.1#5058 |
| Obverse description | Laureate, draped bust of Emperor Commodus facing right, with the imperial titulature legend disposed around the periphery of the field. The portrait displays the characteristic Commodan features with a wreathed head and visible drapery at the shoulder. The legend reads ΑΥΤ ΑΝΤωΝΕΙΝΟϹ ΕΥϹΕΒΗϹ, presenting the emperor under his adopted Antonine nomenclature. The die work is typical of a provincial Boeotian mint of the late 2nd century AD. |
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| Reverse description | Hermes depicted standing, facing, in a frontal pose at the centre of the field, carrying a ram draped across his shoulders with the animal's legs held in his hands — an iconographic type known as the Criophoros. The figure is rendered in a hieratic, provincial style characteristic of Boeotian civic coinage of the 2nd century AD. The ethnic legend ΤΑΝAΓΡΑΙΩΝ is inscribed in the field, identifying the issuing city of Tanagra. This Hermes Criophoros type held particular religious significance for Tanagra, referencing a local cult tradition recorded in ancient sources. |
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| Additional information |
Tanagra's civic bronze coinage under Commodus belongs to a broader resurgence of provincial mint activity that followed the emperor's consolidation of power after the Antonine court purges of the early 180s. The city had been a modest but persistent issuer within the Boeotian league's orbit, and coins of this type are rarely encountered in anything above heavily circulated condition — provincial Boeotian bronzes were working money, not prestige pieces.