Catalog
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| Issuer | Edessa (Mesopotamia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 222-235 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | Tyche of the City, the tutelary deity of Edessa, is enthroned and seated left on a decorative basis or throne, extending her right hand to offer ears of grain, symbolising the city's prosperity and fertility. Flanking the central figure in the field are a star and a lighted altar on either side, celestial and religious emblems significant to Edessan civic iconography. Below the throne, a river god swims to the right, personifying the Daisan (Skirtos) river that flowed through Edessa. The reverse legend ΜΗΤ ΚΟΛ ΕΔΕϹϹΗΝωΝ, arranged around the design, identifies the issuing city and its colonial status as a metropolis. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Edessa occupied a position of acute strategic sensitivity during Severus Alexander's reign — the city sat on the Roman-Parthian frontier and had only recently been refounded as a Roman colony under Caracalla, which explains the colonial title in the legend. Its mint output under Severus Alexander reflects a city still asserting its new Roman municipal identity while Persian Sasanian pressure to the east was already beginning to replace the Parthian threat it had long been accustomed to managing.