Æ26 - Trajan ΘΕΑϹ ϹΥΡΙΑϹ ΙΕΡΟΠΟΛΙ Β

Hierapolis Bambyce — modern Manbij in northern Syria — was one of the great pilgrimage centers of the ancient world, home to the sanctuary of Atargatis, the Syrian goddess whose cult Lucian described in lurid detail in his De Dea Syria. The city's coins invoking ΘΕΑϹ ϹΥΡΙΑϹ were essentially civic advertisements for that cult, issued under the authority of a sanctuary that drew worshippers from across the eastern Mediterranean. The Β in the legend denotes a second issue within the Trajanic series, distinguishing it from an otherwise nearly identical first emission.