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Æ32 - Caracalla ΓΡ ΠΕΡΙ Μ ΑΥΡ ΑΓΑΘΟΠΟΔΑ (sic) ΝΥϹΑΕΩΝ
| Issuer | Nysa (Conventus of Ephesus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 198-217 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | The lunar deity Mên standing facing, head turned to the left, wearing a Phrygian cap surmounted by a crescent, holding a long sceptre in his left hand and a patera in his extended right hand. The figure is depicted in the traditional iconographic scheme associated with the cult of Mên, widely venerated in Lydia and Phrygia. The reverse legend, arranged around the field, names the local magistrate responsible for the issue. The style reflects the provincial workshops of the Lydian city of Nysa. |
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| Additional information |
The magistrate name preserved in this legend — M. Aur. Agathopous — is a Greek freedman's name, almost certainly borne by a local official of servile origin whose family had received Roman citizenship, likely under the Antonines. The spelling anomaly flagged in the title (sic) suggests a die-cutter error or a regional orthographic habit rather than a variant name, and parallels exist on other Nysaean bronzes where engravers compressed or garbled the magistrate formula under space pressure.
Nysa's civic coinage under Caracalla was issued in part to mark the emperor's extension of citizenship to virtually all free inhabitants of the empire via the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 AD — the very legislation that would have made a man named Aurelius Agathopous possible.