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Æ32 - Severus Alexander ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ ϹΝΓ
| Issuer | Amisus (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 221-222 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 15.19 g |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A standing Amazon depicted in full figure facing left, reaching toward a fruit-laden tree to gather apples of the Hesperides, referencing the mythological traditions associated with the Pontic region. At her feet lies a pelta, the characteristic crescent-shaped shield emblematic of the Amazons, reinforcing the city of Amisus's mythological connection to the Amazonian legend. The scene is executed in the standard relief style of provincial Pontic civic coinage, with the legend ΑΜΙϹΟΥ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΑϹ ΕΤ ϹΝΓ disposed around the field, recording the city's status as a free city and the local civic era date corresponding to 221-222 CE. |
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Amisus was one of the few cities in Pontus that retained the status of a free city — *civitas libera* — under Roman rule, a privilege first granted by Lucullus following his campaigns against Mithridates VI and later confirmed by Caesar. That freedom entitled the city to maintain its own civic calendar, which is precisely what the ΕΤ ϹΝΓ date formula reflects: year 253 of the Amisene civic era, anchored to approximately 85 BC. The coin therefore dates itself by the city's own reckoning, not Rome's — a deliberate assertion of that long-standing autonomy during the co-reign of Elagabalus and the young Severus Alexander, before the latter's formal elevation.