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Æ35 - Gordian III ΜΑΤΡΟϹ ΑΠΟΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΩΝ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΩΤΑΝ
| Issuer | Heraclea Pontica (Bithynia and Pontus) |
|---|---|
| Year | 238-244 |
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| Composition | Bronze |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | Heracles stands to the right in dynamic pose, right arm raised and brandishing his club, engaged in combat with Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons, who appears on horseback moving to the right and brandishing a double axe (labrys) in a scene referencing the Ninth Labour of Heracles. The composition fills the field effectively, reflecting the civic pride of Heraclea Pontica in its mythological founder. The encircling Greek legend identifies the issuing city and its colonial heritage. The style is consistent with the accomplished die-cutting tradition of Heraclea Pontica under Gordian III. |
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| Additional information |
Heraclea Pontica had a complicated relationship with its own founding myth — the city claimed descent from Megarian and Boeotian colonists, and civic coinage under the Roman empire frequently weaponized that ancestry as a statement of Greek identity within a Roman administrative framework. By Gordian III's reign the city was issuing some of the largest and most ambitious bronzes in the Pontic region, and this 35mm piece sits at the top of that ambition. The reverse legend's explicit invocation of a colonial heritage was a deliberate civic boast, not decorative formula.