A Thracian Glykon Part 2

[seth77]

I thought about adding it to the A nimbate and radiate Glykon from Thracia post because this coin is very likely one of the sister issues to the coin there. But apparently there is some controversy regarding this late coinage of Pautalia.

So here is the coin:

AE27mm 12.75g orichalcum(?) multiple assaria (pentassaria?), minted at Pautalia, ca. 209-11.
AVT M AVPH ANTONEINOC; laureate head in truncation r.
OVΛΠΙΑϹ ΠΑVΤΑΛΙΑϹ; coiled serpent r, nimbate and with trifurcated tail(?), possibly a representation of Glykon
SNG Cop 709 (as Caracalla), cf. Ruzicka Pautalia 678 (as Caracalla), cf. Varbanov 5490, cf. RPC VI 482 (for reverse)

 

There is some ambiguity as to who minted this type, whether it was Caracalla or Elagabal. L. Grozdanova (A digital view on the coins of Pautalia from the hoard of Krepost (Haskovo region) p. 366 et al) notes that with Caracalla the coinage of Pautalia stops. On the other hand RPC notes a few very rare issues for Elagabal. This coin is usually assigned to Caracalla (Ruzicka, SNG Cop) but the obverse legend and the similarity with RPC 482 reverse could indicate a later issue for Elagabal. 

A similar epigraphy -- AVT K M AVPH - ANTONINOC on the reverse is recorded for Caracalla ca. 215 (see below) at Serdica for the later part of Caracalla's reign -- but the effigy shows a fully bearded bust, in the wake of his eastern campaign. This coin shows a younger effigy, fit rather for a teenager. RPC 482 shows possibly a pre-teen while this variation might show a later ca. 220 Elagabal, with sideburns and some very faint beard. On the other hand, the similarity with the coin above for Geta leans towards it being a Caracalla issue, likely corresponding to the period when the Empire had three Augusti -- Septimius Severus and both his sons, ca. 209-11.

Double die-match here.

 

Part of one of my best orders ever, likely the best order of 2023.

Edited August 8, 2023 by seth77

[Roman Collector]

I have one coin of Caracalla from Pautalia. The winged serpent on its reverse is likely Glykon, given its association with Asklepios, who rides on its back.

Caracalla, 198-217 CE.
Roman Provincial tetrassarion, 14.78 g, 29.6 mm, 1 h.
Thrace, Pautalia, c. 198-205 CE.
Obv: AVT K M AVP ANTΩNEINOC, beardless, laureate head of Caracalla, right.
Rev: OYΛΠIAC ΠAV | TAΛIAC. Asklepios cradling serpent-entwined staff, reclining left, head right, on winged, coiled, and bearded Glykon flying right.
Refs: BMC 3.145,34; Ruzicka 612; Varbanov II 5008; Moushmov 4235, Mionnet Suppl. 2, p. 384, 1084; Vaillant n. Gr. 1074.

[ominus1]

i can barley play....i bought this coin specifically because of the glykon..finding out later it also had Marcinus & son on the obverse...

 

27mm, 8.71gms provincial Roman, c216

[Troyden]

All hail Glykon!

 

[Roman Collector]

3 hours ago, Troyden said:

All hail Glykon!

 

That's hilarious!!!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

It has a very nice patina!

[Marsyas Mike]

Nice coin, @seth77.  My Pautalia snake is for Septimius Severus - I'd really like it to be Glykon.  I was just re-reading Lucian's account of Alexander of Abonoteichos and his hand-puppet god Glykon the other night - a very interesting (and funny) story.  

Septimius Severus  Æ 27 (193-217 A.D.) Thrace, Pautalia AYT K Λ CEΠTI C[EYHΡOC ΠEΡ], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. / [OY]ΛΠIAC ΠAYTAΛIAC, Coiled serpent with four coils, forked tail, [radiate head?] right. Varbanov 4806; Ruzicka 397 (?). (12.16 grams / 27 mm) eBay Sep. 2020  Lot @ $5.00

Attribution Notes: There are several 4-coil snake types for S. Severus; it is not clear whether this snake is radiate or not, since most seem to be, that is the Ruzicka/Varbanov attribution used (via Wildwinds). Note draped & cuirassed bust; many are just a laureate head. 

 

[seth77]

2 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

Nice coin, @seth77.  My Pautalia snake is for Septimius Severus - I'd really like it to be Glykon.  I was just re-reading Lucian's account of Alexander of Abonoteichos and his hand-puppet god Glykon the other night - a very interesting (and funny) story.  

Septimius Severus  Æ 27 (193-217 A.D.) Thrace, Pautalia AYT K Λ CEΠTI C[EYHΡOC ΠEΡ], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. / [OY]ΛΠIAC ΠAYTAΛIAC, Coiled serpent with four coils, forked tail, [radiate head?] right. Varbanov 4806; Ruzicka 397 (?). (12.16 grams / 27 mm) eBay Sep. 2020  Lot @ $5.00

Attribution Notes: There are several 4-coil snake types for S. Severus; it is not clear whether this snake is radiate or not, since most seem to be, that is the Ruzicka/Varbanov attribution used (via Wildwinds). Note draped & cuirassed bust; many are just a laureate head. 

 

I think it's probably Glykon, I think I see the long hair and the bushy tail. Not all Glykons are nimbate/radiate, in fact the famous statue of Tomis shows him in a pose similar to that on your coin and mine, with long hair and a bushy tail. The coin representations though show him often with a fishy/trifurcate tail.

[shanxi]

Glycon or not, here is my example:

Elagabal
Nicopolis ad Istrum
AE22
Obv.: AVT KM AVPH ANTΩNEINOC, Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust
Rev.: NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠPOC ICTPON, Serpent coiled
AE, 7.22g, 22.65mm
Ref.: Hristova-Jekov 8.26.22.11

[Troyden]

Which of these provincial coins actually display Glykon and not some other serpent deity or even just a cultic serpent?

[sunir caM]

My Glykon,  Nimbate - Bearded, normal Tail

 

Macrinus & Diadumenian - Marcianopolis

 

[seth77]

3 hours ago, Troyden said:

Which of these provincial coins actually display Glykon and not some other serpent deity or even just a cultic serpent?

That is the most important question in this situation. What we do have to rely on in answering it is the statue from Tomis and Lucian. The statue at Tomis is probably second half of the 2nd century, so close to the actual original cult of Glykon. It shows the serpent god with mammalian features, long human hair, coiled and having a bushy tail. At Abonoteichos-Ionopolis where the cult starts there is coinage with the representation of Glykon named as such in the legend under Antoninus Pius, likely the 150s. That Glykon is represented as having distinct features (RPC calls it serpent with human face, possibly in a nod to the literary source), but if you look at the coinage the only certain human feature is the long hair. The 'face' is not at all clearly human, but it is possibly mammalian. The tail might be 'bushy' or at least hairy, but that is hard to be certain from the specimens I have seen. Nicomedia has a human-faced Glykon on its coinage, but that is later, post 241 (RPC VII.2, 2039A). I also think that I have seen an earlier human-featured serpent from Nicomedia, but I do not have my notes with me. If you cross the Black Sea from Abonoteichos-Ionopolis to the West you reach the provinces of Moesia Inferior and Thracia -- the cult of Glykon seems to have been well received there because it likely added to the already existent Asklepios cult and other serpent-based cults. This is probably why there are at least 3 types of serpents on Black Sea-Balkan coinage:

1. the coiled serpent climbing a staff or a tripod/cup, that is certainly a reference to Asklepios
2. the crowned and bearded serpent that is otherwise just a serpent and not a hybrid creature, that is possibly the Agathodaimon -- local cults of Serapis are known on the Black Sea shore, at the very least where there were Alexandrine associations (Tomis, Markianopolis, perhaps Odessos?)
3. the Glykon, with mammalian features (with or without halo), with long hair, with a fishy/trifurcated and or a bushy tail -- this is a rather distinctive serpent but as the features are somewhat subtle, we need a high quality specimen to observe them; I have seen such specimens mainly from Pautalia, Augusta Traiana and Hadrianopolis.

Apart from that, I think that many coins show a degree of ambiguity that was likely intentional by the minting authority, especially post 180-200, when the new cult became a common fixture outside its origin area. And this makes identifying Glykon from other serpents even more difficult. For instance the halo is not really a criterion for assigning a serpent as Glykon per se. But as a post 200 feature and applied to serpents that already have similarities with the statue at Tomis, it does become a sort of indirect hint, possibly the type of hint to be used by local authorities and cult members alike to recognize Glykon not only as a borrowed cult, but have it develop local homegrown features.

All considered, I think that for instance in this thread @Marsyas Mike's coin might be Glykon, @sunir caM's coin might be Glykon while @shanxi's I don't think it's Glykon, but rather an older school nod to Asklepios or another more general cultic serpent. That is not to say that it couldn't have been seen as Glykon by local adepts of Glykon's cult as an idiosyncratic cult.

Edited August 10, 2023 by seth77

[Marsyas Mike]

6 hours ago, seth77 said:

That is the most important question in this situation. What we do have to rely on in answering it is the statue from Tomis and Lucian. The statue at Tomis is probably second half of the 2nd century, so close to the actual original cult of Glykon. It shows the serpent god with mammalian features, long human hair, coiled and having a bushy tail. At Abonoteichos-Ionopolis where the cult starts there is coinage with the representation of Glykon named as such in the legend under Antoninus Pius, likely the 150s. That Glykon is represented as having distinct features (RPC calls it serpent with human face, possibly in a nod to the literary source), but if you look at the coinage the only certain human feature is the long hair. The 'face' is not at all clearly human, but it is possibly mammalian. The tail might be 'bushy' or at least hairy, but that is hard to be certain from the specimens I have seen. Nicomedia has a human-faced Glykon on its coinage, but that is later, post 241 (RPC VII.2, 2039A). I also think that I have seen an earlier human-featured serpent from Nicomedia, but I do not have my notes with me. If you cross the Black Sea from Abonoteichos-Ionopolis to the West you reach the provinces of Moesia Inferior and Thracia -- the cult of Glykon seems to have been well received there because it likely added to the already existent Asklepios cult and other serpent-based cults. This is probably why there are at least 3 types of serpents on Black Sea-Balkan coinage:

1. the coiled serpent climbing a staff or a tripod/cup, that is certainly a reference to Asklepios
2. the crowned and bearded serpent that is otherwise just a serpent and not a hybrid creature, that is possibly the Agathodaimon -- local cults of Serapis are known on the Black Sea shore, at the very least where there were Alexandrine associations (Tomis, Markianopolis, perhaps Odessos?)
3. the Glykon, with mammalian features (with or without halo), with long hair, with a fishy/trifurcated and or a bushy tail -- this is a rather distinctive serpent but as the features are somewhat subtle, we need a high quality specimen to observe them; I have seen such specimens mainly from Pautalia, Augusta Traiana and Hadrianopolis.

Apart from that, I think that many coins show a degree of ambiguity that was likely intentional by the minting authority, especially post 180-200, when the new cult became a common fixture outside its origin area. And this makes identifying Glykon from other serpents even more difficult. For instance the halo is not really a criterion for assigning a serpent as Glykon per se. But as a post 200 feature and applied to serpents that already have similarities with the statue at Tomis, it does become a sort of indirect hint, possibly the type of hint to be used by local authorities and cult members alike to recognize Glykon not only as a borrowed cult, but have it develop local homegrown features.

All considered, I think that for instance in this thread @Marsyas Mike's coin might be Glykon, @sunir caM's coin might be Glykon while @shanxi's I don't think it's Glykon, but rather an older school nod to Asklepios or another more general cultic serpent. That is not to say that it couldn't have been seen as Glykon by local adepts of Glykon's cult as an idiosyncratic cult.

I do appreciate this thoughtful and thorough analysis of the Glycon-Snake issue, @seth77. 

Since the topic is in play, here's one other from my collection - it is in awful shape, so I'm not sure about the mammalian features, etc...the tail looks normal snake-like.  I think it is nimbate, but that might just be random damage.   

Elagabalus   Æ 26 (c. 218-222 A.D.) Moesia Inf. Nicopolis ad Istrum Novius Rufus, consular legate. [AVT...?] ANT[ΩN...?], radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right / [VΠ NOBIOV POVΦOV] NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠΡOCI [C]TP/O/N, coiled nimbate serpent. AMNG I 1996; Varb. 4063 var. (12.19 grams / 26 mm) eBay May 2020   

 

 

[Severus Alexander]

My best chance of having a Glykon is this Nikopolis of Geta (fishy/furry tail, nimbate, and is that head hair hanging down, or just a beard?).  There's a good chance the same mint produced many of the Moesian and Thracian city coins from this era.

[seth77]

17 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

I do appreciate this thoughtful and thorough analysis of the Glycon-Snake issue, @seth77. 

Since the topic is in play, here's one other from my collection - it is in awful shape, so I'm not sure about the mammalian features, etc...the tail looks normal snake-like.  I think it is nimbate, but that might just be random damage.   

Elagabalus   Æ 26 (c. 218-222 A.D.) Moesia Inf. Nicopolis ad Istrum Novius Rufus, consular legate. [AVT...?] ANT[ΩN...?], radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right / [VΠ NOBIOV POVΦOV] NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠΡOCI [C]TP/O/N, coiled nimbate serpent. AMNG I 1996; Varb. 4063 var. (12.19 grams / 26 mm) eBay May 2020   

 

 

I don't think that the die cutter who made your reverse cared too much about the actual features of the serpent. Here is a die-match so it's clear that the serpent is nimbate, so possibly Glykon, or at least an individualized serpent-god rather than the generic cultic serpent or the serpent associated with Asklepios through one of his devices: staff, tripod or cup. I am not sure we will ever be capable to be certain of the identity of serpents that are somewhat ambiguous in their features -- possibly because this ambiguity was by design from the commanding authorities.

 

15 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

My best chance of having a Glykon is this Nikopolis of Geta (fishy/furry tail, nimbate, and is that head hair hanging down, or just a beard?).  There's a good chance the same mint produced many of the Moesian and Thracian city coins from this era.

This one is likely supposed to be a Glykon representation. As far as I was able to distinguish in regards to bearded serpent vs long-haired serpents, the beard feature is shorter(?) or this is just one of those instances of ambiguity. Regardless of who that serpent is supposed to be, that is one solid coin.

[Marsyas Mike]

On 8/11/2023 at 3:16 PM, seth77 said:

I don't think that the die cutter who made your reverse cared too much about the actual features of the serpent. Here is a die-match so it's clear that the serpent is nimbate, so possibly Glykon, or at least an individualized serpent-god rather than the generic cultic serpent or the serpent associated with Asklepios through one of his devices: staff, tripod or cup. I am not sure we will ever be capable to be certain of the identity of serpents that are somewhat ambiguous in their features -- possibly because this ambiguity was by design from the commanding authorities.

You found me a die-match?  You are really going above and beyond the call of duty - and I greatly appreciate it!  I will incorporate this into my attribution - and thanks for the serpent analysis too - it is an interesting topic for sure.  

Actually, now that I look at it, I think the Wildwinds example is a die-match to mine as well - with a much clearer nimbus  - mine is on top, Wildwinds in the middle, the CNG auction you linked on the bottom - mine takes the ugly prize, alas:

 

Thanks again @seth77

 

 

 

[seth77]

2 hours ago, Marsyas Mike said:

You found me a die-match?  You are really going above and beyond the call of duty - and I greatly appreciate it!  I will incorporate this into my attribution - and thanks for the serpent analysis too - it is an interesting topic for sure.  

Actually, now that I look at it, I think the Wildwinds example is a die-match to mine as well - with a much clearer nimbus  - mine is on top, Wildwinds in the middle, the CNG auction you linked on the bottom - mine takes the ugly prize, alas:

 

Thanks again @seth77

 

 

 

No problem.