Enigmatic Helios/Selene Provincial from Claudia Leucas

[Roman Collector]

Forum member @Sulla80 has an interesting provincial coin depicting Domitian as Helios and Domitia as Selene. I have a similar coin of Claudia Leucas, but the identity of the figures has been a matter of conjecture by numismatists for more than a century.

Pseudo-autonomous, 50-117 CE.
Roman Provincial Æ 15.2 mm, 3.06 g, 2 h.
Syria: Coele-Syria, Claudia Leucas (Balanea), 50-117 CE.
Obv: ΛΕVΚΑΔΙⲰΝ, radiate male head, right.
Rev: ΤⲰΝ ΚΑI ΚΛΑVΔΙΑΙⲰΝ, female head, right, wearing crescent.
Refs: RPC I 4465; SGI 508; BMC 20, p. 290, no. 1, pl. XXXVII, 1; Lindgren I 2180.
Notes: This coin has a number of varieties in its inscriptions on both the obverse and reverse. RPC does not separate them by inscription. My coin features the inscription as transcribed in BMC 20, p. 290, no. 1.

RPC I (p. 640) notes:
 

The heads are often identified as Agrippina and Claudius (BMC; Mionnet; Seyrig on the tickets under his coins), but a simple radiate head, presumably of Helios, had occurred under Antony (4458). Imhoof-Blumer noted a similarity with heads of Trajan, but still preferred to date the coin to the period of Claudius or Nero (GRMK, p. 236), perhaps because he thought that the coin came from Apamea, whose coinage ended under Claudius. The origin of the identification as Claudius and Agrippina seems to go back to the misreading of ΤⲰΝ as ΘΠ (de Saulcy, p. 22, nos 5–6); the date 89 would, on an era of 37, be AD 52.

Others prefer to consider this a pseudo-autonomous issue depicting Helios and Selene.

In short, the identification of the figures as Claudius and Agrippina is either an error arising from misreading the Greek article ΤⲰΝ as the date ΘΠ or a deliberate reference to Claudius, who refounded the city sometime between AD 48 and 54. The identification of the figures as Trajan and Plotina is even more tenuous, and based solely on the appearance of the portrait, which is loosey-goosey at best when dealing with the portraiture on provincial coins. Moreover, the female portrait does not wear a Flavian hairstyle. Rather, the figure appears to wear her hair in a front-roll with a chignon in back, called the Nodus or Augustan style, like Livia and her daughter Julia. Agrippina II did not wear a nodus hairstyle, either.

Livia, under Augustus, 27 BCE - 13 CE.
Roman Æ diobol, 7.41 g, 24.2 mm, 1 h
Egypt, Alexandria, 5th series, 10-11 CE.
Obv: bare head right with Nodus hairstyle
Rev: Date (LM=40) within oak wreath
Refs: BMC 16.4, 31; SGI 209; Emmett 57; c.f. RPC 5058
Notes: Lindgren sale 38, lot 110.

Livia, wife of Augustus, and Julia, daughter of Augustus.
Roman provincial Æ 17.2 mm, 3.44 g.
Mysia, Pergamon, 10 - 2 BCE.
Obv: ΛΙΒΙΑΝ ΗΡΑΝ ΧΑΡΙΝΟΣ, draped bust of Livia as Hera, right.
Rev: ΙΟΥΛΙΑΝ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ, draped bust of Julia as Aphrodite, right.
Refs: RPC I 2359; BMC 15.139, 249; SGI 213; SNG Copenhagen-467; Vagi 370.

Now, I'm not suggesting the coin of Claudia Leucas dates to the time of Augustus, because the city wasn't founded until the mid-first century CE, but I make the point about the hairstyle to demonstrate the folly of using portraits in the absence of inscriptions to identify a person depicted on a provincial coin. Sometimes portraits on provincial coins depict the empress in a hairstyle she never, ever wore. 

I don't believe that we can conclude anything more than that the portraits are stylized depictions of Helios and Selene, while acknowledging the possibility that they were meant to represent "the emperor and empress as Helios and Selene." 

Post your sun and moon coins!

Edited September 28 by Roman Collector
I have OCD

[Sulla80]

@Roman Collector an interesting coin - here's my Æ (6.65g, 23mm, 12h) of Aegeae, Cilicia. Dated CY 135 = 88/9 AD. Herakleon, magistrate.

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/selene-moon-goddess

our coins were issued about 5 hours apart by modern car ride (the starting point on the map is the modern town closest to Aegeae, Cilicia and end point Claudia Leucas (today Baniyas, Syria)

Here's a provincial from the far western end of Asia Minor (Ephesus) with Claudius & Agrippina Jr. (hair style of Agrippina is not very visible).  From the portrait it does seem unlikely to me that your coin would have been later than Nero.

 

and here's an unusual portrait which might not be easily associated with the right emperor without reading the inscription.

Edited September 28 by Sulla80

[Ryro]

Rad coin and excellent write up!

Couldn't agree with your assessment more. Provincials more often than not didn't have imperial portraits but had their gods. 

The sun:

Antiochus VIII and Cleopatra Thea -
125-121 BC Antioch mint.
Obv: radiate head of Helios right. Rev: BASILISSHS KLEOPATRAS and KAI BASILEWS ANTIOXOY to left and right of owl standing right, head facing, on amphora. 6.34 grams. (.). Near extremely fine. [No Reserve]
Provenance: From the estate of a Cambridge University academic.
Literature
BMC 105; SNG Cop 377; SNG Spaer 2441. Ex: Timeline

ISLANDS off CARIA, Rhodos. Rhodes . Circa 125-88 BC. Hemidrachm (Silver, 14mm, 1.48 g 12), Timokrates. Radiate head of Helios, three-quarter facing to right. Rev. Ρ - Ο ΤΙΜΟΚΡΑΤΗΣ Rose with bud to right; below to left, coiled serpent; all within shallow incuse square. Jenkins, Rhodian 156. very fine.

Purchased from Savoca April 2023

And moon:

PHRYGIA.Apamea.Pseudo-autonomous.Time of the Severans (193-235). Ae. Obv : ΠAMЄIA. Turreted and draped bust of Tyche to right. Rev : CΩTЄIPA. Hekate triformis, holding torch in each hand. BMC 110-113. Condition : Nice green patina.Good very fine. Weight : 2.2 gr Diameter : 15 mm 

 

Edited September 29 by Ryro

[jdmKY]

P Clodius M f Turrinus, 42 BC

obv - radiate head of Sol

rev - crescent moon, 5 stars

[El Cazador]

1 hour ago, jdmKY said:

P Clodius M f Turrinus, 42 BC

obv - radiate head of Sol

rev - crescent moon, 5 stars

I like the type, lmk if you want to sell

[Sulla80]

There does seem to be a reason that this could be Agrippina and Claudius, as they refounded the city (Balanea) as (Leucas-Claudia) sometime between AD 48 and 51 BC.

\