Tridrachm of Marcus Aurelius - second known specimen

[Sebastian]

The eagle is one of the most prominent symbols associated with the Roman Empire. Almost everyone is familiar with the image of an eagle with outstretched wings on the Roman legionary standard, the famous Aquila. This emblem adorned the standard since the time of Gaius Marius. During the imperial period, as the bird of Jupiter, the supreme deity of the pantheon, the eagle was associated with the emperor himself. It was believed that upon the emperor’s death, his soul was carried to the afterlife in the eagle’s talons.

Of course, the Romans did not invent the eagle nor were they the first to associate it with supreme power. Long before, the Greeks viewed the eagle as a loyal companion of Zeus himself. This royal bird symbol was adopted by Hellenistic rulers, appearing on the reverse of coins issued by the Ptolemies and Seleucids. In one legend, the Seleucids even claimed that an eagle carried the remains of a sacrificial animal to a nearby hill, indicating the site of their new capital. Achaemenes, the progenitor of the Achaemenid dynasty, was said to have been raised by an eagle, a motif that later appeared on Persian standards.

In Cappadocia, the eagle appeared on coins from Caesarea/Eusebia in the 1st century BCE, often depicted atop Mount Argaeus. Whether this represented Zeus’s eagle or a local cult symbol remains unclear. In the region of the later Roman province, small figurines and sculptures have been found depicting Mount Argaeus with an eagle perched on its peak. During the imperial period, the eagle rarely appeared on Cappadocian coins. Examples include silver coins minted in Comana/Hierapolis during the reign of Hadrian and tridrachms from Marcus Aurelius’s era in Caesarea. In both cases, the eagle was depicted on a pedestal, a motif frequently associated with consecratio in Roman numismatics. This could potentially connect to the deaths of Antinous, Emperor Hadrian's lover, or Faustina the Younger, Marcus Aurelius’s wife. Notably, Faustina died in the Roman camp of Halala (approximately 20 km from Tyana, in southern Cappadocia) in 175 CE, while Marcus Aurelius’s tridrachms with the eagle on the reverse date to 175/176 CE. Coincidence? We know that the eagle was typically linked to the emperor and male members of the imperial family, while the peacock, as Juno’s bird, symbolized the empress and femininity. But did this symbolism hold in Cappadocia?

The tridrachm below, my latest proud acquisition from a Künker auction, depicts the eagle in a familiar pose. However, there is a small but significant difference: this is the second known specimen of this type, and the first to be illustrated. It was not recorded by Sydenham or Metcalf, but Ganschow mentions it in his catalog (260), while RPC Online assigns it a provisional number IV 8216. Unlike the more well-known version where the eagle sits or stands (which is it, exactly?) on a pedestal, here it stands on a globe. RPC describes the sphere as a globe—is that the correct term? This feature is the most intriguing element of the coin's reverse. At first glance, it resembles many examples from Roman numismatics aptly described as "eagle standing on a globe." On the Cappadocian specimen, however, the globe is covered with dots. Could this be a flourish by the die engraver, or perhaps a deliberate reference to a similar sphere depicted on Cappadocian coins at the center of Mount Argaeus? This enigmatic feature has long puzzled scholars, with interpretations ranging from a sacred stone (akin to the one in Emesa), to a now-extinct endemic plant, to a symbolic forest or the interior of a cave. What does this dotted sphere, resembling a COVID virus, represent in the talons of the eagle? Without proper historical sources, it’s hard to connect all the dots, but who knows? If you have any ideas, feel free to share.

Adding to the fascination is the striking, contemplative bust of Marcus on the obverse and the patina covering the entire coin, undoubtedly untouched for over a thousand years.

https://www.colleconline.com/en/collection-items/21237/coins-ancient-to-romans-provincial-in-the-shadow-of-mount-argaeus-cappadocia-roman-province

Denomination: Tridrachm, Ag
Obverse: Laureate-headed bust of Marcus Aurelius wearing cuirass and paludamentum, right, ΑΥΤΟΚΡ ΑΝΤΩΝЄΙΝΟ CЄΒ
Reverse: Eagle standing on globe, facing, head right, spreading wings, ΥΠΑΤΟС Γ
Reference: RPC IV 8216, Sydenham, Caesarea -, Ganschow, Münzen 260, Metcalf Conspectus -
Mint: Cappadocia, Caesarea, 175/176 A.D.
Weight: 9.66 g
Diameter: 24.5 mm
Provenance: Fritz Rudolf Künker, ex Egon Beckenbauer (1978)

Edited December 3, 2024 by Sebastian

[Victor_Clark]

19 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

Without proper historical sources, it’s hard to connect all the dots, but who knows? If you have any ideas, feel free to share.

It's a celestial globe

[Kali]

Fantastic addition.

[Sebastian]

9 minutes ago, Victor_Clark said:

It's a celestial globe

Celestial globe on a Roman coins is clear or in a glancheck/tartan. This one is with dots same as on sphere on Mount Argaeus. 

[CPK]

It's a lovely coin. Congratulations!

[Phil Davis]

26 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

Celestial globe on a Roman coins is clear or in a glancheck/tartan. This one is with dots same as on sphere on Mount Argaeus. 

Maybe it's just my eyes, but I see the engraving on the globe as a crescent moon surrounded by stars.

[JAZ Numismatics]

1 minute ago, Phil Davis said:

Maybe it's just my eyes, but I see the engraving on the globe as a crescent moon surrounded by stars.

I see a crescent also, and the dots certainly could be stars. A celestial sphere. Super coin!

Edited December 3, 2024 by JAZ Numismatics

[savitale]

Amazing and beautiful coin! Congratulations!

[Gallienus]

Very interesting. Now a tridrachm is normally a cistophorous. But those usually (always?) have Roman / Latin inscriptions.  I also don't know of any regular cistophorii being issued this late.  Perhaps a provincial issue to resurrect the cistophorous sized coin?

[Romismatist]

I would agree with the celestial sphere. I see a crescent moon surrounded by stars. My other thought was that it was a shield, but the celestial sphere makes more sense. It reminds me of a similar reverse of Hadrian with a crescent moon and stars (not my coin).

[Sebastian]

Thank you all for your opinions. If we assume that it is a celestial globe, what do you think the image of the eagle standing on it represents?

[DonnaML]

I think that's very clearly a crescent and stars, and, therefore, must be intended as a celestial globe.

16 hours ago, Gallienus said:

Very interesting. Now a tridrachm is normally a cistophorous. But those usually (always?) have Roman / Latin inscriptions.  I also don't know of any regular cistophorii being issued this late.  Perhaps a provincial issue to resurrect the cistophorous sized coin?

My understanding is that although the cistophorus equaled three denarii, in its areas of circulation it equaled four drachmas, not three. See the entry for "Cistophorus" in John Melville Jones’s Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (London 1990), at pp. 55-56. So it wasn't equivalent to a tridrachm. As is shown by the fact that cistophori weighed more than 12 g., whereas tridrachms usually weighed between 9 and 10 g., like the one posted in this thread and my own two Hadrian tridrachms from Tarsus in Cilicia -- all of which have legends in Greek, unlike cistophori.