Metodi Manov

The ancient city of Pautalia was located in the western part of the
province of Thrace, in the centre of a fertile field through which flows the
great river Strymon, on the site of today’s city of Kyustendil in Southwestern Bulgaria. For unknown reason, in the early years of the reign of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus (193 – 211) – most likely between the second half of 193 and the first half of 195, the mint of Pautalia struck several types of bronze coins for Clodius Albinus as Caesar. These coins are of two main kinds – some of them on the obverse have double images of the emperor Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus facing each other, while the others on the obverse have only an image of Clodius Albinus. In his study on the coinage of Pautalia, Leon Ruzicka once presented only three coins of Pautalia – two with the double images of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus, and one with the single image of Clodius Albinus. Here are presented some more coins.
The different coin types of the two kinds, which always have on the obverse an image of Clodius Albinus as Caesar – together with the image of the emperor Septimius Severus, or alone, will be presented in a supposed but, of course, uncertain relative chronological sequence, distinguished by individual types, and each type will be presented by a single specimen. The aim of the present work is to gather and present in one place all types of coins with the image of Clodius Albinus struck at Pautalia that have become known so far.
Keywords: Pautalia, Clodius Albinus, Roman provincial coins.

The best historian of Аntiquity, Thucydides, in his considerable work “History of the Peloponnesian War”,
provided us with valuable information about the political activity of one of the early rulers of the Odrysian state in Thrace in the 5th century BC – Sitalkes. Despite Thucydides’ detailed account of Sitalkes’ campaign against ancient Macedonia, which was ruled in those years by Perdiccas II, the son of Alexander I, still a number of issues related to the particular route of this remarkable campaign remain in the field of discussions and some geographic realities mentioned by Thucydides have not yet been definitively identified. One of the most important geographical points mentioned by Thucydides as a key of the route of this campaign – the mountain Kerkine, so far has not found its final identification and localization, and its exact location remains the subject of scholarly debates. Until recently, most contemporary authors have tended to identify it with the present-day Ograzhden Mountain, located on the border between southwestern Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
The author here presents an attempt for a clear identification of this enigmatic mountain Kerkine, mentioned
only by Thucydides. For the exact identification of the mountain in question, the author uses also a very important epigraphic monument, found near the present village of Marvintsi in North Macedonia, dating from the Hellenistic period (3rd – 2nd c. BC). The inscription proves to be a key one to the exact localization not only of the two ancient settlements mentioned there – the Paeonian Doberos and the ancient Macedonian Eidomene, but also for the localization of the mountain Kerkine.
The enigmatic mountain Kerkine is identified with today’s mountain range being the main mountain Gradeshka
(together with its branches – Konechka, Plavush and Smardesh), located west and northwest of today’s Belasitsa
Mountain – west and southwest of the present-day town of Strumica – in the Republic of North Macedonia.

The paper presents an unknown coin die, which is for obverse of
denarii of Augustus. The coin die is said to have been found many years ago in the vicinity of the village of Gigen, district of Pleven – near the ancient Roman colony of Ulpia Oescus and is now kept in a private collection. Only the bronze plate is preserved, where in negative is featured a portrait of Augustus, turned to the left, and around the portrait image is disposed the legend: AVGVSTVS DIVI F – mirrored. The coin type of the coin die is for denarii of Augustus struck in the mint at Lugdunum (today Lyon, France) between 15 and 11 BC. The new coin die presented is of the same type as one of the coin dies from the collection of the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum in Sofia. The collection of the same museum in Sofia stores another obverse coin
die for denarii of Augustus of a type struck in the mint at Colonia Patricia
(today Cordoba, Spain). All three obverse coin dies for denarii of Augustus are discussed in a general context, because their time of making is between 17 – 16 and 15 – 11 BC. All three obverse coin dies of Augustus are represented as dies of moving military camp mints.
Keywords: coin die, Augustus, military camp coinage, Oescus, Moesia.

The purpose of this paper is to present numismatic and sigillographic
finds from the archaeological excavations conducted in the past few years in the fortress at the Vratsata Pass, next to the modern town of Vratsa in Northwest Bulgaria. The specimens of coins listed here date back from the end of the 5th until nearly the end of the 6th century AD; and a lead seal of the emperor Justinian I was also found at the same site. All these offer a valuable insight to the significance of the fortress in the Late Antique and the Early Byzantine periods.

A fragment of the seventh book of Strabo's work Geography contains too important information about the historical geography of the lands along the valley of the Strymon River. Among other information, reported by Strabo, this ancient author has also provided us with very valuable but extremely concise information about four ancient settlements located in the geographical area named Parorbelia. The four ancient settlements mentioned by Strabo in a series-Kallipolis, Orthopolis, Philippoupolis and Gareskos, located in the middle of the Parorbelia, in a valley that begins from the ancient settlement Eidomene, have provoked a number of scholarly debates. Many modern researchers have tried to search and suggest different possible locations for these four ancient settlements, but so far no reliable and lasting solution has been found on this issue due to the scarce information in the text of Strabo. The only point that all scholars agree is that this text of Strabo implicitly contains information about the colonisation activity of the Macedonian king Philip II around the middle of the 4th century BC, which is clearly suggested by the name of one of these settlements-Philippoupolis. Here, the author found the correct solution that in fact the Parorbelia area covered the lands both north and south of the ancient Mount Orbelos. The most plausible locations of the four ancient settlements mentioned by Strabo along with the ancient Mount Orbelos and the district Parorbelia are precisely found and presented on modern maps.

In 2000 on the right bank of the river Kamchiya, to the northeast of the modern town of Smyadovo, district of Shumen in Bulgaria, rescue archaeological researches were carried out in a mound affected by a treasure hunters' intervention and a tomb was found, but its inventory was believed to have been plundered. This tomb bears a clearly readable inscription with incised Greek letters in two lines on its facade above its entrance, which, translated into English, is as follows: Gonimasedze, wife of Seuthes. In 2002 the authors of the primary publication of this tomb admitted the possibility that it had been built for an unknown Thracian woman, who was the wife of a certain Thracian aristocrat named Seuthes. This extremely important Hellenistic tomb from the lands of ancient Thrace is represented again and reconsidered here, being put in a broader historical context. The persons mentioned in the inscription are precisely identified as the Thracian ruler Seuthes III and his first wife. It was found, that the tomb with Greek inscription had been built later by the most powerful king of Thrace-Kavaros, to commemorate both the first wife of the Thracian ruler Seuthes III and especially also Seuthes III himself-for the two major battles against the mighty Hellenistic king of Thrace-Lysimachus, and those battles were mentioned by the ancient writer Diodorus. Now we can assume that those battles had taken place in the area of today's Smyadovo, exactly at the northern end of today's Rish Pass, which is situated in the eastern part of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina).

The minting of coins classified as Celtic according to their type and their circulation in the territories on both sides of the Lower Danube have been a subject of various studies by Balkan and other scholars. The subject of the paper are silver coins known as the type of Vîrteju-Bucureşti or Sattelkopfpferd This type of coins is among the most widespread along the Lower Danube evidenced by dozens of coin hoards and many single specimens
from Romania and Bulgaria.
For the first time, as far as it is known up to now, a place of striking Celtic coins on the Balkans has been localized and a more precise chronology of these coins has been suggested. The information of the author here about the sure place of finding of a positive matrix or hub for coin dies, kept now in the Numismatic Museum in Ruse, Bulgaria, which was certainly found in the region of the modern town of Vratsa in Northwestern Bulgaria, gave a prerequisite for more reliable conclusions about the exact place of striking of silver coins of the Sattelkopfpferd type. In the author’s opinion, the silver coins of this type, known until now as the type of Vîrteju-Bucureşti or Sattelkopfpferd, were struck by King Kavaros in his state for the tribes of the Little Scordisci (Mikroi Skordiskoi) located in the area between the rivers Morava and Iskar, in the second half of the 3rd century BC – between 242 and 218 BC. The place of striking coins of that type, according to the author here, was the ancient settlement in the place of the modern town of Vratsa, which in the Hellenistic period held the status of polis and was urbanized by King Kavaros.

Вече се смята, че античното селище на мястото на днешната Монтана, което е носело същото име, е възникнало успоредно с ус-тановяването на това място на военен лагер на една римска кохор-та, вероятно с име cohors I Montanorum още около средата на І век сл.Хр. (Велков 1987, 10; Велков 1992, 396). Селището обаче не се спо-менава в литературните източници, но за сметка на това от него и от територията му вече са познати около 150 епиграфски паметни-ци – повечето на латински език, благодарение на които е изградена представата ни за неговата история. Смята се, че първоначално селището е било към провинция тракия, но едва след реформите на император Хадриан (117–138) в 136 г. е било включено в границите на провинция Долна мизия, когато границата с провинция тракия е била преместена по било-то на Стара планина (Кабакчиева 2013, 40 с лит.). Отбелязано е, че въпреки че древната история на монтана се проучва повече от сто години, находките от самия античен град са спорадични, като все още не са намерени останките от укрепителната система на древ-ния град, който е бил със статут на муниципиум, като се предпо-лага, че вероятно са под съвременния град, а за неговата история съдим главно от сведенията от надписите (кабакчиева 2013, 36). В това отношение всеки новонамерен надпис добавя нови щрихи към познанията ни за този селищен център, разположен в западната част на Дунавската равнина в граничната област между двете про-винции – Горна и Долна Мизия. Ще бъде представен един новонамерен, доста важен за истори-ята на античната монтана, надгробен епиграфски паметник, като първо ще бъдат представени обстоятелствата и мястото му на на-миране, а след това и текстът на самия надпис. през 70-те години на миналия век в района на антична монтана са проучени три големи антични вили под ръководството на архео-лога георги александров. От откритите структури и находки става

One of the most interesting ancient artefacts are the lead sling bullets, especially if they have images or inscriptions. The current paper presents a very interesting lead sling bullet, originating from southwest Bulgaria (found somewhere between the villages of Ilindentsi and Gorna Gradeshnitsa, Blagoevgrad district) that was photographed in a private collection in Blagoevgrad some years ago. The lead sling bullet is almond-shaped and is much larger than the known standard sling bullets. The size and weight of this sling bullet puts it among the largest examples of such bullets that are generally rare. Only a few other items similar in size were previously known from Bulgaria, none of which, however, has inscriptions or symbols. It is particularly interesting that the sling bullet discussed here has a surviving ' central branch' and uncut casting residues, i.e. it looks exactly as it was taken out of the mold. Right in the middle of the side depicting a relief thunderbolt, the Greek letters ΦΙ are visible. They are commonly found on bronze coins of Philip V as an abbreviation of his name with only the first two letters. Many numismatics examples define this lead sling bullet categorically as belonging to the Macedonian king Philip V (221–179 BC) and associate it with the campaign of this Macedonian king in the land of the Thracian tribe Maedi and the siege of their settlement Petra in 181 BC, (Livy XL, 22). The artefact discussed here underlines the important role of the sling bullets utilized by the army in the Hel-lenistic period. If inscribed, these objects can serve as primary sources of information for the reconstruction of some historical events.

Inscribed lead sling bullets are seldom found in archaeological research. In recent years, interest in this kind of archaeological find is considerably larger as connecting them with some literary sources enables reconstruction of historic events in a given region. In this work 27 lead sling bullets are presented, inscribed and with symbols; only one has a symbol and no inscription. They come from the registered private collection " Vatevi " – Plovdiv, Bulgaria and were collected for years from the lands of ancient Thrace. It was first presented as a homogeneous group of 12 such inscribed lead sling bullets found in Bulgaria north of the Balkan Mountains, which have the name of Alexander the Great (336-323 BC. Chr.). Lead sling bullets of exactly this kind were not known before, because these are labeled on both sides with two different names – and Alexander and Philip – in the genitive, that categorically defines them as belonging to the troops of Alexander the Great. Presented in the catalogue homogeneous group of 12 weights – from # 1 to # 12 are associated with the campaign of Alexander the Great in Thrace in 335 BC. Also other lead sling bullets are presented with other names – including one with the name of Lysimachus and names of commanders of detachments of slingers, some of them met for the first time. Inscribed lead sling bullets are prime sources of historical information when they can be linked with information from literary sources.