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Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Robert M CutlerA case is made in recent books by Lascelles and Crowe that Homer’s Trojan War setting was not at Schleimann’s Hisarlik site of King Priam’s Ilium, but at Pergamon. We review their case, the places frequented by Homer as possible clues, and the Iliad’s revision as compiled and promoted by Athens and followed by Alexander the Great and the Romans. We then focus on numismatic evidence in the alternative regions of Northwest Anatolia (NWA) and Central West Anatolia (CWA). NWA includes the regions known as Troas, North Mysia, Hellespontic Thrace with nearby islands, and Bithynia. CWA regions include South Mysia with nearby islands, Aeolis, Ionia, Lydia, and Phrygia, as well as Cilician expatriate lands. We find that NWA coins are rich in early Iliadic mythology, indicating that Ilium was a Trojan War setting. However, we also find indications that the war was more extensive than commonly envisioned. It was led in CWA by King Telephus, who spearheaded an East versus West world war whose campaigns ended at Ilium.
Related Papers
V. Penna et al. (eds.), Heads and Tails – Tales and Bodies: Engraving the Human Figure from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period, Ghent 2016.
Heads and Tails – Tales and Bodies: Engraving the Human Figure from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period [catalogue entries]2016 •
Collected here are 50 entries (for 63 exhibits) and one introductory text (for the exhibition unit "The Anthropomorphic Tradition Disseminated") authored by Yannis Stoyas. These were included in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Heads and Tails – Tales and Bodies: Engraving the Human Figure from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period’ held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (5 July – 31 October 2016), in collaboration with the Benaki Museum and the KIKPE Foundation, Athens.
Revue des Etudes Anciennes
The Coinage and History of Achaiion in the Troad2017 •
Two issues of bronze coinage from the Troad with the monogram AX (late 4th/early 3rd c. BC) have traditionally been attributed to Achilleion. However, excavations of Achilleion show that it was never more than a small fort. These coins should therefore be attributed to Achaiion, known to us from Strabo as the chief town of the nearby Tenedian peraia. In addition to the issues with the AX monogram, Achaiion also produced bronze coinage in the 2nd c. BC. It is argued that these two periods of minting probably represent periods of independence from Tenedos and thus prompt questions about the significance of the peraia to the Tenedian economy and the importance of bronze coinage in reconstructing the political history of the Hellenistic Troad.
Mythology facilitated encounters with the Unknown in the Hellenistic East. Alexander’s campaigns ushered in an epoch where Greeks and Easterners not only warred and traded with one another but lived together in large numbers. This meeting of the minds, as I aim to show, was facilitated by mythology. Eastern and Hellenic peoples were able to negotiate their distinct cultures with the aid of mythical kinship, stories, and figures. Myths acted as an intermezzo between Greeks and unacquainted races and locations. However, even before this interaction took place, myths were a source of solace for Alexander during his campaign in unfamiliar territory. History regularly describes the general as either imitating or communing with mythical heroes. The mythological was often called upon as a form of guidance for Alexander, illuminating his mysterious past and calling.
Achim Lichtenberger and Constance von Rüden (eds.), Multiple Mediterranean Realities. Current Approaches to Spaces, Resources and Connectivities, Mittelmeerstudien 6 (Paderborn 2015)
The Trojan Palladion - Visual Expression of a pan-Mediterranean Identity in Antiquity?The Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are assumed to have been the ‘common ground’ of the ancient Greeks, who considered them to be the at-tested starting point of their history. Especially the Iliad and many of the nar-ratives it subsequently inspired seem to have induced several poleis, states, and individuals to link themselves closely to these mythical events and there-fore to what is often referred to as Greco-Roman culture. One detail from this context is examined in this paper – the cult statue of Athena in Troy, namely the Palladion. It appears in different episodes closely linked to the events of the Trojan War and in numerous depictions from Greek to Roman times. The wide distribution of narrations and depictions across the Mediterranean as well as the claims to possession of the statue from its presumed place of origin to Greece, Italy and Rome seem to be a good testing ground to illumi-nate a supposedly pan-Mediterranean identity based on Greek cultural su-premacy. Therefore, the paper analyses the Palladion and the traditions and ideas attached to it in Greco-Roman times and questions its role as a substitu-tional symbol for such an assumed identity.
Our purpose in this chapter is not to try to reconstruct the lost epics of Heracles but rather to use the conceptual framework of interformularity and intertraditionality to explore the ways in which the Iliad represents Heracles and makes his tradition speak to the concerns of this narrative. We begin by sketching out the antiquity of Heracles in myth and assessing its resonance in the fragmentary and extant poetry from the archaic period. After establishing Heracles’ independent existence outside Homer, we explore how speakers in the Iliad relate – and relate to – the accomplishments of this hero, in trying to make sense of or influence their situations. Finally, we consider how Heracles’ appearances in the Iliad communicate the poem’s sustained engagement with Heracles traditions through the adaptation of traditional structures and the manipulation of formulaic language. This analysis helps us reconsider Achilles’ curious statement as part of an agonistic process by which the Iliad appropriates and marginalizes a hero ill fit to its tale.
When an inconsistency is found within the context of an accepted rule, generally an unusual reason for its existence is sought. However, sometimes there are no such exceptions to explain an uncommon situation. Many researchers have assumed a special role for the production of pseudo-autonomous coins, but perhaps these coins were unexceptional among currency circulating in the provinces. Such coins were struck, in greater or lesser numbers depending on the relevant authority, by many centres in all of the Roman provinces. According to earlier theories, pseudo-autonomous coins, or, more accurately, coins without imperial portraits, were expressions of the status of a city and its independence; however, this was never confirmed in reality. The centres had some freedom to choose the images on the coins; these images were related on one hand to the city’s history and tradition and on the other to Roman authority and adherence to the Roman Empire. But might they entail a modest proclamation of civic independence without necessarily involving the status of the city? Coins without imperial heads are recorded mostly in cities in the Roman provinces. In Bithynia and Pontus these coins were struck by four centres, namely Byzantium, Amastris, Sinope, and Amisus, emphasising some traditions and cults in this region.
Ex nummis lux. Studies in Ancient Numismatics in Honour of Dimitar Draganov, (Ed.D.Boteva), Sofia.
NOT THYMBRA IN TROAD BUT THYESSOS IN LYDIA2017 •
Trojan War Locale: Numismatic Evidence
Robert M. Cutler, 2017
ABSTRACT
A case is made in recent books by Lascelles and Crowe that Homer’s Trojan War setting was not at Schleimann’s Hisarlik site of King Priam’s Ilium, but at Pergamon. We review their case, the places frequented by Homer as possible clues, and the Iliad’s revision as compiled and promoted by Athens and followed by Alexander the Great and the Romans. We then focus on numismatic evidence in the alternative regions of Northwest Anatolia (NWA) and Central West Anatolia (CWA). NWA includes the regions known as Troas, North Mysia, Hellespontic Thrace with nearby islands, and Bithynia. CWA regions include South Mysia with nearby islands, Aeolis, Ionia, Lydia, and Phrygia, as well as Cilician expatriate lands. We find that NWA coins are rich in early Iliadic mythology, indicating that Ilium was a Trojan War setting. However, we also find indications that the war was more extensive than commonly envisioned. It was led in CWA by King Telephus, who spearheaded an East versus West world war whose campaigns ended at Ilium.
CONTENTS
1.0 Background
1.1 Homer
1.2 Battleground
2.0 Coins of Northwest Anatolia (NWA)
2.1 “Troas” and Vicinity
2.2 North Mysia
2.3 Hellespontic Thrace and Its Islands
2.4 Bithynia and Vicinity
3.0 Coins of Central West Anatolia (CWA) and Vicinity
3.1 South Mysia and Its Islands
3.2 Aeolis
3.3 Ionia
3.4 Lydia
3.5 Phrygia
3.6 Expatriates in South Anatolia
4.0 Coins from Elsewhere
5.0 Summary
6.0 Conclusion
7.0 References
BACKGROUND
1.1 Homer
Before we discuss the locale of Homer’s Trojan War, whether or not it ever happened, we should consider the origin of Homer himself, who may have drawn or researched his story at or near its supposed location. If indeed there was one principal composer of the Iliad, he probably would have composed by not long after 700 BCE, based on much older oral legends about one or more attacks on Anatolia (Asia Minor) from the West or North. He wandered widely, as did many bards who copied his tales, and selected his settings based on some combination of real and imagined geography. At best, we may recognize some, but not all, of the basis of Homer’s compositions.
It is untrue that only “seven cities contend as to being the birthplace of the illustrious Homer.” There are more. The locations can be found among Amastris, Argos, Athens, Salamis island off Attica (Attika) or on Cyprus (Kypros), Camirus (Kamiros), Cephallenia (Kephallenia), Chios, Colophon (Kolophon), Cyme (Kyme) in Aeolis (Aiolis), Egypt, Ialysus (Ialysos), Ithaca (Ithaka), Lindus (Lindos), Mycenae (Mykenai), Pylus (Pylos), or Smyrna. Most often, though, Homer is thought of as a native Chiote, Cymean, or Smyrnian. Many more locations have been considered as places where Homer resided, composed, performed, or was buried: Assyria, Aulis, Chalcis on Euboea (Euboia), Corinth, Cos Island, Delos, Delphi, Erythrae (Erythrai), Gordus-Julia, Ios, Neandria, Neonteichus (Neonteichos), Nicea (Nikia), Phocaea (Phokaia), or Samos; or Side (possibly named for a western Anatolian city in the Apollodorus quote below), Tarsus (Tarsos), or elsewhere in Cilicia (Kilikia); or Thebes or elsewhere in Boeotia (Boiotia). It seems likely that Homer would have used places familiar to him as settings for at least some of his tales, but perhaps not all of them.
As a general observation regarding The Poet, we should note that his many reputed abodes, including cities some of whose coins portray him, are located much less often in NWA (e.g., Nicea) than in CWA (e.g., Chios, Colophon, Cyme, Erythrae, Gordus-Julia, Neonteichus, Phocaea, Samos, or Smyrna). However, Homer’s cities are not very commonly said to include such suggested Trojan War sites such as Ilium or Pergamon, or their regions of Troas or Teuthrania.
1.2 Battleground
John Lascelles and John Crowe have compiled reasons why the traditionally-accepted setting of Homer’s Troy (Troas) at Hisarlik may be incorrect. To avoid bias and confusion, we will call this region not Troas but a different name, Northwest Anatolia (NWA). Lascelles and Crowe suggest that the correct region includes Pergamon (also known as Pergamum; about 70 miles southeast of Hisarlik) and its Caicus (Kaikos) valley. That region we will call Central West Anatolia (CWA).
Some reasons to consider a Trojan War in CWA rather than NWA are:
Although the traditional site’s small scale disappointed its finder Schliemann, he failed to investigate nearby Pergamon’s order-of-magnitude higher natural acropolis fronted by much more space for:
Fighting … under the walls of Troy far from the swift ships. (Iliad 17)
Essentially the same name is shared by Pergamon and Ilium’s (Ilion’s) citadel, from which:
Paris, son of [Trojan King] Priam, strode swiftly down from Pergamus. (Iliad 6)
A Hittite document is widely accepted as naming Ilium (“Wilusa”), but is not yet widely known as relating Ilium to Pergamon’s river Caicus (“Seha”). (Bryce)
The CWA Caicus River (and its Ceteis River tributary north and east of Pergamon), unlike the NWA Scamander (Scamandrus or Skamandros), flows southwest which is consistent with:
I [Hera] will hasten to stir the [opposing] winds from the sea, a fierce Westerly gale and a sharp Southerly… (Iliad 21)
Achilles (Achilleus) seems to define Priam’s kingdom as including much if not all of Mysia as well as Lesbos and the Phrygian highlands:
And you [Priam], my aged lord, they say you once were happy, renowned for your wealth and your sons, in all the lands, from the isle of Lesbos [at the west], where Macar reigned, through [the northern and elevated land of] upper Phrygia [at the east] to the boundless Hellespont [at the north]. (Iliad 24)
Therefore, whether Priam’s capital is believed to be in NWA or CWA, his Iliadic dominion extended to lands in both regions.
Teuthrania southwest of Pergamon, downstream in its Caicus valley, is where the Trojan War began due to a supposed navigational error by the Greeks (Cypria).
After the Greeks reached their intended destination, Achilles conquered 23 cities (“twelve island cities … by sea and eleven throughout Troy’s fertile land” per Iliad 9) including many in Mysia, Aeolis, Ionia, and Cycladic islands in the Aegean Sea that are far south of NWA, but in or near CWA lands:
He [Achilles] also took Lesbos and [in Ionia] Phocaea … Colophon … Smyrna, and Clazomenae, and [in Aeolis] Cyme; and afterwards [in the Cyclades west of Ionia] Aegialus [on Amorgos] and Tenos … then … [in Mysia] Adramytium and [Eëtion’s Cilician?] Side … and [in NWA?] Colone. He also took [in Mysia] Hypoplacian Thebes [Thebe]… and further [in NWA] Antandrus, and many other cities (Apollodorus).
Interestingly, Achilles states that he took cities in “Troy’s fertile land” but Apollodorus lists many that are in CWA. Furthermore, several of the places named above are closely associated with Homer himself (see above).
Athenians of the mid sixth century, only a century or two after Homer, are widely believed to have justified their aggressive expansion into NWA by collecting, selecting, sequencing, editing, publishing, and distributing its “Athenian revision” of the Homeric legends:
The unanimous voice of antiquity ascribed to him (Pisistratus or Peisistratus) the merit of having collected the disjointed and confused poems of Homer and of having first committed his arrangement of them to writing… In carrying out the task of compiling the works of Homer, sorting them out, correcting, editing and assembling them into a coherent order, Pisistratus was assisted by a team of poets [Onomacritus, Zopyrus, Orpheus of Croton, and Concylus whose name may be corrupted] that he brought together for the purpose of rescuing Homer’s works and preserving them for posterity… [They] may have interpolated some passages, as it suited the pride of the Athenians or the political purposes of their master Pisistratus … The Athenians were generally believed to have had no part in the Trojan War … (Smith).
Athens could thus better support its claim to NWA as Trojan War booty that had been ordained by the gods, purportedly awarded by Agamemnon for the valor of the Athenians led by Menestheus (Mnestheus), and earned by the leadership of fighting in the north by Salamis Island’s Ajax. His land had been part of Athenian territory since about 600 BCE, and he was the best Greek fighter after Thessalian Achilles who had refused to fight:
I [Achilles] shall neither help by my advice or effort, so utterly has he [Agamemnon] cheated me and wronged me. (Iliad 9)
Nevertheless, the Homeric tales were already well-known and had been committed to the memories of singers and the educated. The Athens revision must have been either reasonably consistent with existing variations, or had its changes well hidden among the Iliad’s 15,693 lines.
Alexander the Great, in his adopted role as a second Greek Achilles conquering the East, followed the Athenian revision and visited Priam’s supposed capital in NWA. Countless admirers and imitators accepted his views. (Any role of the revision on Xerxes’ 480 BCE visit to the same location is less certain.)
Romans would have rejected a Troy not near Tenedos as described by Virgil:
And now the Greek phalanx of battle-ready ships sailed from [its hidden mooring at] Tenedos … seeking the known shore, when … Sinon … sets free the Greeks imprisoned by planks of pine, in the horse’s belly. (Aeneid 2)
Similarly, Romans would have shunned a Trojan War not near Rhoetium (Rhoeteion) on the Hellespont as in their national epic:
Then I [Aeneas] set up an empty tomb on the Rhoetean shore, and called on your [Priam’s slaughtered son Deiphobus’] spirit three times in a loud voice. (Aeneid 6)
Even the famous excavator and proponent of the NWA site admitted that Iliadic names had changed:
It is curious that, whilst Herodotus [of southwest Anatolia c. 484-425 BCE] always calls the old Trojans of epic poetry Teucrians [of NWA], the Attic tragedians and Roman poets call them Phrygians [of CWA]… (Schliemann).
The present paper begins with neutrality on the merits of arguments for a Trojan War in either NWA or CWA. We also recognize that the setting of Homer’s Trojan War could be a composite of both regions, or other regions, or none. Our purpose is only to review numismatic evidence that may point toward NWA or CWA. We have no need to review all coins that represent the allies listed in the Trojan battle order that immediately follows the Greek catalogue of ships (Iliad 2), because the Trojan allies could have traveled from their homes to any Trojan War location in NWA or CWA.
We will first list the relevant cities and coins with their images as available (embedded or linked), catalogue descriptions, and minimal explanatory text. We need to keep in mind that some coin design evidence is weak because, especially where clarifying inscriptions are lacking, the published design interpretations were chosen to suit the issuing locations and could be erroneous. We will then summarize the cities and coin types to see what they may indicate about the likely locale of Homer’s (not necessarily Athens’) version of the Trojan War.
2.0 COINS OF NORTHWEST ANATOLIA (NWA)
Athenian changes to Homeric myths were made by about 500 BCE and widely accepted during the following century. Thus, we recognize that the designs of NWA coins issued after the fifth century could reflect the Iliad not of Homer but of Athens. With that understanding, of the approximately 80 coin-issuing city-states in NWA, we will identify those using clearly Iliadic designs.
2.1 “Troas” and Vicinity
Coins of NWA region “Troas (Troia)” and vicinity with coinage not clearly Iliadic include Antissa (on Lesbos Island conquered by Achilles), Birytis, Eresus (Eresos; on Lesbos Island conquered by Achilles), Gargara (in Iliad as Mount Ida peak Gargarus), Gentinus (Gentinos), Lamponeia, Neandria, Pionia, and Rhoeteium (Rhoeteion; mentioned by Herodotus, who did not seem to question that cities in the revision were legitimately Homeric). Coins with designs of more Iliadic interest listed below.
Abydus (Abydos). Mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Coins not clearly Iliadic early (CNG Coin ID 302180) but Iliadic later.
Alexander the Great
TROAS, Abydus. Septimius Severus. Æ Medallic 8 Assaria (21.99 gm). AV KAI L CEP[T]I[M]IO[C] CEOVHPOC PEPTIN, laureate, draped and cuirassed(?) bust right / [...FA(?)] PPOKL, ABVDHNW-N in two lines in exergue, Alexander the Great in full armor standing three-quarter right at prow of galley right entering a harbor, holding spear in left hand, looking back in a heavenly gaze and extending his right hand in supplication; two soldiers behind him, bust of Athena on acrostolium of Alexander's galley and another on the one behind, Athena seated right on a third galley; in high tower behind, herald blowing trumpet skyward. Price and Trell pg. 221, fig. 486 (Paris specimen); I. Vecchi, "Alexander the Great at Troy," Minerva 12/4 (July/August 2001), pg. 56 (this coin). The correct interpretation of this coin's reverse has only recently been discovered. According to the ancient authors, Alexander carried with him everywhere his most precious possession - Aristotle's personal copy of the Iliad which the famous philosopher had given him. When Alexander led his Macedonian army to the Hellespont, he desired two things: "to be the new Achilles sailing once again for Troy, and to be the captain-general of the Hellenes exacting vengeance for the invasion of Greece by the Persian king Xerxes in 480 BC." After crossing the Hellespont on a bridge of Greek triremes sent by Parmenion, Alexander, in full armor, flung his spear into the sand and "claimed as from the gods the 'spear-won prize' of all Asia," an event known only from a second or third century AD abridgement by Justin (II.5.4-10) of Trogus' Historia Philippicae. This coin which displays this moment in time, a little known but important event in world history, is certainly worthy of a world class collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16419.
Achilleum (Achillion) if not Achaeum (Achaiion). Mentioned by Herodotus.
Achilles
TROAS, Achilleion. 4th century BC. Æ (10mm, 1.01 g, 2h). Crested helmet [apparently of Achilles or Achaeans] left / Civic monogram [of alpha and chi]. SNG Copenhagen 64. Achilleion was a small town along the coast of Troas, south of Sigeion. The city was [named and] well known for its tomb of Achilles, and the obverse of this issue is thought to represent his helmet. In his 1951 work, Études do numismatique grecque, L. Robert, though, argued that this issue, and a similar one that features Athena on the obverse, are actually from the town of Achaiion [apparently named by or for Achaeans camped there in the time of the supposed Trojan War], which is just south of Achilleion. Interestingly, Winterthur 2698, with the Athena obverse, is given to Achilleion in the text, while the plate lists it as Achaiion! Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 328996.
Alexandria. Not to be confused with the Alexandria of Cilicia or Egypt. Previously Antigoneia.
Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)
Ajax, swift son of Oïleus, was inseparable from Ajax the son of Telamon. Just like two wine-dark oxen, that strain at the wooden plough on fallow land, sweat streaming from the base of their horns, held apart by the polished yoke as they slice the furrow till the plough reaches the border of the field, so these two laboured (to halt Hector’s attack on the [Greek] ships) close together. (Iliad 13)
TROAS, Alexandria Troas. Maximinus I. AD 235-238. Æ 25mm (7.44 g). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Male figure [perhaps a military leader, who could be viewed as Agamemnon], holding vexillum, driving chariot drawn by two oxen [who could be seen as the Ajaxes of Iliad 13] right across bridge; aquilae behind oxen and below bridge. Bellinger A371 (same dies). From the J. S. Wagner Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 123900. [This coin may have reminded some Alexandria residents, or least visitors seeking an Iliadic experience, of Agamemnon’s Greek army led by the Ajaxes, but we will not assume that this coin was intended to be Iliadic; nor will we make such an assumption about any of the coins that show a pair of oxen plowing at a border as Homer mentions, though such a scene is shown on coins of cities such as on the RPC Alexandria coin description linked immediately below, NWA’s Lampsacus (Lampsakos) and Parium (Parion) both in North Mysia, and CWA’s Tralles in Lydia and Ninica-Claudiopolis (Ninika-Klaudiopolis) issued by expatriates in Cilicia.]
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/9187
Alexander the Great
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9/444
and
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9/469
These coins are described by RPC as having reverses that show Alexander the Great, eponymous founder of Alexandria who strongly supported the NWA Trojan War tradition. Alexander may be in the guise of herdsman Orodes (see below) with his profession’s tool of a crook or pedum. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 123900.
Apollo Smintheus
TROAS, Alexandria. Circa 188-133 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.63 gm, 12h). Laureate head of Apollo left / APOLLWNOS ZMIQEWS, ALEXAN in exergue, Apollo Smintheus standing right, quiver over shoulder, holding bow and arrow in left hand, patera in right; monogram to inner left and right. Cf. Bellinger, Troy A133-A137. From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Triton I (2-3 December 1997), lot 522. Situated on the coast of Asia Minor, southwest of the site of ancient Troy, Alexandria Troas was founded by Antigonos I Monophthalmos around 310 BC, under the name of Antigoneia. The inhabitants of the new city came from the neighboring towns of Kebren, Kolone, Hamaxitos, Neandria, and Skepsis. About a decade after its founding the place was enlarged by Lysimachos, king of Thrace, who renamed it Alexandria in honor of the memory of Alexander the Great. The city flourished and its prosperity continued into Roman times. This tetradrachm belongs to the period of the city’s autonomy following the devastating defeat of Antiochos III of Syria by the Romans at the battle of Magnesia in 189 BC. Apollo Smintheus is depicted on both sides of the coin, the deity actually being named in the reverse inscription. While the origin of his designation is uncertain, though it may be derived from sminqos, or mouse, whom the Greeks may have connected with disease; Homer, in the opening pages of the Iliad, has Apollo Smintheus bring down plague on the Greeks because of Agamemnon’s arrogance toward Chryses, the god’s high priest. Apollo Smintheus’ temple lay at Chryse, within the territory of Hamaxitos, one of the cities which had provided the original population of Alexandria. The statue of the god, by the celebrated Parian sculptor and architect Skopas, showed him standing with a mouse at his feet. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 57308.
Apollo Smintheus, Chryses, and Orodes
TROAS, Alexandria Troas. Trebonianus Gallus. 251-253 AD. Æ 22mm (7.23 gm). IMP VIB TREB GALLVS [P F AV]G, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / CO-L AV-G, TROAD in exergue, two beardless male figures facing each other, the one [Apollo Smintheus] to the right holding out three arrows in his right hand and bow in left; the other [priest Chryses?] rests his right hand on his seat; between the two, upper part of bearded herdsman [Orodes?] facing, holding pedum. Bellinger A402; A.R. Bellinger, "The Late Bronze of Alexandria Troas," ANSMN 8 (1958), Type 20, pl. VII, 20 (same die as second reverse); Hunterian pg. 296, 50, pl. XLIX, 10 (same reverse die). From the David Simpson Collection. The reverse represents the reconciliation between Apollo Smintheus and his priest, both enjoying the hospitality of the herdsman Orodes. According to the local legend (Iliad I. 39), Apollo, angered at his priest, sent a plague of mice to devastate the crops, but later repenting he appeared to Orodes the herdsman who hospitably received him, and Apollo promised to kill the mice with his arrows. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16420.
Apollo Smintheus and Orodes
TROAS, Alexandria. CE 198-217. AE 24 mm. Inscription around laureate bust of Caracalla right (not illustrated) / Inscription CO-L – AV – TRO-AD around herdsman [Orodes?] left between Apollo Smintheus statue right on cave with another statue, and a bull right looking back at them. BMCG 17 pg 21 no 94.
Orodes
TROAS, Alexandria Troas. Valerian I. AD 253-260. Æ (18mm, 3.95 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Horse grazing right; behind, herdsman standing right, holding pedum. Bellinger A438; BMC 162; SNG Copenhagen 192. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 233442.
Antandrus (Antandros). Conquered by Achilles and mentioned by Herodotus.
Aeneas
TROAS, Antandrus. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ Medallion (38mm, 35.17 g, 6h). AVTOKPA KAI M AVP CЄOVHPOC AΛЄΞANΔPOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / EPI TRA AVP[...], ANTANΔPIΩN in exergue, Aeneas [Aineias] advancing right, head left, leading Ascanius by the hand, and holding Anchises on his shoulder; stern of galley to right. Cf. C. Fontana, “Note su alcune monete inedite o poco conosciute della serie urbica greca coniate durante l’Impero Romano,” RIN 1967, 18 (for similar issue of Caracalla). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 114901.
Assus (Assos). Located just north of Lesbos. Coins not clearly Iliadic early (CNG Coin ID 277051) but we will consider a later type to be Iliadic.
Palladium
TROAS, Assos. Circa 450/40-400 BC. AR Tetrobol (14mm, 2.63 g, 12h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet / Archaic [wooden xoanon or] cult statue of Athena standing left, holding filleted spear and distaff; rose to lower left. Jameson 2229 (same dies); G. Hirsch 258, lot 2208; Gorny & Mosch 108, lot 1234; cf. Pecunem 22, lot 83 (diobol), four previously known: Jameson, two in Coin Archives, and one in the ANS (no. 1951.191.20). The Jameson piece was attributed to Assos based on the close similarity of its types to a tetradrachm from that city in the BN (Traité II 2302, pl. CLXIII, 28). The types are also remarkably similar to the early bronzes of Ilium, but Bellinger apparently agreed with Jameson that it was not an issue of that city. The similarity of types among cities within a close proximity to one another is not unusual, but the difficulty of attribution is compounded by the absence of an ethnic on the present issue. Both Assos and Ilium placed their ethnic on their coin issues, of all denominations, so the fact that it is not on either of these tetrobol and diobol issues is perplexing. In any event, there are subtle differences in the depiction of Athena at both cities. At Ilium, Athena is presented in motion, visible in the flowing drapes of her lower chiton, while at Assos, Athena is presented rigidly erect, such that it is considered a representation of her statue rather than her corporeal form. [The coin is dated by CNG as earlier than the Palladium (Palladion) coin of Pergamon (see Coin ID 257515, shown below), and much earlier than that of Ilium (see Coin ID 39870). However, the mint and early date (based on an anachronistic archaism?) of this “Assus” coin are uncertain; its obverse could reflect the Athenian version of the Iliad rather than Homer’s; and Assus is not near the Hellespont but well away in the direction of Pergamon. Nevertheless, we will consider the coin to be Iliadic. However, coins will not be considered Iliadic for inclusions of small symbols such as Palladiums which are common and of dubious significance or importance.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 282144.
Cebren (Kebren). Mentioned by Herodotus. Early coins not clearly Iliadic (CNG Coin ID 313801) but we will consider later coins to be Iliadic.
Cebriones
TROAS, Kebren. 5th century BC. AR Diobol (9mm, 1.01 g). Ram’s head right [and KEBR(E) below] / Quadripartite incuse square. SNG Ashmolean 1078-80. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 168330.
and
TROAS, Kebren. Circa 412-399 BC. Æ (8mm, 0.54 g, 12h). Head of a satrap left, wearing tiara / KE monogram. SNG München 284-5; SNG Copenhagen 261; SNG von Aulock 1547. [The portrait is not as likely to depict a Trojan War hero as a satrap, perhaps Zenis the Dardanian.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 168330.
[The issuing city whose name or monogram is on the coins may have given its name to Hector’s half-brother Cebriones (Kebriones), or he may have received his name from the city: Now Cebriones, standing beside Hector, as his charioteer, saw the Trojans elsewhere driven in rout, and cried: ‘Hector, why are we here on the furthest edge of this mortal battle, while the other wing are driven in flight, horses and men? Ajax, son of Telamon, is the cause: I know his great shield well. We should be in the thick of the fight where infantry and charioteers, in fierce and bloody competition, kill one another in the din of battle.’ (Iliad 11)]
Colone (Kolone). Not to be confused with the Colone of Messenia. Name means hill. Achilles conquest.
Athena and Star
The design elements named above are not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
TROAS, Kolone (?). 5th century BC. AR Hemiobol (7mm, 0.42 g). Helmeted head (of Athena?) right / Stellate pattern within linear square within incuse square. Cf. CNG E-356, lot 123; cf. CNG E-311, lot 832; cf. Gorny & Mosch 212, lot 1769; cf. Pecunem 8, lot 134. Many of the towns of the Troad struck small silver fractions over the course of the fifth century BC. Although many of these were anepigraphic, the types used were common to each city, allowing plausible attribution by numismatists. The style and fabric of this type is consistent with these issues, allowing confident attribution to one of the region’s mints. Although Kolone is only known to have issued bronze coins in the 4th century, these bronzes consistently featured the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and a stellate pattern on the reverse. Thus, the attribution of this issue at Kolone in the 5th century is very likely. [The Iliad includes a different place name for a city on a hill: And Ares, fierce as the dread storm-cloud, urged on the opposing Trojans, now screaming his war-cry from the heights of the citadel, now from the banks of Simois as he ran towards the hill Callicolone (Beautiful Hill). (Iliad 20)] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 305551.
and
TROAS, Kolone. 4th century BC. Æ 16mm (4.17 g, 9h). Laureate helmeted head of Athena right / Star [possibly the sun per BMCG 17 pg xxi, though obverse lacks Apollo or Helios. Cf. ThY under South Mysia below, also with Athena head and large reverse star.] SNG Copenhagen 277-8; SNG von Aulock 1559. From the D. Alighieri Collection. [Since hills were commonly chosen as defensible city sites, the name Colone could have been used for various locations in NWA or CWA.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 131963.
Dardanium (also known as Dardanus or Dardanos; in the area of Dardania). Mentioned by Herodotus Coin not clearly Iliadic early (CNG Coin ID 322691) but Iliadic later. Previously in a territory called Teucria after Iliadic Greek hero Teucer, pre-dating Ilium:
Zeus the Cloud-Gatherer’s son Dardanus founded Dardania, before sacred Ilium was built in the plain, when the race still lived on the slopes of Ida of the many streams. (Iliad 20)
In the Iliad, Trojan King Priam is often called Dardanian. Trojans and Dardanians, apparently near neighbors and comingled, are mentioned together as distinct from their other allies. A gate of Ilium faces Dardania:
His [fatally-speared Hector’s] father Priam groaned in anguish, and a wave of grief spread round them through the city, no less than if all of lofty Ilium were on fire. The old man could scarcely be restrained in his frenzy, as he made for the Dardanian Gate [to leave for the Greek camp and request Hector’s corpse]. (Iliad 22)
Nine Dardanian bronze coins as small as 9, 10, and 12 mm were found among 354 ancient Greek city coins at the NWA “Troy Excavation” (Bellinger pp 163-4). Since small bronze ancient coins rarely circulated far from their issuing cities, the find indicates that Dardanium was near Ilium.
Aeneas
TROAS, Dardanium. CE 209-211. AE 25 mm. Inscription around bust of Geta right (not illustrated) / Inscription DAP-DANIWN around Aeneas right leading son Ascanius and carrying father Anchises. BMCG 17 pg 51 no 29.
Dardanus
TROAS, Dardanos [alternate name of Dardania]. Late 5th century BC. AR Obol (9mm, 0.64 g, 12h). Horseman riding left / Cock standing left within incuse square. SNG Ashmolean 1120; SNG Copenhagen 282. From the Daniel Koppersmith Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 243222.
and
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/9206
and
http://snible.org/coins/hn/troas.html#dardanus
HN pg 544: The latter coins are described by RPC as possibly showing Dardanus, the founder and ancestor of the Dardanians led by Aeneas and the Trojans led by Hector. Dardanus is shown on horseback and as a naked warrior standing.
Ganymede
TROAS, Dardanus. Geta. As Caesar, AD 198-209. Æ (24mm, 8.16 g, 6h). Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Ganymede [or Ganymedes] left, head right, holding pedum, being carried away by Zeus in the form of an eagle. SNG von Aulock 1507 (same dies). Ganymede was the son of Tros, founder of Troy. A youth of great beauty, he was abducted by Zeus while the young man was tending his flocks on Mt. Ida. Carried to Olympus either by an eagle or Zeus himself in aquiline form, Ganymede served as the god’s cupbearer in place of Hebe, as well as his eromenos. To recompense Tros for the loss of his son, Zeus provided him with a pair of horses so swift they could cross over water. This pair was believed to be the ancestors of the horses for which the Trojans were so renowned. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 245808.
Palladium
TROAS, Dardanus. Tiberius. AD 14-37. Æ 19mm (4.90 g). SEBAS KAISAP, laureate head right / DARDANEWN, cult statue of Athena of Ilium [the Palladium] facing. Lindgren I 359 (this coin). From the Garth R. Drewry Collection; Ex Henry Lindgren Collection. As the obverse legend is ambiguous, this could also be an issue of Augustus. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 89615.
Rhodius River
TROAS, Dardanium. CE 193-217. AE 25 mm. Inscription around bust of Julia Domna right / Inscription DAPDANI-WN around and PODIOC below river god reclining facing left. [The Rhodius River flowed through Dardania toward the sea: Rhesus, Heptaporus, Caresus, Rhodius, Granicus, Aesepus, fair Scamander and Simoïs, by whose banks lay many an ox-hide shield, many a helmet, many a warrior of that well-nigh immortal generation: all these rivers Phoebus Apollo would merge together, and for nine days turn their flood against the wall (that the Greeks had built to protect their ships and spoils from the Trojans)… (Iliad 12).] BMCG 17 pg 51 no 26.
Gergis. Not to be confused with the Gergis in Syrtica. Mentioned by Herodotus.
Sibyl Herophile
TROAS, Gergis. Late 5th century BC. AR Drachm (3.63 g, 9h). Wreathed head of Sibyl Herophile facing slightly right / GER-GISI-O, Sphinx standing right within incuse square. The earliest published coins of Gergis are a series dated to after 350 BC, retaining the general types used on the present coin, but without the reverse type set within an incuse (cf. Traité II 2392-2394). This and the previous lot now expand our knowledge of Gergis’ minting into the 5th century BC. [Gergis’ native daughter was the sibyl Herophile, also called the Hellespontine or Trojan sibyl. She predicted that Helen would cause great destruction, the Greeks would take Troy, and Homer would lie (Lactantius).] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 90784.
Hamaxitus (Hamaxitos).
Apollo Smintheus
TROAS, Hamaxitos. 4th-3rd centuries BC. Æ (17mm, 4.37 g, 12h). Laureate head of Apollo right / Apollo Smintheos [who had a temple at Hamaxitus] standing right, holding phiale and bow; monogram to lower right. Cf. SNG Ashmolean 1150 (smaller unit); cf. SNG München 205 (smaller unit); cf. BMC 3 (same). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 283378.
Ilium (Ilion). Visited by Alexander the Great, enlarged by Lysimachus, and expanded under Rome.
Aeneas
TROAS, Ilion. Autonomous issues. Time of the Flavians, circa AD 79-96. Æ Semis (19mm, 6.86 g, 12h). Armored bust of Athena left, holding spear over right shoulder / Aeneas advancing right, head left, leading Ascanius with his right hand and carrying Anchises with his left arm. Bellinger T129; RPC II 895; SNG Copenhagen 368. The city of Ilium was founded by the emperor Augustus on the site of the legendary city of Troy. According to Vergil (Aeneid, Book 2), Aeneas, the son of the goddess Venus and the Trojan Anchises, fled with some remnants of the city’s inhabitants as it fell to the Greeks, taking with him his son, Ascanius, his elderly father, Anchises, and the Palladium, or ancient sacred statue of Athena. The Trojans eventually made their way west to resettle in Italy. There they intermarried with the local inhabitants and founded the town of Lavinium, and thereby became the nucleus of the future Roman people. One of the descendants of Aeneas’ son Ascanius (known now as Iulus [or Julus, which in Rome became the name of the Julia family of Julius Caesar)] was Rhea Silvia. Impregnated by the god Mars, she gave birth to the twins, Romulus and Remus. Exposed by their great-uncle, Amulius, the twins were suckled by a she-wolf, but they were eventually rescued. Romulus later founded the city of Rome, and consequently the image of the she-wolf and the twins became the symbol of that city. The mythological depictions on this coin reinforce the importance of Ilium, not only as the seedbed of the future Roman people, but also as the mother city of the future caput mundi. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 116655.
Ajax and Teucer Sons of Telamon, and Hector
TROAS, Ilium. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ 32mm (22.60 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Hector standing right, holding a rock with which he prepares to wound Teucer, whom he holds by the hair, kneeling left with bow at feet; to right, Ajax running right with head left, brandishing shield [shielding Teucer] and spear. SNG Lewis 1333 (same dies). The son of the Greek king Telamon of Salamis and his Trojan wife Hesione, Teucer was the half-brother of the Greek hero Ajax the Greater, as well as the nephew of King Priam of Troy and cousin of Hector. Siding with the Greeks and hiding behind the giant shield of his half-brother, Teucer used his skills as an archer to defend the Greeks against the Trojans. Enraged by Teucer's success during one of these fights, Hector picked up a huge rock and flung it at Teucer, injuring him so badly that he was forced to withdraw for some time while he recuperated from the concussion. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 103722.
Anchises
http://snible.org/coins/hn/troas.html#ilium
HN pg 547: This coin type depicts Anchises and Aphrodite who are the parents of Aeneas. It is also listed as Bellinger T219, a Roman Empress Julia Domna (CE 193-217) AE 27 mm dupondius inscribed IOY DOMN – A CEBACTH / ANXEICH – C A – FPODEITH around and ILIEWN in exergue below.
Andromache, Astyanax, and Hector
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/87
[Andromache] ran to her bronze-clad husband [Hector], and the nurse was with her, holding a little boy in her arms, a baby son, Hector’s bright star [Astyanax] ... Hector smiled, and gazed at his son in silence, but Andromache crept weeping to his side, and clasped his hand, saying: ‘Husband, this courage of yours dooms you. You show no pity for your little son or your wretched wife, whom you’ll soon make a widow. The Achaeans must soon join arms against you, and destroy you. If I lose you I were better dead, for should you meet your fate, there will be no more joy for me only sorrow... Achilles killed my noble father when he sacked Cilician Thebe, that many-peopled city with its high gates... And seven brothers of mine, swift-footed mighty Achilles sent to Hades, all on a day, killing them there among their shambling-gaited cattle and white fleecy sheep. My mother, queen below wooded Placus, he dragged here with the rest of his spoils, but freed her for a princely ransom, only for Artemis of the bow to slay her in her father’s house. Hector you are parent, brother, husband to me. Take pity on me now, and stay here on the battlements, don’t make your son an orphan, your wife a widow. (Iliad 6)
Apollo Hecatus
http://snible.org/coins/hn/troas.html#ilium
HN pg 547: Apollo Hecatus (Hekatos) is the far shooter or worker from afar (Iliad 7 and 20). He is named EKATOC and shown holding a laurel branch at a tripod, without the expected bow or quiver. Bellinger T169.
Athena Ilias
TROAS, Ilion. Circa 188-133 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.72 g, 12h). Phoinikos, magistrate. Head of Athena right, wearing laureate and triple-crested helmet / A-QHNAS ILIADOS, Athena [Iliados] or Ilias standing right, holding distaff and filleted spear; at her feet to right, owl standing right; to inner left, monogram above star; FOINIKOS in exergue. From the Semon Lipcer Collection. Founded in the seventh century BC by Aeolians on the site of ancient Troy, Ilion prospered and ultimately developed into a successful Hellenistic and Roman city. It possessed a famous temple of Athena (‘Ilias’) which was visited by King Xerxes of Persia and later by Alexander the Great. The Romans always had a high regard for Ilion because of the legend of Aeneas and the tradition that Rome's founders were of Trojan origin. With the collapse of Seleukid authority in Asia Minor in 189 BC, Ilion, in common with many other communities of western Asia Minor, celebrated its liberation from regal authority by issuing large and impressive tetradrachms. These honor the goddess Athena Ilias, whose helmeted head appears as the obverse type, while the reverse features her standing figure, probably the statue which stood within the temple. Bellinger, "The First Civic Tetradrachms of Ilium," ANSMN VIII (1958). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 114638.
Batea and Dardanus
TROAS, Ilium. CE 177-183. AE 29 mm. Inscription around bust of Roman Empress Crispina right (not illustrated) / ILIEWN – D – APDANOC around Dardanus seated left with female [per RPC: “Bateia (?)” who was his wife] before and looking at him. [Beyond the city, far off in the plain, stands a steep mound with clear ground on every side, that men call Bateia (Thorn Hill), but immortals the grave of dancing Myrine. There the Trojans formed battle array. (Iliad 2)] BMCG 17 pg 67 no 71.
Ganymede
TROAS, Ilium. Commodus. 180-192 AD. Æ 38mm (2.89 gm). AV KAI M AVRH KOMMODOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / ILIEWN in exergue, Ganymede, wearing Phrygian helmet, seated left on pile of rocks, giving cup to eagle who grasps it with his left claw and drinks from it; tree behind. Bellinger T186; Von Fritze, "Münzen von Ilion" in Dörpfeld, Troja und Ilion II, 76; SNG Copenhagen 411; Cornell 101 (this coin). From the David Simpson Collection. Ex Bank Leu Auktion 30 (28 April 1982), lot 395. The Roman emperors followed Caesar's example in patronising Ilium and its temples because of the legend that the founders of Rome were of Trojan origin. The Roman provincial coinage of the city has an exceptionally large variety of types chiefly relating to Athena Ilias and the heroes of the Trojan War. Some of the types, such as Ganymede above, may well represent monuments that actually existed in Ilium. Ganymede was the son of Tros, founder of Troy, or of Laomedon, father of the Trojan king Priam. A youth of great beauty, he was abducted by the gods, to live with them and to be cup-bearer to Zeus, in place of Hebe [Iliad 20]. Later writers say that Zeus, in love with Ganymede, disguised himself as an eagle and carried him off to be his eromenos and set him in the sky as the constellation of Aquarius, the water-carrier. This myth was extremely popular in Greece and Rome and gave religious respectability to homosexuality, for which the Greeks and Romans had neither a separate conception nor word until the arrival of Christianity. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16422.
Hector
TROAS, Ilium. Valerian I. AD 253-260. Æ Medallion (41mm, 27.02 g, 12h). AV · K · Π · Λ · OV-AΛEPIANOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ΙΛIEΩN EKT-ΩP [Hektor], Hector, fully armored, advancing right, holding firebrand in raised right hand, large shield in left; two ships to lower right. Bellinger pl. 13, T292 = SNG München 278 = Mionnet II p. 667, 241 (same dies). From the Frank D. Arnold Collection. And now, tell me, O Muses that hold your mansions on Olympus, how fire was thrown upon the ships of the Achaeans. Hector came close up and let drive with his great sword at the ashen spear of Ajax. He cut it clean in two just behind where the point was fastened on to the shaft of the spear. Ajax, therefore, had now nothing but a headless spear, while the bronze point flew far away and came ringing down on to the ground. Ajax knew the hand of heaven in this, and was dismayed at seeing that Jove had left him utterly defenseless and was willing victory for the Trojans. Therefore he drew back, and the Trojans flung fire upon the ship which was at once wrapped in flame (Il. XVI.112-124). This episode in the Iliad describes a shift in the tide of war, when Zeus (Jove) bestows favor on Troy’s prince and chief warrior, Hector, and rallies the Trojans. Hector has driven the Greeks back to their ships and is determined to burn them. Ajax, in one of the poem’s more memorable moments, seemingly single-handedly defends the ships against the Trojan forces with “a great sea-pike in his hands, twelve cubits long” (XV.823-824). But by the time Hector arrives, Ajax is exhausted and the Trojan hero effortlessly strips him of his weapon. The Trojans burn one ship, but the fleet is saved when Patroclus takes to the battlefield disguised in the armor of Achilles, the most feared Greek warrior. Roman Ilium was raised over what was thought to be the location of Homeric Troy, a notion that has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the site beginning with Heinrich Schliemann in 1868. The city’s coinage is remarkable for its occasional reference to the Trojan War and its most famous hero. Hector appears on issues from the 1st century to the closing of the mint under Gallienus, but in most instances the coins feature motifs that may have had a precise meaning to Roman Ilium’s citizens and tourists, but to us can only be interpreted as generic types (e.g., Hector in fighting stance; Hector in chariot). Much rarer are those remarkable coins honoring Hector that can be identified with a specific episode in Homer’s epic poem, such as the hero vanquishing Patroclus or attempting to burn the Greek fleet. This latter type appears on a few, very rare earlier issues of Ilium, but was employed as a medallic type only for Valerian. Bellinger T292. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 293679.
Hesione
http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=81&pid=10903
With this, the dark-haired god led the way to the high wall that Athene and the Trojans once built for godlike Heracles, as a sanctuary for his defence when the sea monster drove him from shore to plain [before he killed the monster that was threatening Hesione, the daughter of Trojan King Laomedon and sister of Priam]. (Iliad 20)
Ilus and Palladium
TROAS, Ilium. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (27mm, 9.65 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Ilus [Ilos] standing left, holding phiale over lighted altar, with his name [E]ILOC downward behind him; to left, [Palladium, sic] statue of Athena Ilias right on basis. Bellinger T241; SNG Tübingen 2618; BMC 87. [Also see CNG Coin ID 16424.] From Group CEM. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 231401.
and
TROAS, Ilium. Commodus. As Caesar, AD 166-177. Æ (30mm, 14.37 g, 12h). Bareheaded and draped bust right / IΛI–Є/ΩN, Ilus reclining right, looking toward figure of Zeus descending from heavens, holding Palladium [as gift to Ilus] in right hand and scepter in left; to right, cow suspended from tree, being sacrificed [to Zeus] by a man who clutches its horn with left hand and holds a sacrificial knife in right. [The scene’s sacrifice to Zeus is reminiscent of his high regard for the Trojans: For of all the cities beneath the sun and stars, that mortal men have made to dwell in, sacred Troy is dearest to me (Zeus), as are Priam and his people of the strong ashen spear. Never at their feasts did my altar lack its share of wine and burnt flesh, those offerings that are the gods’ privilege (Iliad 4). See Ilium Zeus Idaeus RPC Coin 4/207 and Pergamon Zeus Philius Coin BMCG Mysia pg 141 no 260 below.] Unpublished in the standard references, but cf. Bellinger T176 for same obv. die. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 266062.
Paris
TROAS, Ilium. Commodus. As Caesar, AD 166-177. Æ (31mm, 14.22 g, 1h). Struck AD 174/5-177. AV K Λ AVPH KOMOΔOC, bareheaded and draped bust right / The Judgment of Paris [who was also known as Alexander]: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite standing right before Paris seated left below tree, wearing Phrygian cap and holding apple in right hand and pedum in left; syrinx (panpipes) in field above, IΛIЄΩN in exergue. Ex David Szapary-Donadello Collection. The Judgment of Paris, a mythical “beauty contest” of sorts, serves as a prelude to the Trojan War and thus is wholly appropriate for Ilium, a city believed to have been founded over Homeric Troy. Eris, goddess of discord, was excluded from a feast thrown by Zeus, but the scorned deity arrived uninvited with a golden apple inscribed “for the fairest.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each claimed the apple, and Zeus was asked to award it to the most beautiful. Zeus, wishing to avoid this uncomfortable situation, appointed the mortal Paris as judge, as the shepherd and prince of Troy had a reputation for his fairness. Each goddess attempted to sway Paris with a bribe in order to win the apple: Athena offered him incredible skill in battle, Hera offered him an immense kingdom, and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris could not refuse Aphrodite’s offer, setting in motion the war between the Greeks and Trojans. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 324646.
Patroclus
TROAS, Ilium. CE 193-211. AE 36 mm. Inscription around laureate bust of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus right (not illustrated) / Naked body of Patroclus [Patroklos] lying on the ground with his head at the left and face up, shielded [or per Bellinger T214 having spear withdrawn, or per HN pg 547 trampled on] by Hector right. BMCG 17 pg 68 no 75. Also see Bellinger T267 for an additional Greek opposing Hector for Patroclus’ armor.
Priam
TROAS, Ilium. Commodus. AD 177-192. Æ (27mm, 10.64 g, 6h). Struck circa AD 180-182. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; c/m: helmeted head of Minerva right in oval incuse / King Priam seated right on throne, holding scepter. RPC IV online 2485; SNG von Aulock 7616. For c/m: Howgego 186. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 283535.
Scamander River
TROAS, Ilium. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ 29mm (17.59 g, 12h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / CKAMANDPOC, river-god Scamander [called Xanthus by the gods per Iliad 20] reclining left on upturned urn, from which water flows beneath him, holding reed. Bellinger T240 (Dupondius). From the J.S. Wagner Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 108741.
Trojan Walls
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=775443
Have you forgotten what we two suffered here at Troy, when by Zeus’ command we served proud [Trojan King] Laomedon [the father of Priam] for a year? The wages were set, and how that king ordered us around! I built a fine wide wall round the Trojan city, to render it impregnable, while you, Apollo, were herdsman of their sleek shambling cattle, on the wooded spurs of many-ridged Ida. But when the bright season brought an end to our term, that rogue Laomedon cheated us of payment, threatening to bind our hands and feet and sell us into some distant isle. (Iliad 21)
Zeus Idaeus
TROAS, Ilium. Faustina Junior. Augusta, AD 147-175. Æ (26mm, 9.46 g, 6h). Draped bust right / Zeus Idaios seated right, holding scepter and palladium. Bellinger T168; SNG München 250; SNG von Aulock 1534 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 196786.
Larissa (Larisa). Not to be confused with Larissa in Aeolis, Ionia, Syria, or Thessaly.
Hippothous
[TROAS, Larissa most likely but listed as] WESTERN ASIA MINOR, Uncertain. 4th century BC. AR Hemiobol or Tetartemorion (6mm, 0.21 g, 8h). Crested helmet [without separate cheek pieces] left, bowl ornamented with a serpent / Amphora within linear square. Unpublished in the standard references, but see CNG E-334, lot 152; CNG E-288, lots 258 and 259. Varieties of this type have appeared at auction in the past, and have been tentatively attributed to Neandria in Troas, where an early fraction featured a helmet on the obverse. While an attribution to a mint in that region is reasonable, Neandria is probably not correct, as its early fractions consistently feature a ram or barley grain on the reverse, which were emblematic of the city. At the same time, the nearby city of Larissa consistently featured an amphora on the reverse of nearly all of its coinage, which would make it a more likely candidate. [Possible home of the Trojan ally Hippothous (Hippothoös)], a Pelasgian: For Telamonian Ajax charged at him through the throng, and once at close quarters struck at Hippothous’ helm with its bronze cheek-pieces, and horsehair crest. The point of the great spear in his massive hand split it wide open, and blood and brains from the wound spurted up the blade to its socket. Then Hippothous strength was gone … and he toppled forward onto the corpse of brave Patroclus. Far from fertile Larissa he died… (Iliad 17) Depending on the war location and interpretation of “far from fertile Larissa,” Hippothous’ home could be here or at Larissa Phriconis in Aeolis, or Larissa in Ionia (see those below), or another Larissa. This Larissa is about 25-30 miles from a Trojan War in NWA, or 70 miles from a war at Pergamon.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 305572.
Methymna. On Lesbos Island. Achilles conquest.
Athenian Style
LESBOS, Methymna. Circa 500/480-460 BC. AR Diobol (1.31 g, 6h). Gorgoneion / Helmeted head of Athena [showing Athenian style and, indirectly, dominance] left in dotted square within incuse square. Franke, Münzprägung 5; SNG Copenhagen 347-348. From the David Herman Collection. Ex Sternberg 23 (29 October 2000), lot 268. [Coin design is non-Iliadic but relevant to Athenian dominance and revision of the Iliad.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 90792.
Ophrynium (Ophrynion). Mentioned by Herodotus, location of Hector’s supposed gravesite.
Hector
TROAS, Ophrynion. 4th century BC. AR Tetrobol (15mm, 2.64 g, 12h). Bearded head of Hektor facing, wearing triple crested Attic helmet / Nude youth, holding palm in right hand, rein in left, on horseback right; OΦPYNEΩN above. SNG von Aulock 7630; Traite II 2420 = MG 176. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 282147.
Scamandria (Skamandria). Mentioned by Herodotus, name from Scamander River flowing from Mount Ida. Scamander was also the name of a Trojan warrior killed by Menelaus (Iliad 6), and of Hector’s son Astyanax:
Hector called him [his son] Scamandrius, but the rest Astyanax, since, to them, Hector alone protected Ilium. (Iliad 6)
Ida
TROAS, Skamandria. Circa 350-300 BC. Æ 20mm (8.68 gm). Head of mountain-nymph [Ida sometimes inscribed as IDE or] Ide right / Fir-tree [with SK – A at sides of trunk]; boar's head at right. SNG Copenhagen 464. From the David Freedman Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 23276.
Scepsis (Skepsis). Strabo reports early traditions that the Trojan War was fought at Scepsis (Nagy) and, though located well inland (as would be a Trojan War fought at Pergamon), issued a variety of Iliadic coins.
Aeneas
http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=90&pid=13084
Aeneas led the Dardanians, whose territory included Scepsis.
Paris
http://snible.org/coins/hn/troas.html#scepsis
HN pg 549: The Judgment of Paris occurred at Mt. Ida, whose range reaches toward Scepsis:
Hera, Poseidon and bright-eyed Athene … still hated sacred Ilium, Priam and his whole race, because of Paris and his foolish error, in humiliating the two goddesses, at the parade by his shepherd’s hut, when he showed his preference for Aphrodite, praising her for furthering his sad lust. (Iliad 24)
Scamander River
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/2595
Curiously, though Skepsis is near the Aesepus [Aisepos] River, its coins show the Scamander River god [called the Xanthus River by immortals per Iliad 20].
Zeus Idaeus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/204
and
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/207
The second coin shows Zeus Idaeus (Idaios) receiving a bull as a sacrifice. See Ilus and Palladium CNG Coin ID 266062 above and Pergamon Zeus Philius Coin BMCG Mysia pg 141 no 260 below.
Sigeum (Sigeon). Mentioned by Herodotus and near the mouth of the Hellespont on the seacoast just a few miles west of the traditional Trojan War site at Hisarlik.
Athenian Style
TROAS, Sigeion [Sigeium]. 4th-3rd centuries BC. AR Drachm (16mm, 3.09 g, 12h). Head of Athena facing slightly right, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet, disc earrings, and necklace / Owl standing right, head facing; crescent [moon signifying Athenian victory over Persia, and by implication dominance over Sigeum among its many tributary cities in NWA and beyond] to left, ΣIΓE to right; all within shallow incuse square. Cf. BMC 1 for a similar tetrobol (?). Head (HN p. 549) argued that this rare issue of silver was struck while Sigeion was under the control of the Athenian general [and despot] Chares, circa 355-354 BC. [Coin design is non-Iliadic but relevant to Athenian dominance and revision of the Iliad.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 293380.
Tenedos. Island mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. Issued some of the earliest coins in NWA, not clearly Iliadic. Apollo’s worship at Tenedos related to coin denomination of obol (CNG Coin ID 166030) whose name means spit or skewer as used to share meat left after sacrifices. Coins do not show Apollo Smintheus, “Trojan” horse left by Greeks lying in wait at Tenedos, or any horse at all. Instead, they show janiform head and labrys (double-blade axe) later replaced by Athens’ own Athena, reflecting her dominance in NWA.
Athenian Style
ISLANDS off TROAS, Tenedos. Circa 490-480 BC. AR Didrachm (19mm, 8.94 g, 9h). Janiform head: on the left, a bearded male face to left; on the right, a female face to right; both have archaic, almond-shaped facing eyes, both wear a stephane, and both share a disc earring with a rosette pattern and a double-curved pendant; their combined neck is encircled by a necklace of pearls / TEN-E (retrograde), Bearded male head to left, wearing a Corinthian helmet and a pearl necklace; above to left, inscription; all within incuse square. BMC 8 = Traité I, 630, pl. XIV, 9 var. (left Janiform head without beard). Ex Nomos 1 (6 May 2009), lot 95. The early coinage of Tenedos … seems to begin in the last quarter of the 6th century with didrachms that bear a male/female janiform head, very similar to the one on this coin, but, on the reverse, a double-axe, a pelekys, and a retrograde inscription giving the city’s name (as BMC pl. XVII, 2 = Traité I, 622, pl. XVI 2 = ACGC 109). The heads [on this coin] have fully frontal eyes and the so-called archaic smile is most apparent; yet this coin was clearly produced at the end of the Archaic period, with the female head being very reminiscent of those of Athena found on the Starr Group I issues of Athens, thus dating it to the 490s or 480s BC [not long after the Athenian composition of the Iliad]. This important janiform head is also very reminiscent of the double-head kantharoi that were produced in Athens in the late 6th and earlier 5th centuries... Tenedos played a significant part in the Trojan War, beginning with Achilles’ conquest of the island: Long-haired Hecamede prepared refreshment for them (Nestor, Machaon, and Eurymedon). She was the daughter of proud Arsinous whom old Nestor had brought from Tenedos when Achilles sacked it (Iliad 11). The feud was followed by his feud with Agamemnon: Her [the daughter of Apollo’s priest Chryse], I [Agamemnon] shall not free; and [Chryses] prayed deeply to Lord Apollo, "Hear me, Silver Bow, protector of Chryse and holy Cilla, high lord of Tenedos: if ever I built a shrine that pleased you, if ever I burned the fat thighs of a bull or goat for you, grant my wish: Smintheus, with your arrows make the Greeks pay for my tears” [compelling Agamemnon to send the girl home, but he confiscated Achilles’ girl Briseis as a replacement] (Iliad 1). The Trojan War was ended by the placement of a wooden horse while Greek ships hid behind the isle for Troy’s gates to open: Then he [Demodocus] sang how the Achaeans left their hollow hiding place, and poured from the horse, to sack the city. He sang how the other warriors [who had returned in their ships hidden behind Tenedos] dispersing through the streets, laid waste high Troy … (Odyssey 8). [Coin design is non-Iliadic but relevant to Athenian dominance and revision of the Iliad.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 199612.
Thymbra. Location unknown but apparently near site of Trojan War:
The Carians, Paeonians of the curved bow, Leleges, Caucones and noble Pelasgi, are camped towards the coast [from Ilium]. While the Lycians, lordly Mysians, Phrygian horsemen and Maeonian charioteers are camped towards Thymbre. (Iliad 10)
Coin type with Zeus Ammon head and reverse star inscribed ThY (QY) purchased by H. P. Borrell in Cannakale in 1825. Long attributed to a supposed Thymbra, Thymbrara, Thymbre, or Thymbria in NWA, supported by similar starred reverse at Colone, which also shares Athena with a second ThY type, and Zeus Ammon shown at Lampsacus. However, reported as not found in NWA according to Louis Robert and J. M. Cook, and three ThY coins found in recent Pergamene excavation (Lenger). Ancient bronze coins were tokens for local use, seldom circulating far from issuing cities. Thus, ThY coins likely from Pergamon area; see ThY under South Mysia below.
2.2 North Mysia
Coins of north Mysian city-states Harpagium (Harpagion), Priapus (Priapos; named for the deity of fertility and male genitalia), and Proconnesus (Prokonnesos) Island are not clearly Iliadic. The supposed abduction or rape of Ganymede occurred in north Mysia, somewhere between Priapus on the west and Cyzicus on the east, possibly closer to Harpagium (Harpagion) or Zelea, but he is not shown on north Mysian coins.
Cyzicus (Kyzikos). Located on the Propontis (Sea of Marmara) in area of Ganymede’s abduction as mentioned above. Very early issuer of coins (CNG Coin ID 324380). Somewhat later coins show Zeus Ammon head (CNG Coin ID 300339), but Cyzicus too far from any likely “ThY” coin city (see below under south Mysia) to consider a connection between this non-Iliadic but indirectly relevant coin design feature.
Aesepus River
MYSIA, Cyzicus. CE 193-211. AE 33 mm. Imperial name and titles around laureate bust of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus right (not illustrated) / CTPA ALF MODE[CTO]V KVZIK around and AICHPOC in exergue below trophy crowned by emperor right both above Aesepus (Aisepos) river god reclining and facing right. BMCG Mysia pg 52 no 247. [This coin shows and names the Aesepus (Aisepos) river but it should be found not at Cyzicus but to the west near Zelea (Iliad 2); and Zelea coins show not the god of its Aesepus river but the Scamander’s even further west.
Priam (?)
MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 550-500 BC. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater (11mm, 2.67 g). Archaic bearded male head left; below, tunny left / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 66; SNG France 194; Prospero 439 = Rosen 447 (same dies). [The archaic bearded portrait is unlike Ilium’s (see CNG coin ID 283535 above), lacking Phrygian cap, and we will not consider it to be clearly Iliadic.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 222559.
Scylla
http://snible.org/coins/hn/mysia.html#cyzicus
HN pg 525: Electrum, Wroth Period III c. 450-400 BCE, BMCG Mysia pp xv & xvii. Shows Scylla (Skylla). [This coin’s design is so closely related to Homer’s Odyssey that, along with coins that show Homer or his family, we will consider it to be virtually Iliadic!]
Germe. Location uncertain, either in northwestern Mysia on Rhyndacus River or in northwestern Lydia on Caicus River. See Germe below under CWA - Lydia.
Lampsacus (Lampsakos). On the Hellespont and sometimes classified as Troadic. Early coins not clearly Iliadic (CNG Coin ID 317884).
Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)
MYSIA, Lampsacus. Julius Caesar. Circa 45 BC. Æ 23mm (9.76 g). Laureate head of Caesar right / Priest [who could be seen as Agamemnon] plowing right with two oxen [who could be seen as the Ajaxes per Iliad 14; but not considered as intentionally Iliadic; see above under Alexandria – Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)]. RPC I 2268. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 107504.
Zeus Ammon
Zeus Ammon is not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
http://snible.org/coins/hn/mysia.html#Lampsacus
HN pg 530: 394-350 BCE AV stater, Zeus Ammon head / Pegasus or winged horse.
Cf. ThY under South Mysia below.
Parium (Parion). Coins not clearly Iliadic early (CNG Coin ID 269480) but Iliadic later.
Aeneas
MYSIA, Parium. Gallienus. AD 253-268. Æ 27mm (10.31 g, 12h). ILLP LICINN CR, laureate and draped bust right / C G I H PA, Aeneas, in military outfit, standing facing, head left, holding with his right hand Ascanius, who is standing at left, and cradling in his left arm Anchises, who has his right arm around Aeneas’ neck and holds the Penates in his left hand. Voegtli type 25n. From the James E. Cain Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 114896.
Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)
MYSIA, Parium. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ (16mm, 2.04 g, 7h). Laureate head right / Founder [who could be seen as Agamemnon] plowing right with two oxen [who could be seen as the Ajaxes per Iliad 14; but not considered as intentionally Iliadic; see above under Alexandria – Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)]. SNG France 1472 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., CNG Coin ID 265257.
Palladium (?)
MYSIA, Parium. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ (22mm, 5.42 g, 1h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Cupid standing left, head right; Palladium to lower left [but lacking clear details, and described more recently as a herm, thus we will not consider it to be Iliadic; see Coin ID=326789]. CNG E280, lot 417. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 326202.
Zelea (Zelia). Near the location of Ganymede’s abduction or rape, though he is not shown on its coins. Populated by Trojans and sometimes classified as Troadic rather than Mysian.
Pandarus
Then he [Pandarus] opened his quiver and took a new-feathered arrow, darkly freighted with pain, swiftly fitted the bitter shaft to the string, and vowed to Lycian Apollo, lord of the bow, a great sacrifice of firstling lambs once he was home again in holy Zeleia. Gripping the notched arrow and the ox-gut string he drew it back to his chest till the iron point was against the bow, and bending the great bow in a curve, it twanged, the string sang out, and the keen arrow leapt, eager to wing its way towards the foe. (Iliad 4)
[MYSIA], Zeleia. Circa 4th century BC. Æ 11mm (1.04 gm). Head of Artemis right, wearing stephanos / Monogram [based on an artifactual or schematic representation of the extremely curved bow of Pandarus (Pandaros) which is shown as shooting right but formed from a Mt. Ida stag’s head and horns rotated a quarter-turn clockwise; see Cutler – Pandaros.] within grain-wreath. SNG Copenhagen (Troas) 503-504; Babelon, Traité, (Mysia) pl. 172, 31-32. From the David Freedman Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 23279.
2.3 Hellespontic Thrace and Its Islands
Coins issued in Hellespontic Thrace (Thrake) and its islands by Aegospotamoi (Aigospotamoi), Alopeconnesus (Alopekonnesos), Cardia (Kardia), Cherronesus (Cherronesos), Coela (Koila), Crithote (Krithote), Hephaestia (Hephaistia, named for the god demoted to Lesbos by Zeus), Imbrus (Imbros), Lemnos (Lemnus) Island (in the Iliad and Odyssey, and mentioned by Herodotus), Samothrace (Samothrake) Island (in the Iliad and mentioned by Herodotus), and Sestus (Sestos; in the Iliad and mentioned by Herodotus) are not clearly Iliadic. Apparently Herodotus accepted the cities in the Iliad as being Homeric prior to any Athenian influence.
Coela (Coila).
Aeneas
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9/165
Flight of Aeneas with his father Anchises and son Ascanius.
Elaeus (Eleous, Elaious, Elaius). Not to be confused with Elaeusa (Elaioussa, Elaioussa) in Cilicia. Mentioned by Herodotus.
Protesilaus
From Phylace, … [he] led men while he lived, though now indeed the black earth had claimed him, slain by a Trojan warrior, first of the Achaeans to leap ashore. (Iliad 2)
THRACE, Elaios. Circa 330-280 BC. Æ 16mm (5.45 g). Prow [of Protesilaus’ galley] right / Legend within laurel-wreath. SNG Copenhagen 889-90. From the Christopher Morcom Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 111146.
and
THRACE, Elaeus. Commodus. 177-192 AD. Æ 26mm (8.67g). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right; c/m: helmeted head of Athena left / [Protesilaus per RPC Online at http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/6218] standing right on prow of galley. C/m: Howgego 184. From the Ian Roper Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 71968.
Hellespontic Thrace. Uncertain mint of King Lysimachus (Lysimachos).
Palladium
KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. [Uncertain mint.] 305-281 AD. Æ 23mm (7.28 gm). Male head right wearing Phrygian helmet / Trophy [appearing to be Iliadic with a reverse figure called a trophy, but with a small round shield and an untrophy-like horizontal spear at a shoulder-top position that makes the figure appear very similar to a Palladium on the reverse. We will assume that this coin type was minted in Hellespontic Thrace, not far from where Palladiums are often shown as symbols on coins. Also, the Phrygian helmet is associated with Trojans (e.g., see Ganymede, Paris, and Priam above under Ilium) and their allies. We will consider the trophy to be equivalent to a Palladium.] SNG Copenhagen 1164. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 38275.
Madytus (Madytos). Mentioned by Herodotus.
Hecuba
THRACE, Madytos. Circa 350 BC. AR Triobol (12mm, 2.20 g, 12h). Bull butting right; above, grape bunch on vine that extends down into exergue / [Hecuba as] Hound seated right [Euripides’ play Hecuba tells us that the captured Trojan queen became a dog before she escaped, and was eventually buried near Madytus.]; M-A/Δ/Y around. Apparently the first known silver issue from this extremely rare city. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 215353.
Myrina. Not to be confused with Myrina on Crete or Lemnos Island. Located on Lemnos Island. Mentioned by Herodotus. Myrina’s name is an alternative to the Iliadic name Myrine (see Batea and Dardanus under Ilium above). However, the use of the same name for the city and the hill may be mere coincidence and will not be considered to be Iliadic.
2.4 Bithynia and Vicinity
Bithynia and nearby locations of extreme northern Phrygia, northwest Galatia, and west Paphlagonia could be regarded as in the NWA region because of the Hellespontic water route to Ilium. However, the cities were fewer and smaller than those of CWA destinations where ships, crews, and passengers are likely to have spent more time; and some travel between the Bithynian and CWA would have been overland. Therefore, we could expect Bithynian coin designs to be somewhat like those in the rest of NWA, and somewhat like those in CWA.
Amastris. In northwest Paphlagonia just beyond Bithynia.
Homer
PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Time of the Antonines, AD 138-192. Æ (21mm, 6.63 g, 6h). OMHPOC, draped bust of Homer right, wearing taenea / Turreted, veiled, and draped bust of Tyche right. RG 50. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 293676.
Another type shows Homer called Melesigenes, supposedly born along the Meles River whose god is shown on the reverse
Homer Melesigenes
PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. 2nd Century AD. Æ 21mm (5.84 gm). Draped bust of poet Homer right [called Melesigenes for his birth on the Meles River or as a son of the Meles river god], wearing taenia / River-god Meles reclining left on rock outcropping, holding lyre and reed. SNG Stancomb 1053; cf. SNG Copenhagen 251 (Æ 28). [The principal river of Amastris is the Parthenius (Parthenios); the Meles seems to be shown only because it is the river of Homer, as indicated by the river god’s lyre.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 50180.
Apamea. Not to be confused with Apamea in Phrygia or Syria. Originally colonized by Colophon and named Myrlea, Apamea in Bithynia issued coins only long after the Athenian revision.
Aeneas
BITHYNIA [listed as PHRYGIA in error based on the reverse D- D as on Coin ID 134444 ], Apamea. Gallienus. AD 253-268. Æ (28mm, 10.33 g, 1h). Radiate and mantled bust right, raising hand and holding eagle-tipped scepter over shoulder / Aeneas advancing left, leading his son Ascanius with his right hand and bearing his father Anchises on his left shoulder. From the J.S. Wagner Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 177218.
Cotiaeum (Kotiaion). In northern Phrygia on Tembris (Tembrus or Tembros) River tributary of Sangarius (Sangarios or Sagaris) River, thus considered to be in NWA.
Telephus
PHRYGIA, Cotiaeum. Trajan. 98-117 AD. Æ 31mm (15.65 gm). M. Scapula, proconsul and Cl. Varus, magistrate. Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / Nude Herakles standing, holding club and the infant Telephos. BMC Phrygia pg.166, 40; cf.Voegtli pl. 19, i. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 30812.
Heraclea (Heraklea). Not to be confused with Heraclea in Caria, Illyria, Ionia, Lucania, Macedonia, Sicily, or Thessaly.
Palladium (?)
BITHYNIA, Herakleia Pontike. Klearchos. Tyrant, circa 364-352 BC. AR Obol (10mm, 0.69 g, 12h). Head of Herakles left, wearing lion skin / Trophy left. [See Lysimachia above under Hellespontic Thrace regarding the similarity of the trophy to a Palladium, but consider that this reverse design’s intention to represent a trophy rather than Athena is demonstrated by the addition of a Hercules-related club not associated with Athena; thus, we will not consider this coin to show a Palladium or to be Iliadic]; to left, K above club; bow in bow-case to right. SNG BM Black Sea 1593; HGC 7, 477. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 244320.
Juliopolis (Iuliopolis). Originally named Gordiucome.
Sagaris River
BITHYNIA, Juliopolis. CE 138-161. AE 18 mm. Imperial name and titles around bust of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius right (not illustrated) / IOVLIOPO… upward on left and CAGA below Sagaris river god reclining and facing left. [The Phrygian defense against the Amazons was assisted by its ally Priam at the Sangarius (Sangarios; see Otrus in Phrygia below) also known as the Sagaris or Sagarus River.] BMCG 13 pg 149 no 1.
Midaeum (Midaion). Located in bordering extreme northern Phrygia on Tembris (Tembrus or Tembros) River near the Sangarius (Sagaris, Sagarus, or Sangarios) River, thus considered to be in NWA.
Telephus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/7.1/762
Coin shows infant Telephus held above a doe that suckled him by his father Hercules.
Nicea (Nikia). Not to be confused with Nicea in Lydia. Originally named Ancore but only issued coins long after Athenian revision.
Achilles and Peleus
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/julia_mamaea/_nicaea_SM_402.jpg
and
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/julia_mamaea/_nicaea_SM_402.txt
Then he [Achilles] took his father’s spear from its stand, the long, massive, weighty spear of ash from the summit of Pelion that [his tutor the Centaur] Cheiron gave his beloved father [Peleus] for the killing of men, and that Achilles alone now of all the Greeks could wield (Iliad 19).
Homer
BITHYNIA, Nicaea [Nikaia]. Commodus. AD 177-192. Æ (24mm, 7.93 g, 8h). Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Homer seated left, holding scroll, resting arm on seat. RG 285. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 257713.
Sagaris River
http://snible.org/coins/hn/bithynia.html#Nicaea
HN pg 517. BMCG 13 pg 167 no 96: Roman Emperor Severus Alexander 222-235 CE AE 28 mm M AVP CEV ALEXANDPOC AV around laureate bust right / NIKAIEWN around bearded Sagaris river god reclining to left, looking back, CAGAPIC in exergue below. [The Phrygian defense against the Amazons was assisted by its ally Priam at the Sangarius (see Otrus in Phrygia below) also known as the Sagaris or Sagarus River.]
Nicomedia (Nikomedia).
Leda
BITHYNIA, Nicomedia. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ (18mm, 4.43 g, 2h). Radiate and draped bust right / Leda standing facing, head right, her drapery being pulled at by swan. RG 316. Leda was the wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. Zeus copulated with Leda in the form of a swan, with Leda subsequently giving birth to his children Helen and Polydeuce [Pollux]. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 250847.
Telephus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/10816
This coin shows Hercules and his infant son Telephus with a doe that suckled him.
Pessinus (Pessinos). In northwest Galatia.
Sangarius River
http://snible.org/coins/hn/galatia.html#Pessinus
HN pg 748: Sangarius river god. [The Phrygian defense against the Amazons was assisted by its ally Priam at the Sangarius (see Otrus in Phrygia below) also known as the Sagaris or Sagarus River.]
Prusa (Prousa). At Bithynia’s Mount Olympus, not to be confused with the Bithynian Prusas on the Hypius River or the Propontis.
Ajax Son of Telamon
BITHYNIA, Prusa ad Olympum. Caracalla. 198-217 AD. Æ 25mm (9.51 gm). AVT K M AVP A-NTWNEINOC CE-BA, laureate head right / PPO-VCAEW-N, Ajax the Telamonian falling upon his sword left [caught red-handed]; pile of stones before, shield below. Waddington 102; SNG von Aulock 873; Cornell 100 (this coin). Rare Trojan War reference. From the David Simpson Collection. Ajax led the warriors of Salamis to Troy, and was regarded as the second greatest Greek warrior, after Achilles. When he failed to win Achilles' armor after the latter's tragic death, Ajax went mad and, after creating turmoil amidst the Greek ranks, finally committed suicide by falling on his sword. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16418.
3.0 COINS OF CENTRAL WEST ANATOLIA (CWA) and Vicinity
The Athenian revision, to the extent that its purpose may have included Iliadic promotion in NWA, would probably have been less likely to affect CWA coinage. Of the approximately 200 coin-issuing city-states in NWA, we will identify those using clearly Iliadic designs.
3.1 South Mysia and Its Islands
City-states of south Mysia and its islands (excluding the area of Lesbos with Antissa, Eresus, and Methymna listed under “Troas”) whose coin designs are not clearly Iliadic include Apollonia on the Caicus upstream of Pergamon (unpublished; see CNG Coin ID 53590), Adramytium (Adramytion; conquered by Achilles); Autocane (Autokane; possibly in Aeolis), Cisthene (Kisthene), Iolla, Nesos (off the coast toward Lesbos and NWA), Perperene, Pordosilene later Poroselene (off the coast toward Lesbos and NWA), Pyrrha (on Lesbos which was conquered by Achilles), and Thebe (in the Iliad conquered by Achilles; also see Cutler - Eëtion). Other cities that issued coins of more interest include:
Atarneus (Atarneos). Near seacoast southwest of Pergamon. May have witnessed beginning of Trojan War.
Coiled Snake
MYSIA, Atarneos. Circa 400 BC. Æ 11mm (0.88 gm). Laureate head of Apollo right / Forepart of horse right, [coiled serpent] above. SNG France 129; SNG Copenhagen 25. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 38297.
[On ancient coins, a serpent may be either the Delphic python killed by Apollo (as depicted on many Atarnean coins), or the constant companion of the god of medicine Asclepius (aka Aesculapius or Asklepios). In the latter case, we would expect the involvement of Asclepius with his serpent as: (Achilles) heal(ed) Telephus (wounded southwest of Pergamon at the outset of the Trojan War) … so that he might be their guide on the voyage to Ilium (Cypria). Alternatively, we could view the coiled snake as a ready-to-strike representation of the poisonous spear of Achilles that wounded Telephus. We will consider this coin as Iliadic. Regarding Asclepius, his family, and his symbols, they are common on ancient coins throughout the Greek world, and we will not endeavor to investigate them thoroughly.]
Attea (Attia). Near seacoast west of Pergamon. May have hosted Trojan War battles.
Eurypylus and Telephus
MYSIA, Attaea [Attaia]. Commodus. 177-192 AD. Æ 26mm (3.66 gm, 12h). Laureate and draped bust right / EPI STR ROUFOU [ATTAITWN], Naked Hero [Trojan War heroes fought in some armor, from helmet to corselet to greaves, but are sometimes shown nude; we will consider this hero to be Telephus] before Zeus [grandfather of Telephus], eagle before, on a platform [in front of which is a child who we will consider to be Telephus’ son Eurypylus, the leader of the Ceteians (Keteians) from the Ceteis River Valley who fought in the Trojan War (Odyssey 11)]. SNG von Aulock Supp. 7208. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 56509.
Gambrium (Gambrion). In Caicus valley upstream of Pergamon, probably beyond significant Trojan War activity. For comparison to ThY under South Mysia below.
Caicus River and Star
The star is not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
MYSIA, Gambrion. After 350 BC. Lot of two Æ, as follows: Æ 17mm (3.47 gm). Laureate head of Apollo left / Bull [possibly representing the Caicus River] butting left; star above [perhaps the sun; see Ilium above under Colone – Star]. SNG Copenhagen 154-155. // Æ 16mm (3.90 gm). Laureate head of Apollo right / Star. SNG Copenhagen 146-148. [Cf. ThY under South Mysia below.] From the David Freedman Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 23256.
Mytilene. Near south Mysia, on east part of Lesbos Island conquered by Achilles. Island’s principal city. Issued coinage as early as sixth century.
Dada
[Under Roman Emperor Trajan, a coin was issued for his niece Matidia which shows her in the guise of Dada, a legendary but now little-known woman who came from Crete to Lesbos, apparently settling at Mytilene. Dada may have been a niece of King Scamander, who was called the first king of the Trojans. If so, then Matidia’s uncle Trajan could have been likened to Dada’s uncle Trojan. The Romans enjoyed making puns, as demonstrated on many Republican denarii, and loved to parade their supposed Trojan heritage.]
LESBOS, Mytilene. CE 105-119. AE 22mm. MVTI [for Mytilene] upward on left and DADA downward on right of head of Roman Empress Matidia as Dada, who was associated with Scamander said to be the first Trojan king / PANKPA downward on right and TIDHC upward on left of Dada-associated physician Pankratides left facing a serpent coiled around a column . BMCG 17 pp lxxiv-lxxv and pg 199 no 161.
Leda
LESBOS, Mytilene. Circa 377-326 BC. EL Hekte (2.49 g, 5h). Female head (Leda?) right / Swan standing right, head left, wing raised, within linear square in incuse square. Bodenstedt Em. 82 (dies a/- [unlisted rev. die]); Numismatica Ars Classica O, lot 1603. Ex Tkalec (22 April 2007), lot 71. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 132508.
Pergamus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/380
We prefer the Pergamus (to RPC’s alternative of Telephus) identification on this Mytilene-Pergamon alliance issue because the hero should be the principal personification of Pergamon allied with Mytilene which is personified by its city goddess Tyche; and because the hero’s hand is said to hold a statue of Asclepius, representing Pergamon’s large and famous Asclepion.
Zeus Ammon
Zeus Ammon is not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
LESBOS, Mytilene. Pseudo-autonomous issue. temp. Valerian and Gallienus, AD 253-260. Æ (18mm, 2.68 g, 6h). Head of Zeus right, with horn of Ammon / Facing herm of Dionysius, with grape bunch, on prow right. [Cf. ThY under South Mysia below.] SNG Copenhagen 412; BMC 184. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 315557.
Pergamon (also known as Pergamum). Suggested by Lascelles and Crowe as location of Trojan War.
Altar of Pergamon
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 193-211. AE 44 mm. Imperial inscription around and below laureate bust of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus right and bust of Roman Empress Julia Domna facing left / Pergamene magistral inscription around and below vaulted distyle shrine [the Great Altar of Pergamon per HN pg 536. The coin shows an abstraction of Pergamon’s Great Altar, now in Berlin. The Great Altar includes a “Telephus” frieze of many panels that illustrate the people and events of his life, including his being suckled by a lion (though typically by a doe on coins), leading to his adoption as the successor of King Teuthras, the founder of Teuthrania.] BMCG Mysia pg 144 no 277.
Andromache (?)
MYSIA, Pergamum. Maximinus I or Maximus, Caesar. Circa AD 235-238. Æ Medallion (43mm, 32.56 g). Aurelius Nilus, magistrate. Uniface / Tyche standing left, holding cornucopiae and sacrificing over altar, female figure (Andromache?) standing before her; pelta (?) between. SNG France 2273 (obv. details also obliterated); BMC Mysia p. 160, 339 (same). The magistrate Nilus is known for other issues in the name of Maximinus I and Maximus, most of which have either partially or wholly effaced obverses. This piece and the similar examples in Paris and London appear to have been intentionally struck uniface. There is no trace of alteration to the obverse, and the shape of the flan suggests it was originally one-sided. Perhaps Nilus ordered the obverse dies held back, until the chaos at the heart of the empire sorted itself out? Another question is raised by the female figure standing alongside Tyche. BMC has (Demeter?), while Paris calls her simply a "female divinity." The identification of the object in the field as a pelta (shield) suggests one possibility. Andromache, the Trojan wife of Hector, was awarded as spoils of war to Neoptolemos, son of Achilles. Their son Pergamos was the eponymous founder of Pergamon, and later her tomb was located at that city. Tyche is offering sacrifice to the mother of the city's founder. [The symbol may be not a pelta but a race-torch or other item, and the figures could be deities or personifications such as of Homonoia (BMCG Mysia pg 160 no 339). Even Maximinus’ wife Paulina could be as likely to be shown as Andromache. We will not consider this coin to be Iliadic.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 105654.
Apollo Smintheus
Apollo Smintheus used his bow to aid his priest Chryses: Hear me [Chryses], Silver Bow, protector of Chryse and holy Cilla, high lord of Tenedos: if ever I built a shrine that pleased you, if ever I burned the fat thighs of a bull or goat for you, grant my wish: Smintheus, with your arrows make the Greeks pay for my tears. (Iliad 1)
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 138-161. AE 34 mm. Laureate head of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius right (not illustrated) / Asklepios at right with snake-encircled staff and Apollo Smintheos at left with bow. BMCG Mysia pg 145 no 278.
Athena, Stars, and Theta
The design elements named above are not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
MYSIA, Pergamon. 310-284 BC. Æ 9mm (1.10 gm). Helmeted head of Athena right / Two stars, Q above. [Cf. ThY under South Mysia below.] SNG France 1587; SNG Copenhagen 325. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 38301.
and
MYSIA, Pergamon. Mid-late 2nd century BC. Æ (16mm, 2.97 g, 12h). Helmeted head of Athena right, star on helmet / Owl, with wings spread, standing facing, on palm branch; ΣΑΣ to left. SNG Copenhagen 383. [The latter coin shows only one of the symbols of interest, a very prominent star on the helmet of Athena.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 260321.
Auge
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/3099
This coin shows Auge and Hercules, the parents of Telephus.
Caicus River
The Caicus (Kaikos; possibly analogous to NWA’s Scamander or Simois) River flows southwest from the Pergamon area to the sea. Greeks soldiers may have traveled upstream to reach Pergamon.
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 98-117. AE 18 mm. Inscription around laureate head of Trajan right (not illustrated) / Inscriptions of Proconsul of Asia Quadratus EP AN AY KOYADRATOY around above and river name Caicus KAIKOC below; river god reclining and facing left holding up cornucopia. BMCG Mysia pg 143 no 268.
Ceteis River
The Ceteis (Keteis; possibly analogous to NWA’s Scamander or Simois) River joins the Caicus River after flowing south along the west side of Pergamon. Greek soldiers may have crossed the Ceteis to attack Pergamon’s walls from the west.
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 136-138. AE 23 mm. Bare head of Roman Caesar Aelius right (not illustrated) / Bearded river-god Keteios reclining right with reed and overturned urn, from which water flows; KHTEIOC below. BMCG Mysia pg 144 no 277.
Coronis
MYSIA, Pergamum. Sabina. Augusta, AD 128-136/7. Æ 20mm (5.54 g). Draped bust right / Coronis [appearing on coins only of Pergamon; perhaps associated with Sabina on the obverse], the mother of Aesclepius, standing facing, arms crossed over her chest. SNG von Aulock 1399. Coronis [KOPWNIC downward on the right side of the reverse], the daughter of a king of Boeotia, had a dalliance with the god Apollo, but chose to marry a mortal, Iskyos. The jealous god slew Coronis, but their yet-unborn son Aesclepius was rescued from the funeral pyre and given to Cheiron to raise. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 95917.
Thanks, no doubt, to help from Asclepius, Telephus recovered from the wound of Achilles’ poisonous spear head, and other Trojan War wounded were treated. Later, Pergamon built its Asclepion which became the greatest hospital in Anatolia. Many Asclepian coins from Pergamon show Asclepius, his daughter Hygea (Hygia; the root of the word hygiene), his son Telesphorus (Telesphoros; not to be confused with Telephus!), or their healing symbol, a serpent often coiled around a rod in the form of a caduceus (HN pg 534-6 at http://snible.org/coins/hn/mysia.html#pergamum). Medical practice was of such exceptional importance at Pergamon that even the mother Asclepius never knew was memorialized on its coinage. She appears neither on coins from elsewhere, nor in the Iliad.
Eurypylus
… what a warrior that hero Eurypylus [Eurypylos] … and Eurypylus’ Mysian [Homer’s word was Keteian, i.e., from the Ceteius River valley] comrades slain around him … (Odyssey 11)
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/1740/1
Eurypylus the son of Telephus is portrayed and named on the obverse of the coin. His son Grynus [Grynos] who succeeded his father as king was said to be the eponymous founder of Grynium (Grynion) but neither Grynus nor the city is mentioned in the Iliad or Odyssey, and will not consider Grynium coins, even those that show a bearded head that may represent Grynus (HN pg 555), to be Iliadic.
Palladium
MYSIA, Pergamon. Mid-late 330s BC. AV Stater (17mm, 8.62 g, 1h). Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Archaistic Palladion [perhaps shown at Pergamon in connection with the city’s legendary founding by Pergamus the son of Neoptolemus and Andromache, and thus grandson of Achilles and Priam; the connection could be with Alexander the Great through his role model Achilles (see conclusion of this paragraph)]: statue of Pallas Athena standing facing, holding spear aloft in right hand, preparing to strike, on left arm, a shield adorned with a four-point star and fillet hanging below; to lower left, a crested Corinthian helmet right; all within concave circular incuse. Callataÿ, Statères 2 (D2/R3); Von Fritze, Pergamon 7 var. (rev. not incuse); SNG France 1557 = De Luynes 2493; Gulbenkian 699 = Jameson 2580 var. (same); PCG pl. 28, 25 var. (same). From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams, purchased from Harlan J. Berk, August 2007. Although lacking a legend, this series has been attributed to Pergamon, based on similar silver fractions, which also contain the city ethnic, ΠEPΓA(M) (SNG France 1558-66). On the other hand, the date of this issue is less certain. SNG France placed it circa 310-284 BC, though ignoring that two examples of this type were found in the Saïda hoard (IGCH 1508 = CH VIII 190), which Westermark dated to circa 323/20 BC. She also saw a correlation between these staters and those of Philippi in Macedon (an example of which was in the hoard), and accordingly dated them to after 336 BC (echoed by G.K. Jenkins and M. Castro Hipólito in the Gulbenkian catalog), based on Mørkholm's placement of the Philippi issues during the reign of Alexander (EHC pp. 84-5). Mørkholm's dating, however, was based on the single coin of Philippi in the Saïda hoard (Saïda 34), which was of such high grade that he thought it must have been struck near the date of the hoard's deposit. Other numismatists, however, have placed these Philippi staters earlier, circa 356-345 BC (Bellinger, Philippi p. 37, and N. Waggoner in SNG ANS). The hoard also contained ten of the twelve known examples of an extremely rare gold issue of Kios. Significantly, this issue of Kios and the fact that the Pergamene staters have a close stylistic affinity with the coinages of Philip II and Alexander III – offer a potential clue toward identifying when and why they were struck. More recently, F. de Callataÿ has revisited the issue by examining the examples of this issue that have appeared on the market over the last decade (F. de Callataÿ. “Les statères de Pergame et les réquisitions d’Alexandre le Grand: l’apport d’un nouveau trésor (‘Statères de Pergame 2004’)” in RN 169 [2012]). Exhibiting no traces of circulation wear, these coins are closer to the full Attic weight than the two more worn specimens in the Saïda hoard, suggesting an earlier date for this issue than circa 323/20 BC. Callataÿ also demonstrated (along with the two specimens in the Saïda hoard) that in total five obverse and seven reverse dies by two engravers were used in striking this issue, all of which are die-linked. The obverse dies share a close stylistic similarity to early Alexandrine issues of Miletos (cf. Leu 81, lot 182) and Abydos (cf. CNG 70, lot 92), as well as earlier staters of Philippi (cf. Triton IX, lot 724). Likewise, the control marks that appear on these Pergamene coins (Corinthian helmet, rose, and eagle [or cock]), are symbols typically found on coins from early in the reign of Alexander III. The apparently brief but intense minting of these Pergamene staters, with their links to Macedonian types struck early in the reign of Alexander III, suggests that these coins were struck from funds requisitioned locally for the Macedonian troops in Asia Minor of Alexander himself in 334 BC (cf. Diod. Sic. 17.19-21; cf. Plut. Vit. Alex. 16.1-8; cf. Arr. Anab. 1.14-16). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 292033.
Pergamus
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 81-138. AE 17 mm. Bearded head of founder Pergamos right wearing taenia, PERGAMOC upward at right / Snake-encircled staff. BMCG Mysia pg 136 no 225.
and
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/3187
This coin’s reverse shows Asclepius crowned by Pergamus.
Priam (?)
MYSIA, Pergamon. Mid 5th century BC. AR Diobol (11mm, 1.72 g, 10h). Laureate head of Apollo right; star(?) behind neck / Bearded head right, wearing Persian tiara, within incuse square. Von Fritze, Pergamon pl. I, 1; Mørkholm, Pergamene 1; SNG France 1546–8; SNG von Aulock 1347; Winzer 7.1 (Eurysthenes, satrap of Pergamon). From the first coinage of Pergamon. The identification of the portrait on the reverse of this issue has been the subject of debate. The individualized features suggest it is the portrait of a person rather than the personification of a deity or mythical figure. Most recently, Winzer assigned this issue to Eurysthenes, but his attribution necessitates a downdating of the issue to circa 400 BC, which is unlikely, and also is based on a misinterpretation of Xenophon, Hellenica 3.1.6 (see Mørkholm, Pergamene, p. 182, note 1). The traditional dating of mid 5th century BC is probably correct, and the ruler of Pergamon during this time is uncertain. After the defeat of the Persians in the early fifth century, Gongylos of Eretria, who had served as an intermediary between the Spartans and Xerxes, was compelled to flee to Asia Minor, where he was granted the territory of Pergamon as a reward from the Great King. His descendants ruled over the city until at least 400 BC, so it is likely that the satrap depicted here is one of the Gongylid rulers. [Pergamon’s earliest coin type has an obverse showing Apollo, whose temple was on Ilium’s citadel called Pergamus according to Homer. The reverse shows a bearded founder or ruler wearing a Phrygian cap typical in the East. We can see the similarity by comparing it to a depiction of Priam inscribed with his name (see above CNG Coin ID 283535 under Ilium - Priam). If Homer had described the Trojan War as occurring at Pergamon (per Lascelles and Crowe), then this coin’s reverse could conceivably depict Priam. However, unless we determine that “Troy” was at Pergamon, we cannot assume that that the head is more likely to be Priam than Gongylus.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 239756.
Telephus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/3256
A Hercules and [his son] Telephus coin reverse of Commodus from Pergamon is said to be almost identical to a reverse of Caracalla from Germe (BMCG Mysia pg xxxiv).
Zeus Philius
MYSIA, Pergamon. CE 98-117. AE 18 mm. Inscription around laureate head of Trajan right (not illustrated) / Inscription ZEVC FILIOC around bare head of Zeus Philios right. [Zeus Philius is the friendly or likeable Zeus, reminiscent of the reciprocated love of Zeus for the Trojans (see above under Ilium – Ilus and Palladium CNG Coin ID 266062 including Iliad 4 quotation, and under Scepsis – Zeus Idaeus RPC Coin 4/207).]BMCG Mysia pg 141 no 260.
and
http://snible.org/coins/hn/mysia.html#pergamum
HN pg 659: This alliance coin of Pergamon with Thyatira shows Roman Emperor Trajan as Zeus Philius, as verified by its inscription.
Pitane. Near the mouth of the Eneus River and also the Caicus River flowing from the Pergamon area.
Zeus Ammon
Zeus Ammon is not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
MYSIA, Pitane. Circa 4th century BC. Æ 16mm (3.66 gm). Head of Zeus Ammon right / Pentagram. [Cf. ThY under South Mysia below shows a rayed star, but we will not consider the pentagram to be relevant.] SNG Copenhagen 530-531. From the David Freedman Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 23260.
.
Teuthrania. May have been region in lower or entire Caicus valley, or a city-state, possibly including Pergamon. Named for King Teuthras (see above under Pergamon - Altar). Greeks first landing site where Achilles wounded Telephus (Cypria).
Procles
MYSIA, Teuthrania. Prokles. Dynast of Teuthrania and Halisarna, circa 400-399 BC. AR Drachm (16mm, 3.21 g, 12h). Laureate head of Apollo left / Head of [Procles or] Prokles [the name of a supposed great-great-grandson of Telephus, and apparently this later descendant or ruler of territory in Telephus’ kingdom of Teuthrania as shown by this coin’s reverse inscription TEY] right, wearing Persian headdress; tamgha (of Prokles?) below chin. Winzer 8.2 = Leu 77, lot 278. According to Xenophon (Hell. 3.1.6), the cities of Teuthrania and Halisarna were ruled by the brothers Eurysthenes and Prokles, a hereditary territory that had been awarded to their ancestor, the exiled king of Sparta, Demaratos the Lakedaimon, by Xerxes for accompanying the Great King on his Greek expedition (see Hdt. Book 7 for the relationship between the two). The hereditary rule of Teuthrania and Halisarna by the direct descendants of Demaratos, among whom were Eurysthenes and Prokles – namesakes of the twin ancestral establishers of the Spartan royal line, suggests that these rulers were not satraps, but local dynasts (for a bibliography of the discussion on the differentiation between satraps and dynasts, see O. Mørkholm, “Pergamene Coins in Copenhagen,” in Studies Mildenberg, p. 182, note 2). Thus, it is possible that ours is one of the earliest depictions of a Greek ruler on a coin. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 309616.
ThY (QY). Thymbra discussed above under NWA – “Troas” but ThY coins
more likely from CWA.
Athena, Star, Torch, Wreath, and Zeus Ammon
The design elements named above are not directly Iliadic but may be useful for locating the likely origin of ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
TROAS [more likely CWA], Thymbra [unlikely]. Circa 4th century BC. Æ 18mm (5.87 gm). Head of Zeus Ammon left / QU, star of eight rays; HP monogram below. BMC Troas pg. 89, 4; SNG von Aulock 1584. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 47918.
and
TROAS [more likely CWA], Thymbria [?]. 4th century BC. Æ (16mm, 2.64 g, 3h). Helmeted head of Athena left / Torch within wreath. [For comparison to Athena heads on coins above under Colone – Star and Pergamon – Stars]. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 170958.
[Attribution to CWA is supported by recent excavation of three small bronze coins at Pergamon (Lenger), Zeus Ammon heads from Mytilene and Pitane, large star reverses from Gambrium, Mytilene, and Pergamon (star pair under theta), wreath reverses (some including a torch) from Elaea, and similar Athena heads from Elaea and Pergamon. Regarding the inscribed ThY, the issuing city could have been in Lydia at Hermocapelia (Hermokapelia; about 30 miles from Pergamon) previously named (?) Thyessus (Thyessos; favored by Lenger – personal communication) or Thyatira (about 40 miles from Pergamon); or elsewhere in south Mysia, northwest Lydia, or Aeolis (Aiolis). Only if we determine that the Trojan War is likely to have occurred in the area of Pergamon is the issuing city of these coins likely to have had a name similar to Homer’s Thymbra and to be Iliadic.]
3.2 Aeolis (Aiolis)
The Pergamon area’s Caicus River flows into Aeolis (Aiolis) and enters the sea below Teuthrania, at Pergamon’s port area. Aeolian city-states whose coin designs are not clearly Iliadic include Aegae (Aigai; it worshipped Apollo Chresterius, although some coin designs resemble Apollo Smintheus, as on CNG Coin ID 282149; we will not consider those to show Smintheus), Grynium (Grynion; named for the CWA hero Eurypylus of Odyssey 10), Larissa Phriconis (Larisa Phrikonis; see Larissa in NWA above, but this Larissa, about 110 to 120 miles from an NWA Trojan War, or 40 miles from a Pergamene war, does not seem to have coins related to Hippothous), and Myrina (whose name is an alternative to the Iliadic name Myrine; see Batea and Dardanus under Ilium above; since the use of the same name for the city and the hill may be mere coincidence, the coins are not clearly Iliadic). Other cities that issued coins of more interest include:
Cyme (Kyme). Not to be confused with Cyme in Euboea. Achilles conquest. Coinage began in fifth century, Iliadic types much later.
Crethis and Homer
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/215
Coin shows obverse of Homer seated and reverse of Homer’s mother, the nymph Crethis. She was supposedly born in Cyme.
Homer
AEOLIS, Cyme. CE 193-217. AE 20 mm. OMHPOC upward on left of Homer seated right / Oak wreath around KVM – A IWN (not illustrated). BMCG 17 pg 115 no 109.
Sibyl
http://snible.org/coins/hn/aeolis.html#cyme
HN pg 554: Coin shows the head of the sibyl (as CΙΒΥΛΛΑ) of Cyme, who may be related to the sibyl Herophile shown on coins of Gergis (see above under “Troas”) and Erythrae (see below under Ionia).
Xanthus River
AEOLIS, Cyme. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Time of Valerian I-Gallienus, AD 253-268. Æ (21mm, 4.93 g, 6h). Draped bust of the Senate right / The river-god Xanthos reclining left, leaning on overturned urn, holding reeds. [This coin appears to portray and name a CWA river that flows from Cyme to Larissa Phrikonis, not Homer’s Lycian Xanthus or the one in NWA: … the mighty deep-swirling river, whom gods call Xanthus, and men Scamander… (Iliad 20) We will nevertheless consider this Xanthus River to be Iliadic and potentially relevant to the location of the Trojan War because of the possibilities that it influenced Homer’s composition and his naming of the river in NWA.] SNG Copenhagen 127 var. (rev. legend); SNG von Aulock 1648 (same rev. die); BMC 114 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 162473.
Elea (Elia). Port of Pergamon. Coinage began in late fifth century, Iliadic types later.
Athena, Torch, and Wreath
The design element named above is not directly Iliadic but may be related to ThY coins traditionally attributed to the Iliad’s Thymbra in NWA’s “Troas” though recently found at CWA’s Pergamon in South Mysia.
AEOLIS, [Elaea or] Elaia. Circa 450-400 BC. AR Hemiobol (8mm, 0.34 g, 3h). Helmeted head of Athena right / Laurel wreath. SNG von Aulock 7680 var. (head left); SNG Copenhagen 164 var. (same); Klein 329 var. (same). [Old references sometimes confound issues of Elaeus in Hellespontic Thrace and Elaea in Aeolis, both with ethnics inscribed ELAI, and with designs that include a head of Athena (or Protesilaus?), a galley prow (as the springboard of Protesilaus?), and a wreath (for the grave of Protesilaus?). Some newer references tend to indicate that Elaeus coins show a prow and Elaea coins do not, though the latter city was the port of Pergamon! The traditional legend includes Protesilaus as going ashore at Troy first, slaying Trojans, being slain by Hector, and being honored with a tomb across the mouth of the Hellespont at Elaeus. If the Trojan War began in CWA such as in Teuthrania per the Cypria, perhaps those events were thought to have occurred near Elaea instead, and the similarity of Elaeus and Elaea coins is more than mere coincidence.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 267208.
and
AEOLIS, Elaia. 2nd-1st century BC. Æ 16mm (3.60 g, 12h). Head of Demeter right, wearing grain wreath / Torch within grain wreath. SNG München 395; SNG Copenhagen 181-5. From the J.P. Righetti Collection, 6126. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 145257.
Auge
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/428
Auge the mother of Telephus emerges from a chest recovered in a net of four fishermen.
Menestheus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/2474
Of these [Athenians], Menestheus, Peteos’ son was leader. He had no earthly rival in handling chariots and shield-men, except for Nestor, who was older. And with him came fifty black ships (Iliad 2).
Menestheus (Mnestheus) as shown and named on this coin was also the legendary founder (perhaps as a Trojan War conqueror?) of Elaea. However, it seems likely that Menestheus was an Athenian addition to Homer’s Iliad (Smith). This coin’s reverse shows Asclepius who may be related to the medical treatment of Telephus or other Trojan warriors (see South Mysia - Pergamon above).
Temnus (Temnos).
Homer
http://www.ancientcoinage.org/uploads/3/4/3/4/34340153/3684232.jpg
This coin’s reverse shows Homer seated (BMCG 17 pg 145 no 22). Other coins show Asclepius who may be related to the medical treatment of Telephus or other Trojan warriors (see South Mysia – Pergamon above).
Tisna. Could have been near earliest fighting between Greeks and Trojan allies:
After this [the Greek mustering at Aulis], they put out to sea, and reach Teuthrania and sack it, taking it for Ilium. Telephus comes out to the rescue and … is himself wounded by Achilles. As they put out from Mysia a storm comes on them and scatters them, and Achilles … [later] … heals Telephus, who had been led by an oracle to go to Argos, so that he might be their guide on the voyage to Ilium. (Cypria).
Achilles and Telephus
http://snible.org/coins/hn/aeolis.html#tisna
HN pg 557: Coin shows spearhead that could represent Achilles’ spear that wounded Telephus and was later found to be the source of rust that cured the injury (Apollodorus).
3.3 Ionia
Ionian city-states whose coin designs are not clearly Iliadic include Clazomenae (conquered by Achilles; its coinage may or may not show Parphorus who has been said to be the same person as Diomedes’ grandfather Portheus), Larissa (Larisa; possibly where Hippothous died; but this Larissa is about 140 to 150 miles from an NWA Trojan War, or 70 miles from a Pergamene war, and its coins do not refer to Hippothous), Magnesia, Miletus (Miletos; per Homer in Caria, not Ionia), Phocaea (Phokaia; conquered by Achilles), Samos Island, and Teos. Other cities issued coins of more interest:
Chios. Island off the coast. Issued coins as early as sixth century, Iliadic coins later.
Regarding inscribed denominations of later coins including obols (OBOLOC), see Tenedos above.
Homer
Ionia, Chios Pseudo-Autonomous Issue. Circa 2nd Century AD. Obverse: XI - W - N Sphinx seated left, resting right paw on prow. Reverse: O-MHPOC Homer seated right, holding scroll inscribed IL / IA (The Iliad) [perhaps a very early image of a blind man using Braille]. SNG Cop: 1659ff, SNG von Aulock 2283ff, BMC 141. Size: 17mm, 2.73g. Numismatic Notes: Homer was a famous author who is best known for his writings The Odyssey and The Iliad. It is hotly debated among scholars and historians whether Homer was a real person or just a myth. Offered as a point of proof by the pro-existence camp is that within another work by this famous poet [or a later poet] entitled Hymn to Apollo the allusive [or elusive] author identified himself as a blind man from Chios. Laying claim to this famous Homer in ancient times, the mint at Chios struck an extremely small series of coins during the 2nd century AD (Roman occupation) that depict Homer seated, holding a scroll that is opened with the word "ILIA" written in Greek in two lines with the name "OMHROC" around. This type is known for two die sets for both obverse and reverse; the reverse of Homer has about this same style but with difference legend placement; the obverse either depicts a Sphinx with its paw on an amphora or the type presented here with its paw on a prow. Courtesy of Edward Beck of Romae Aeternae Numismatics.
Colophon (Kolophon). Achilles conquest. Issued coins as early as fifth century, Iliadic coins later.
Homer
Ionia: Kolophon. 50 BCE. AE 18mm hemiobol. Homer holding scroll [presumably of his own composition] / Apollo holds lyre. As the ancient poet Homer was believed to have been from Ionia, he figured quite prominently on the coinage of Smyrna, but is also seen, far less often, on this type from Kolophon. Strabo mentions specifically the issue of bronze coinage from Smyrna when, discussing the city, he says "there is also a library; and the 'Homereum', a quadrangular portico containing a shrine and wooden statue of Homer; for the Smyrnaeans also lay especial claim to the poet and indeed a bronze coin of theirs is called a Homereum" (Strabo, Geographica XIV, I.37, transl. by H.C. Jones, The Geography of Strabo, VI [Loeb, 1960], pp. 245-247). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 182955.
Ephesus (Ephesos).
Auge
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/955
and
http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.43340
The coins above show Auge and Hercules, the parents of Telephus. We should note that this coin pertaining to Telephus was issued as far south of Pergamon as Ephesus, about 80 miles distant. A similar reverse design appears on a medallion in the names of Ephesus and Pergamon, but it appears to have been made in the 18th century CE (CNG Coin ID 226453).
Erythrae (Erythrai). Achilles conquest. Issued coinage from late sixth century, Asclepian (which we will not consider further) and Iliadic coins later.
Fire Beacon (?)
IONIA, Erythrae. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Mid 3rd century AD. Æ 19mm (2.96 g, 6h). Turreted and draped bust of Tyche right / Fire beacon. SNG Copenhagen 756; SNG München 412. From the J.S. Wagner Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 142579. [A fire beacon useful for sending signals almost instantly to distant locations. Larger beacons were supposedly used as relay points to send news of the Trojan War to Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra: The great god of fire himself, Hephaistos! He has sent a bright light from Mount Ida, in Troy. Then, torch to torch, like a human herald, this light first shone in Trojan Ida, then on Mount Hermes in Lemnos and from that island, the third torch arrived at Zeus’ Rock at Mount Athos. Then with a huge leap over the great sea, the flame travelled hard but happily and, like the sun, transferred its rays through the watchtowers of Makistos. From there, without delay, like a good herald, refuting sleep, conquering sleep flew far to the streams of Evripos where it tells the news to the guards of Mount Messapios, in Evoea. The Messapians gathered a mount of dried heather and by lighting it continued the light’s progress. Now, the light, strong and clear like a full moon sped over the valley around River Esopos and the tip of Mount Kitheron, setting off another lot of fiery signals. The guards there lit an even greater fire, great enough for it to leap over the lake Gorgopis’ waters and the Mountain of the Goats where the guards obeyed the flame’s purpose with enthusiasm and lit up a huge beard of flame, huge enough to leap over the Saronic Gulf and land upon the Rock of Arahne, at the guard houses near the city. After that, the flame, the very descendant of the flame of Troy’s Ida can be seen up there, on the roof of this house, the house of Agamemnon, of the family of Atreidis. (Aeschylus) Since Erythrae is not near Aeschylus’ beacon path from the area of Mount Ida to Lemnos (a beam from Erythrae would need to signal Lesbos on the way to Lemnos), we cannot consider this coin to be Iliadic.]
Sibyl Herophile
IONIA, Erythrae allied with Chios. CE 253-260. AE 23 mm. IEPA CVN-KLHTOC around bust of Senate right / XIWN EPVQPAIWN OMO-NO-IA around the sibyl Herophile seated left. BMCG Ionia pg 150 no 273.
and
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/2776
The latter coin issued by Erythrae alone shows Herophile surrounded by the Greek inscription QEA CIBYLLA meaning Goddess Sibyl.
Lebedus (Lebedos). Captured from Seleucid (Seleukid) Syrian king Antiochus [Antiochos] Hierax (246-227 BCE) by Egyptian King Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-221 BCE) and renamed temporarily as Ptolemaïs, not to be confused with Ptolemaïs in Cyrenaica or Phoenicia.
Athena Ilias
PTOLEMAIC KINGS of EGYPT. Ptolemy III Euergetes. 246-222 BC. Æ Tetrachalkon (16mm, 3.36 g, 12h). Lebedos (Ptolemaïs) mint. Struck circa 240-222 BC. Diademed bust right of Ptolemy III, wearing aegis / Athena Ilias [holding spear and Palladium] standing right; magistrate’s name to left, ΟΤΠ (Pto reversed) in right field. [Attribution per Catherine Lorber.] Svoronos 918; Kinns 18. From the J. P. Righetti Collection, 047. In the Third Syrian War (246-241 BC), Ptolemy III wrested control of a number of cities in western Asia Minor from the Seleukids. Lebedos was one such city, which Ptolemy subsequently refounded as Ptolemaïs. Only a handful of these Ptolemaic coins of Lebedos are known, and their attribution to this mint is based primarily on their findspots and the presence of a grape bunch (a symbol of Lebedos) symbol on the silver coinage. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 280931.
Magnesia. Not to wander from our path and become confused with Magnesia in Lydia. Coinage began in fifth century, Asclepian and Iliadic later. Coins show Apollo Delphius who resembles Apollo Smintheus (CNG Coin ID 317921) but we will not consider them Iliadic.
Orodes (?)
IONIA, Magnesia. CE 198-217. AE 33 mm. Laureate bust of Caracalla right (not illustrated) / Young male right with humped bull kneeling right at entrance of cavern or arch [or herdsman (Eurytion?) driving bull into cavern per HN pg 583. Somewhat similar to herdsman Orodes on Alexandria coins above under “Troas,” but we will not consider it to be Iliadic]. BMCG Ionia pg 166 no 59.
Ptolemaïs. See Lebedus above.
Smyrna. Achilles conquest.
Homer
IONIA, Smyrna. Circa 115-105 BC. Æ 20mm (8.44 g). Laureate head of Apollo right / SMURNAIWN, the poet Homer seated left; monograms left, magistrate APOLLOFANHS/OROBEITHNOS. Milne, Autonomous 272; SNG Copenhagen 1153. Ex. Garth Drewry Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 101187.
and
IONIA, Smyrna. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Circa 2nd-3rd Century AD. Æ 22mm (6.04 g). [Inscription OMH – POC naming] Homer seated right, holding scroll / CMYP/NAI/WN in three lines within wreath. Klose Type XII, 2 (V2/R2); SNG Copenhagen 1307; SNG von Aulock 2189 (same dies); McClean 8291 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 122946.
Meles River
IONIA, Smyrna. temp. Caracalla. Circa AD 211-217. Æ (16mm, 2.94 g, 12h). River-god Meles [where or from what father Homer was supposedly born, and thus called Homer Melesigenes] reclining left, holding reed in right hand, left elbow resting on urn from which water flows / Nike walking right, holding wreath and palm. Klose X, 2 (V2/R2); SNG Copenhagen 1301 (same dies); BMC 216-7 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 219683.
3.4 Lydia
Acrasus (Akrasos). Near (if not in) Mysia, on Caicus River upstream of Pergamon and probably beyond significant Trojan War activity. Issued Asclepian and Iliadic coins.
Caicus River
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/1163
This coin shows and names the Caicus River god.
Germe. In northwestern Lydia on Caicus River, upstream of Pergamon and beyond significant Trojan War activity, unless on Rhyndacus River in North Mysia.
Telephus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/7.1/133
A different Germe coin of Caracalla is said to have a Hercules and Telephus (Telephos) reverse almost identical to that of a Pergamon issue of Commodus (BMCG Mysia pg xxxiv). We will assume all such coins be Iliadic.
Stratonicea (Stratonikea). Not to be confused with Stratonicea in Caria. Also called Indei-Stratonicea, Indi-Stratonicea, or Hadrianopolis-Stratoniceia, and not to be confused with Hadrianopolis in Cilicia, Phrygia, or Thrace. On Caicus River upstream of Pergamon and beyond significant Trojan War activity.
Caicus River
LYDIA, Stratonicea. CE 238-268. AE 25 mm. CTPA-TONIKEWN around turreted bust of city goddess Stratonicea right / KAIKOC around and CTPATONI-KEWN below Caicus river god reclining facing left. BMCG 22 pg 285 no 4.
Thyatira. Name conceivably derived from Homeric Thymbra (see under NWA above), or may be inscribed QY on coins (see ThY under South Mysia above). Coins for Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius under magistrate Menelaus (BMC 22 Lydia pg cxxii) not likely to be closely related to Trojan War or considered to be Iliadic. Regarding Thyatira-Pergamon alliance coins, see latter city under South Mysia-Zeus Philius.
Hephaestus Forges for Achilles (?)
LYDIA, Thyateira. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ Medallion (43mm, 42.92 g, 6h). Asiaticus Hermogenes, strategus. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Hephaestus seated left on wreathed cippus, putting finishing touches with hammer on a Corinthian helmet [as for Achilles] set on low column, while Athena, standing left and holding spear and shield, touches top of column. Waddington 7067; CNG 69, 1010 (same dies). From Group CEM. As related by Homer (Iliad 18), Achilles’ armor was lost when, still sulking in his tent, he allowed his companion Patroclus to wear it while he spurred the Greeks into a battle on the plains below Troy. Overconfident, Patroclus met Hector in single combat. Mistaking Patroclus for Achilles, the Trojan hero Hector brutally killed him and dragged off Patroclus’ still-armored corpse as a war prize. Achilles’ mother, the sea nymph Thetis, persuaded the god Hephaestus to construct a new set of armor, among which a highly decorated shield was included. [Our present purpose depends more on coin design intent than user perception. Since Athena does not attend the forging and has minimal involvement (only knowledge of it), Hephaestus is shown forging on Anatolian coins for a non-Iliadic reason: to promote the issuing city’s metalworking and Roman arms contracting (Talloen and Stroobants), and he forges on numerous Anatolian coins both inside and outside our regions of interest, we will not list all of these coins or consider them to be Iliadic.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 208589.
Tralles.
Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)
LYDIA, Tralles. Caius. Caesar, 20 BC-AD 4. Æ 20mm (5.08 g, 1h). Struck circa 2 BC (?). Bare head right; star below / Colonist (?) [who could be seen as Agamemnon] plowing right with two yoked oxen [who could be seen as the Ajaxes per Iliad 14; but not considered as intentionally Iliadic; see above under Alexandria - Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)]. RPC 2649. From the Patrick Villemur Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., CNG Coin ID 118355.
Phrygia
Priam’s territory in NWA was said to include highlands of northern Phrygia (Iliad 24), watered by the Tembris and Sangarius (Sagaris or Sagarus) Rivers where Priam and his allies fought Amazons (Iliad 3), but we will assume that the much more populous lowlands of southern Phrygia in the Cayster (Caystrus or Kaystros), Hermus (Hermos), and Maeander River watersheds belong to CWA.
Ancyra (Ankyra). Not to be confused with Ancyra in Galatia. Assumed in northern CWA, though conceivably in southern NWA.
Hephaestus Forges for Achilles (?)
PHRYGIA, Ancyra. Philip I. AD 244-249. Æ (35mm, 16.83 g, 12h). P. Aru. Zoilus, archon for the second time. AVT K M IOVΛ ΦIΛIΠΠOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Є ΠO AV ZOIΛOV APXA TO B / AΓKVPANΩN, Hephaestus seated right on chair, holding hammer and tongs, and Cyclops standing left, holding hammer; between, Minerva standing left, holding shield. J. Nollé, "Athena in der Schmiede des Hephaestus," in JNG XLV (1995), abb. 1 = U. Werz, "Zu einer unbekannten Praegedarstellung," in SM 44, 175/176 (December 1994), 1 = Leu 50, 350 = Winterthur Collection (inv. G6997; same rev. die); American Numismatic Society Collection (inv. 1974.226.101); Heritage 3005, lot 20086 (same dies). Following the loss of equipment by Achilles, Hephaestus is charged with forging a new set of weaponry, which is depicted on the exceptional reverse of this very rare type. Both Hephaestus and a Cyclops are at work under the watch of Minerva in this scene adapted from Homer’s Iliad (Book 18). [Our present purpose depends more on coin design intent than user perception. Since Athena does not attend the forging and has minimal involvement (only knowledge of it), and the Iliad does not mention a Cyclops at all, Hephaestus is shown forging on Anatolian coins for a non-Iliadic reason: to promote the issuing city’s metalworking and Roman arms contracting (Talloen and Stroobants), and he forges on numerous Anatolian coins both inside and outside our regions of interest, we will not list all of these coins or consider them to be Iliadic.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 305861.
Cotiaeum (Cotyaeum, Kotiaion, Kotyaion). In northern Phrygia on Tembris (Tembrus or Tembros) River tributary of Sangarius (Sangarios or Sagaris) River; see under NWA – Bithynia and Vicinity.
Hierapolis. Not to be confused with Hieropolis also in Phrygia, or in Cilicia or Cyrrhestica.
Zeus Troius
PHRYGIA, Hierapolis. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Early-mid 3rd century AD. Æ (19mm, 3.23 g, 12h). Head of Zeus Troios right, wearing taenia / Mên standing right, with foot on bucranium, holding scepter and pinecone. Cf. Helios 5, lot 928. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 298517.
Midaeum (Midaion). In extreme northern Phrygia near Bithynian border, on Tembris (Tembrus or Tembros) River tributary of Sangarius (Sangarios or Sagaris) River; see under NWA – Bithynia and Vicinity.
Otrus.
Aeneas
PHRYGIA, Otrus. CE 238-268. AE 27 mm. PO CEPT – GETAC KAI around Roman Caesar Geta bust right / A LEXANDP-OC – OTPOHN-WN… around Ascanius right led by Aeneas carrying Anchises right looking back. [Trojans, along with their cousins the Dardanians led by Anchises and Aeneas, were close allies of the Phrygians, and their royal families related. For example, Trojan King Priam’s Queen Hecuba was Phrygian. Aphrodite in a Phrygian guise seduced Anchises resulting in the birth of Aeneas. Aeneas later fathered Ascanius, who appears from his name to be connected to the Phrygian land of Ascania: Phorcys and great Ascanius led the battle-thirsty Phrygians from distant Ascania (Iliad 2).] BMCG 25 pg 345 no 14.
Otreus
PHRYGIA, Otrus. Geta, as Caesar. 193-209 AD. Æ 27mm (9.55 gm). PO CEPT GETAC KAI, bare-headed and cuirassed bust right / ALEXAN-DR-OC AN-EO[...] OTPOHNW, Otreus embarking on prow of ship to left, right arm raised, head turned back, holding spear in left hand. Von Aulock, Phrygiens 832 (this coin); SNG von Aulock 3906; Kapossy 44; Cornell 111 (this coin). From the David Simpson Collection. Ex Brand Collection, pt. 7 (Sotheby's, 25 October 1984), lot 393; Von Aulock Collection; Theodore Prowe Collection, pt. II (Egger Auktion XLI, 11 May 1914), lot 1809. Otrus was one of the five cities of the Eucarpic plain and may have been named Otrus after an emigration from Otroea in Bithynia, which according to Strabo (XII, 566) was founded by Otreus, the king of Phrygia of the time of the Trojan War. The passage about this famous warrior, whom Priam helped fight against the Amazons in a battle on the river Sangarius, in the Iliad (III) is brief but very descriptive: "... When I was in Phrygia I saw many horsemen, the people of Otreus and of Mygdon, who were camping upon the banks of the river Sangarius; I was their ally, and with them when the Amazons, peers of men, came up against them, but even they were not so many as the Achaeans." Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16440.
Sebaste. In Phrygia. Not to be confused with Sebaste in Cilicia, Paphlagonia, or Samaria.
Ganymede
http://snible.org/coins/hn/phrygia.html#Sebaste
HN pg 684: Coin shows Ganymede seduction by Zeus represented by an eagle.
Sibidunda. In Phrygia, or possibly in nearby Pisidia.
Helen
As Helen tells us, the Dioscuri (Gemini) either missed the Trojan War, or attended but avoided other Greek fighters: Though I [Helen] see all the rest of the bright-eyed Greeks whom I know and could name, I see no sign of my two brothers, Castor the horse-tamer, and the boxer Polydeuces [Pollux]. Either they failed to join the fleet when it left fair Lacedaemon [Sparta], or having reached here in their sea-going craft they choose not to mingle with these warriors for fear of the scorn and insults poured on me [or perhaps they had died, unknown to Helen]. (Iliad 3)
PHRYGIA, Sibidunda. CE 193-217. AE 25 mm. IOVLIA – DOMNA CE around bust of Roman Empress Julia Domna right / CIBIDO above and VNDEWN in exergue below Helen under upward crescent between Dioscuri on horseback facing her. [Since the Dioscuri, unlike Helen, were not important in the Trojan War or the Iliad, yet popular and shown on coins throughout ancient Greece, we will not consider other coins that show them without her to be Iliadic.] BMCG 25 pg 378 no 5.
Stectorium (Stektorion). About 20 miles south of Otrus.
Mygdon
PHRYGIA, Stectorium. Philip I, with Philip II. AD 244-249. Æ (26mm, 8.78 g, 6h). Aurelius Demetrius, asiarch. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed busts of Philip I and Philip II facing one another / Soldier (Mygdon [who fought Amazons allied with Otreus of Otrus and Priam (Iliad 3), and can be expected to be shown in this part of Phrygia]/Hector? [who seems unlikely to be shown]) standing left, holding spear and resting hand upon shield. SNG von Aulock 8441; BMC 18. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 304337.
Synnada.
Palladium
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/2210
This coin’s reverse is described as showing a Palladium.
3.6 Expatriates in South Anatolia
The cultural roots of the Cilicians in South Anatolia may be found in Mysia:
Richly-dowered, Andromache [the wife of Hector] was the daughter of brave Eëtion, who lived in Thebe [in Mysia] below wooded Placus, and ruled the Cilicians. (Iliad 6)
Perhaps after the supposed sack of Thebe by Achilles, survivors migrated to south Anatolia. Some of the designs on coins issued in or near Cilicia may preserve the Iliadic traditions of CWA. Side in nearby Pamphylia of South Anatolia may have been a colony or re-settlement of expatriates who named it for the Side in western Anatolia that had been conquered by Achilles. Though these Sides shared the same city name, the expatriate Side’s coins showed only its name, and did not use clearly Iliadic designs.
Coropissus (Koropissos).
Apollo Smintheus
CILICIA, Coropissus. Maximus, Caesar. 236-238 AD. Æ 29mm (14.60 g). Radiate and draped bust right / KOPOPICCEWN THC KHTWN MHTPOPO, Apollo Smintheos standing left, holding branch of laurel over altar before him; mouse [symbol of Smintheus] by altar. BMC Cilicia pg. 65, 2, pl. XI, 9. From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Alex G. Malloy XXII (5 December 1986), lot 177. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 68249.
Ninica-Claudiopolis (Ninika-Klaudiopolis). Not to be confused with Claudiopolis also in Cilicia, or in Bithynia.
Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)
CILICIA, Ninica-Claudiopolis. Maximinus I. AD 235-238. Æ (27mm, 14.52 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; c/m: six pointed star / Founder [who could be seen as Agamemnon] ploughing right with yoke of humped oxen [who could be seen as the Ajaxes per Iliad 14; but not considered as intentionally Iliadic; see above under Alexandria – Agamemnon and Ajaxes (?)]; vexillum in background, star in upper field. Lindgren & Kovacs A1557A (this coin); for c/m: Howgego 451. From the Kelly J. Krizan, M.D. Collection. Ex Henry Clay Lindgren Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., CNG Coin ID 242216.
Olba. Not to be confused with Olbia in Sarmatia.
Ajax Son of Teucer
CILICIA, Olba. Ajax. High Priest, AD 10-15. Æ 20mm (7.59 g, 9h). Dated RY 2 (AD 11/2). Draped bust of Ajax [Ajax son of Teucer, named for the Iliad’s half-brothers Ajax and Teucer, who were sons of Telamon; we will consider Ajax Teucer’s name to be Iliadic] as Hermes right, wearing cap; caduceus to right / Winged thunderbolt; date below. SNG France 804-5 (same dies). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 100914.
Tarsus (Tarsos). Near the coast of central Cilicia Pedia (eastern Cilicia), it issued various types of Iliadic and Homeric coins.
Paris
CILICIA, Tarsus. Maximinus I. 235-238 AD. Æ 36mm (23.56 gm). AVT K G IOV OVH MAXIMEINOC, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind; P P across field / The Judgment of Paris: TAPCOV, MHTPOP in exergue, Paris seated left on rock, wearing Phrygian cap and holding apple in right hand and lagobolon in left, facing Aphrodite, nude, standing left, drawing drapery from shoulder, Hera enthroned left, and Athena standing left, resting shield on ground before her and holding spear in left hand; AMK above, B to right. SNG France 1587 (same dies); BMC Lycaonia, etc. pg. 205, 223; Cornell 117 (this coin). From the David Simpson Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group Auction XXIV (9 December 1992), lot 497.Same obverse die as the following lot. Before the birth of her second son, Hekaba, wife of King Priam of Troy, dreamed that she had brought forth a flaming firebrand that destroyed the city, and the new-born child was therefore exposed on Mount Ida. Brought up by a shepherd, he was called Paris, and later, by his courage, earned the name Alexander or 'defender of men'. He was beloved by the nymph Oenone, but he deserted her as a result of a tempting suggestion by Aphrodite which led to the Judgment of Paris. When Hermes came to Mount Ida with the three goddesses he called Paris and said to him: "Come here and decide which is the more excellent beauty of face, and to the fairer give this apple's lovely fruit." (Colluthus, The Rape of Helen 130). While Paris reflected, the goddesses, who for the occasion had bathed their immortal bodies, offered him bribes in order to win the apple award of beauty: Athena offered him the command of Phrygia and the destruction of Hellas, or as some say, that he would be bravest of mortals and skilled in every craft. Likewise Hera offered him, besides wealth, the dominion over Asia and Europe. But Aphrodite offered him the hand of Helen, whose beauty was famous worldwide, and this bribe won the apple. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 16453.
Scylla
CILICIA, Tarsus. CE 238-244. AE 37 mm. Radiate bust of Gordian III right (not illustrated) / TAPCO… upward from lower left around Scylla facing front with head left, trident behind, two tails at sides, and four dog foreparts as legs below. [This coin’s design is so closely related to Homer’s Odyssey that, along with coins that show Homer or his family, we will consider it to be virtually Iliadic!] BMCG 21 pg 215 no 268.
Telephus
CNG comments below regarding Telephus’ myth and promotion by the Pergamene kings.
CILICIA, Tarsus. Trajan Decius. 249-251 AD. Æ 33mm (21.56 g, 6h). Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Hercules standing right, leaning on club set on ox head and holding infant Telephus, who reaches for hind standing right, head left; tree behind; A M K in exergue, G B in legend. SNG Levante 1160 (this coin). Telephus was the son of Hercules and Auge, daughter of King Aleus of Tegea. Aleus received an oracle that predicted his grandson, Telephus, would kill his uncles. Fearing for his sons, Aleus exposed the infant Telephus on Mt. Parthenion, hoping that, through the child's death, the oracle could be avoided. Miraculously, however, Telephus was saved and suckled by a hind. Telephus later became king of the Mysians and founder of the city of Pergamon. During the Trojan War he was wounded in a fight with Achilles. When this wound would not heal, Telephus learned through an oracle that he could only be healed by the one who had wounded him. When Achilles refused, Telephus seized Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, threatening to kill the boy unless Achilles agreed to help. Odysseus, however, interpreting the oracle in his own way, pointed out that, as it had been the spear which was the source of the wound, so too it must be the source of the healing. Scrapings from the spear were applied to Telephus' wound, and it was healed. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 70359.
and
CILICIA, Tarsus. Trajan Decius. AD 249-251. Æ (34mm, 17.79 g, 6h). Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind; П П across field / Herakles standing right, leaning on grounded club, holding lion’s skin and the infant Telephos who reaches for a doe standing right, head turned back to look at him. From Collection CR. When Herakles came to Tegea in Arcadia he seduced Auge, not knowing that she was King Aleus' daughter. From this union a boy was born who was secretly hidden by Auge in the precinct of Athena. But Aleus, some say, discovered his daughter's motherhood when he, on account of a pestilence that was ravaging the country, visited the temple of Athena. He then took the infant and exposed it on Mount Parthenius, but it survived, being nourished by a doe that had just cast her fawn. Soon shepherds appeared who took up the infant and named him Telephos. His myth and the stories of his adventures in the Trojan War were fostered by the Attalid rulers of Pergamon in Mysia. [The Attalid interest in preserving the legends of Telephus had limited success against the Roman expansion that extinguished the Pergamene Kingdom. The Romans promoted the Athenian version of the Iliad, omitting CWA’s Telephus and glorifying Rome’s founder, NWA’s Aeneas. Telephus never appeared on Attalid coins, but he was shown on coins made centuries later in Roman provinces that remembered him.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 167644.
Uncertain Mint.
Telephus
CILICIA, Uncertain. Circa 4th century BC. AR Obol (0.86 gm). Youthful Dionysos seated right on vine-trunk / Goat standing left, head reverted, child (Telephos) suckling below. SNG Levante 212 (this coin). Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 48116.
4.0 COINS FROM ELSEWHERE
Aegiale (on Amorgos Island) and Tenos Island of the Aegean Sea’s Cycladic islands were conquered by Achilles, but their coin designs are not clearly Iliadic. The following listings do not pertain to NWA or CWA but to locations beyond them, and are relevant to the completion of our considerations regarding the Iliad:
Aeneia (Aineia). In Macedon. Not to be confused with Aenus (Ainos) in Thrace. Traced foundation to Iliad’s legendary Aeneas.
Aeneas
http://snible.org/coins/hn/macedon.html#Aeneia
HN pg 214: This coin from very early in the sixth century is said to be the oldest showing a Trojan myth, and is not likely to have been affected by the Athenian revision of the Iliad. The coin depicts Aeneas as he fled the ruins of Troy, carrying his father Anchises and preceded by his wife Creusa carrying their son Ascanius.
Bactria (Baktria).
Telephus
BAKTRIA, Indo-Greek Kingdom. Telephos Euergetes. Circa 80-70 BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 2.36 g, 12h). Anguipede, the limbs terminating in lotus blossoms / Helios, radiate and holding scepter, standing left, and Selene, wearing crescent diadem, standing right; monogram to lower right. Bopearachchi 1A; Bopearachchi & Rahman 645; HGC 12, 409. [The Indo-Greek Kingdom was centered in Pakistan with territory that ranged from Afghanistan to India. The kings had Greek and in some cases Iliadic names indicating a culture that recalled heroes, such as Telephus, of many centuries earlier and far away locations.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 293598.
Capua (Kapua). In Campania (Kampania), Italy (Italia).
Telephus
CAMPANIA, Capua. Circa 216-211 BC. Æ 13mm (1.82 gm). Head of Telephos right, wearing Phrygian cap [as commonly shown on Anatolians and others from the East] / Trophy of arms. HN Italy 509. [BMCG 1 pg 83 no 14 shows a similar obverse and “Telephus? suckled by doe” on the reverse. An image of Telephus on a coin issued far from his home territory] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 47553.
and
http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Campania_map/Capua_map/descrCapuaHNI508.html
The linked coin’s photographs show both Telephus’ head and Telephus as an infant suckled by a doe.
Coressia (Koressia). On Ceos (Keos) Island, among the Aegean’s Cyclades (Kykladi), but close to Greek mainland southeast of Attica.
Apollo Smintheus
CEOS, Coressia. 200-1 BCE. AE 20 mm. Laureate head of Apollo Smintheus right / Bee; KO PH upward at left and right. [The identification as Smintheus is based on our knowledge that he had a temple at Ceos, though we do not know why.] BMCG 9 pg 95 no 66.
Cos (Kos). Island at the southwest of Anatolia off Caria (Karia).
Palladium
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/2163
This coin is described by RPC as showing a Palladium and was issued well south of CWA. We are not certain whether the Palladium, generally not associated with Asclepius or Hercules who were worshipped at Cos, could be associated with Hercules’ son Telephus (see coins shown immediately below).
Telephus
CARIAN ISLANDS, Cos. 27 BCE – CE 249. AE 24 mm. Bearded head of Demos right / Hercules [whose worship unrelated to Telephus was common throughout ancient Greece] standing and holding infant [Telephus] at right. BMCG 18 pg 215 no 209.
and
CARIAN ISLANDS, Cos. 27 BCE – CE 249. AE 22 mm. Veiled bust of Boule right / Hercules [whose worship unrelated to Telephus was common throughout ancient Greece] seated on rocks and holding infant [Telephus] at right below a star. BMCG 18 pg 215 no 210.
Both coins indicate that Telephus was famous further south than CWA, off the coast of southwest Anatolia.
Damascus (Damaskos). In Syria.
Telephus
SYRIA, Coele-Syria. Damascus. Volusian. AD 251-253. Æ (23mm, 8.91 g, 7h). Laureate bust right, with slight drapery / Doe standing right, suckling infant Telephos; [in exergue, head of ram right]. RPC IX online 1948; Rosenberger 59; SNG Hunterian 3461. [The Telephus design indicates the worship of Telephus many centuries after his time and far beyond his home territory.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 289794.
Dioscurias (Dioskourias)? In Colchis (Kolchis) at the eastern extreme of the Black Sea.
Iliadic Inscription (?)
BLACK SEA REGION, Uncertain mint. Circa 125-001 BC. Æ (15mm, 2.91 g, 12h). Jugate heads of the Dioskouroi (?) right / Cornucopia between pileoi of the Dioskouroi; [...]ΛIA-ΔΩ[...] below. The reverse type [though with a Perseus head obverse type] was used at a variety of mints [Amaseia, Amisus (Amisos), and Sinope; but the obverse type of twin starred caps was shown on coins further east on the Black Sea coast, at Dioscurias] in the Black Sea region during the early period of Mithradates VI of Pontos [and Paphlagonia]. Typically, the city ethnic appears across the field below the pileoi [as it may on this coin, if its final missing letter is not a sigma (C or S) or an upsilon (V or Y) which could indicate a personal name.] However, the only ethnic that remotely resembles the legend on this coin would be that of Ilion, but not only were these types unused there, the ethnic always used an omicron rather than an omega from well before and after the period this coin belongs to. [We should note that Bellinger indicates no city ethnic before the period, only occurrences of the name of Athena Iliados as AQHNAS ILIADOS; and the full ethnic of Ilion only as ILIEWN beginning with Roman Emperor Nero from 54 CE. Furthermore, an interchange of omicron (O) and omega (W or W)] was not unusual on coins, especially in remote locations such as Dioscurias, whether due to misspelling or differences in pronunciation. An initial iota (I) and nu (N) at the end as ILIADWN could conceivably be an ethnic that refers to an issue of the people of the Iliad. If so, this coin could preserve evidence that, as claimed by some modern scholars, Homer’s Iliad originated with similar but older stories from the East.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 162138.
Ios. Island in Cyclades of Aegean Sea.
Homer
CYCLADES, Ios. 3rd-1st century BC. Æ 16mm (4.18 g). Bearded head of Homer left, hair bound with taenia, OMHPOC / Palm tree, I-HT[WN]. [Homer was said to be entombed on Ios, though it is not clear if he lived there.] BMC p. 101, 6. From the Christopher Morcom Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 111381.
Melos. Island in Cyclades of Aegean Sea.
Palladium
CYCLADES, Melos. 2nd century BC. Æ 19mm (5.54 g, 11h). Pomegranate / The Palladion right; krater to left. BMC 28; Pozzi (Boutin) 4556 (this coin). From the Christopher Morcom Collection. Ex Prof. S. Pozzi Collection (not in Ars Classica sale). [Melos coins often show designs related to Athena, but we do not know why she appears as a Palladium on this coin, or whether her appearance is relevant to the setting of the Trojan War.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 108324.
Rome (Roma). Julius Caesar. TBD
Aeneas
Julius Caesar [who claimed descent from Venus and Aeneas]. Late 48-47 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.85 g, 6h). Military mint traveling with Caesar in North Africa. Diademed head of Venus right / Aeneas advancing left, holding palladium and bearing Anchises on his shoulder. Crawford 458/1; CRI 55; Sydenham 1013; RSC 12. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 52 (7 October 2009), lot 271. [This coin shows that Rome traced its origin to the flight of Aeneas from Troy. Roman rulers did the same: Aeneas’s son Ascanius was said to have been called Iulus or Julus, and to have been the patriarch of the Julian family of Caesar and the Julio-Claudian family of Imperial Rome. Thus, Rome supported its Iliadic origin as being in NWA’s Dardania, the home of Aeneas.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 310044.
Salamis. Island off Attica (Attika). Not to be confused with Salamis on Cyprus Island.
Ajax Son of Telamon
ATTICA, Islands off. Salamis . Circa 400-330 BC. Æ 16mm (3.33 gm). Head of nymph Salamis right, wearing stephane in tightly coiled and waved hair / SA-LA starting on right, Boeotian shield with blazon of sword of Ajax [son of Telamon]. Kroll 640; SNG Copenhagen 455; BMC Attica pg. 116, 1-6. [Ajax’ territory was part of that ruled by Athens. His Trojan War feats glorified in the Iliad as written by Athenians were able to support their claim to NWA lands. Athenian prowess in war was reinforced by this coin’s ethnic of Salamis, site of the great 480 BCE naval victory of Athens under Themistocles over Xerxes of Persia.] Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 15578.
Serdica (Serdika). In far northwestern Thrace, opposite Hellespontic Thrace.
Telephus
http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/7402
This coin shows Telephus as an infant held by his father Hercules. Apparently Telephus’ later fame spread in all directions from his own territory.
Tegea. In Arcadia (Arkadia), the landlocked heart of the Peloponnesus (Peloponnesos).
Telephus
ARKADIA, Tegea. Circa 250 BC. Æ Trichalkon (3.77 g, 6h). Head of Athena facing slightly left, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet and necklace; QEOF to left / TEGEA, the infant Telephos kneeling right, suckled by doe standing left, head right. BCD Peloponnesos 1735; BMC 14 (obv. inscription not noted); Weber 4349. [Telephus, born at Tegea to Arcadian King Aleus’ daughter Auge and her seducer Hercules, was expelled or exposed, but survived to become a king and hero in CWA’s Teuthrania.] From the Christopher Morcom Collection. Ex Clarence S. Bement Collection. Courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., Coin ID 114614.
5.0 SUMMARY
The following table summarizes by design or subject group the Iliadic and other relevant coin issuing cities of the NWA and CWA:
Coin Design or Subject
NWA Issuers
CWA Issuers
Achilles, Peleus, or Patroclus
Achilleum, Ilium, Nicea
Tisna
Aeneas, Anchises, Ascanius, Batea, or Dardanus
Antandrus, Apamea, Coela, Dardanium, Ilium, Parium, Scepsis
Otrus
Aesepus River, Ida, Rhodius River, Scamander River, Xanthus River, or Zeus Idaeus
Cyzicus, Dardanium, Ilium, Scamandria, Scepsis
Cyme
Ajax Son of Telemon, Ajax Son of Teucer, or Teucer
Ilium, Prusa
Olba
Alexander the Great
Abydus, Alexandria
Altar of Pergamon, Auge, Coiled Snake, Eurypylus, Procles, or Telephus
Cotiaeum, Midaeum, Nicomedia
Atarneus, Attaea, Elaea, Ephesus, Germe, Pergamon, Tarsus, Teuthrania, Tisna, Uncertain Cilician
Andromache, Astyanax, Cebriones, Hector, Hecuba, Hesione, Paris, Priam, or Trojan Walls
Cebren, Ilium, Madytus, Ophrynium, Scepsis
Tarsus
Apollo Hecatus or Smintheus, Chryses, or Orodes
Alexandria, Hamaxitus, Ilium
Coropissus, Pergamon
Athena, Star(s), Theta, Torch, Wreath, or Zeus Ammon (non-Iliadic but relevant to ThY coins)
Colone, Lampsacus
Elaea, Gambrium, Mytilene, Pergamon, Pitane, ThY
Athena Ilias, Ilus, or Palladium
Assus, Dardanium, Hellespontic Thrace, Ilium
Lebedus, Pergamon, Synnada
Athenian Style (non-Iliadic but relevant to Athenian revision of Iliad)
Methymna, Sigeum, Tenedos
Caicus or Ceteis River
Acrasus, Gambrium, Pergamon, Stratonicea
Coronis
Pergamon
Crethis, Homer, Meles River, Scylla, or Sibyl
Amastris, Cyzicus, Gergis, Nicea
Chios, Colophon, Cyme, Erythrae, Smyrna, Tarsus, Temnus
Dada
Mytilene
Ganymede
Dardanium, Ilium
Sebaste
Helen or Leda
Nicomedia
Mytilene, Sibidunda
Hippothous
Larissa in “Troas”
Menestheus
Elaea
Mygdon or Otreus
Otrus, Stectorium
Pandarus
Zelea
Pergamus
Mytilene, Pergamon
Protesilaus
Elaeus
Sagaris or Sangarius River
Juliopolis, Nicea, Pessinus
Zeus Philius or Troius
Hierapolis, Pergamon
Of the total of 25 design and subject groups listed by row above, 12 of the rows are encountered predominantly at cities in NWA, with no more than one city in CWA per row. The groups that define these rows are mostly relevant to the best-known Trojan War heroes and geography. The rows representing these groups are shown with bold font in the NWA column. Exceptions that are in CWA are listed for:
1. Achilles at Tisna in CWA’s Aeolis, showing the spear head that he used to wound the Altar of Pergamon’s Telephus, under which the coin is also listed.
2. Aeneas at Otrus in CWA’s Phrygia, showing the flight of Aeneas with his son Ascanius, whose name seems to be connected with the Phrygian land of Ascania.
3. Ajax the son of Teucer at Olba in CWA’s Cilicia, perhaps indicating only a family background in a different region.
4. Andromache with the rest of the Trojan royal family including her son Paris, at Tarsus in CWA’s Cilicia, showing the Judgment of Paris for an unknown reason, but perhaps reflecting an Eastern origin of the story if not its appeal to Cilician expatriates.
5. Ganymede at Sebaste in CWA’s Phrygia, described as showing Ganymede’s abduction but perhaps reflecting a variation of the NWA-based tale.
6. Ida with NWA rivers at CWA’s Cyme in Aeolis, in this case a river named Xanthus, could have influenced name choice in the Iliad.
The six cases listed above of cities out of conformance with NWA-dominated design and subject groups are generally explicable and in any case few in comparison to the 35 NWA city listings for the designs. Four of those cities (Dardanium, Ilium, Nicea, and Scepsis) are listed for multiple groups but, in comparison to the six CWA exceptions as numbered above, the design and subject groups include 25 different NWA cities.
Although NWA includes fewer regions than CWA, which includes many more coin-issuing and more populous cities, the compilation indicates that more NWA coins show more Iliadic design and subject groups issued by more cities. However, the Athens revision of the Iliad could have been partly responsible, as could the foundation and coin issues of Alexandria and Ilium, virtual theme parks where visitors could imagine seeing the Iliad’s Catalogue of Ships landing to attack the Trojan Battle Order of defenders.
Older traditions included relatively minor details of the Homeric legends as followed in smaller and more remote cities, and, may provide more significant evidence of the Homer’s original Trojan War locale. Achilleum where Achilles was entombed or Achaeum where the Achaean Greeks camped, Assus which may have kept an archaic xoanon of the Palladium, Cebren whose name may have been shared with Hector’s half-brother Cebriones, Elaeus where Protesilaus was buried, Hamaxitus with a temple for Apollo Smintheus worship, Madytus where Priam’s Queen Hecuba turned to a dog had her grave, Ophrynium where Hector’s body rested, and Zelea just beyond Ida and perhaps showing the bow of Pandarus all indicate deep Iliadic roots deep NWA.
Around the eastern limit of Priam’s kingdom, just beyond Mysia in Bithynia where the Athenian may have been reduced, Nicea coins show Achilles and his father Peleus, and Prusa coins show Ajax.
Perhaps the most convincing numismatic evidence for a Trojan War locale in NWA is related to Aeneas and his Dardanians. The Iliad indicates that Dardanium was a near neighbor of the Ilium of the Trojan War. Dardanium coins show Aeneas, Ganymede, the Palladium, the Rhodius River that flooded the Greek wall, and probably the founder Dardanus on early coins, though as usual these lack inscriptions. Several small inscribed bronze coins of Dardanus have been found during excavations at Hisarlik, indicating that it was Dardanus’ near neighbor, which the Iliad tells us would have been Ilium.
Returning to the 25 design and subject groups listed by row in the above table, eight of the rows are encountered predominantly at cities in CWA, with no more than one exception per row. The rows representing these groups are shown with bold font in the CWA column. The only exception is for Helen’s mother Leda being seduced by Zeus, who is disguised as a swan at Nicomedia in NWA’s Bithynia, shown for an unknown reason but, considering that Apollo flying on a swan is shown on coins of nearby Calchedon, perhaps the birds were popular in the area.
The table shows 15 city listings in the CWA-dominated groups (as compared to 34 in NWA), including multiple listings for two cities (Mytilene and Pergamon), with the number of different cities being 10 (as compared to 24 in NWA). Considering the much larger numbers of coin-issuing cities and coin types issued in CWA, we see that Iliadic coinage is much more prevalent in NWA. If we do not include coins that show Homer, then Iliadic CWA coins occur only sporadically (as we exclude Chios Island in the Eastern Sporades). Some examples include the depictions of Helen at Sibidunda, Leda at Mytilene, Menestheus at Elaea, and Zeus Troius at Hierapolis.
However, we will continue to consider the five remaining groups that are not as dominated by NWA or CWA:
1. The Altar of Pergamon group that includes Telephus and his family is represented by 3 cities in NWA and 10 cities in CWA. The group includes Telephus’ son Eurypylus who fights as an ally of Priam, but he is shown in CWA’s South Mysia at Attaea and Pergamon. We could have expected Telephus himself to be represented in his own territories of Tegea (his original home, in Arcadia well west of Anatolia) and his second home of the Teuthrania area (Aeolis and South Mysia), but his fame reached far beyond. He is shown on coins of NWA’s North Mysia at Cotiaeum, Midaeum, Nicomedia, as far west as Capua in Campania, as far east as Tarsus in Cilicia or (by proxy as Indo-Greek King Telephus) even Bactria, and as far south (by proxy as his parents Auge and Hercules) as Ephesus in Ionia.
2. The Apollo group is represented as Apollo Smintheus by 3 cities in NWA and, not as expected, 2 in CWA, in Cilicia at Coropissus and in South Mysia at Pergamon. We do not know the reason he is shown in CWA, but note the Iliad’s statement that Apollo had a temple on the citadel of Pergamus and that Athena’s greater importance in the Iliad may have originated with the Athenian revision.
3. The group of Athena, Zeus Ammon, and various symbols is represented by 2 coins reasonably close to NWA’s Hisarlik to be the Iliad’s Thymbra, and 5 coins in CWA (plus the ThY coin type excavated at Pergamon) reasonably close to a Teuthranian Trojan War. Thus, we do not see sufficient reason to consider ThY coins to be from NWA.
4. The group that includes Athena Ilias and the Palladium is represented by 4 coins in NWA and 3 coins in CWA. We do not know why Athena Ilias is shown in CWA’s Ionia at Lebedus, or the Palladium is shown in CWA’s regions of South Mysia at Pergamon or in Phrygia at Synnada.
5. The group that includes Crethis, her son Homer, and related designs is represented by 4 coins in NWA and 7 coins in CWA. When we consider that Homer is most often thought to be from CWA or beyond Anatolia, we wonder about the 4 from NWA cities (Amastris, Cyzicus, Gergis, and Nicea). The Bithynian coins of Amastris and Nicea show Homer, with the former also showing the god of his Meles River although it seems to flow not near Amastris but near Smyrna; and the North Mysian Cyzicus coin shows Scylla. We do not know the reasons for their designs. For the Gergis coin of “Troas” that shows sibyl Herophile, we suggest the simple reason that she or her legend originated there.
6.0 CONCLUSION
Numerous Iliadic coin types of NWA that show major deities and heroes were issued by Alexandria and Ilium, relatively new cities at which the Athenian version of the Iliad must have prevailed. However, the coins of older, smaller, and more remote cities seem to indicate a legendary and Homeric Trojan War history and locale beyond the influence of the Athenian version. Such coins are indicative of burial and worship sites at Achilleum (or a Greek camp site at Achaeum), Assus, Elaeus, Hamaxitus, Madytus, and Ophrynium; a possible name origin site (related to Hector’s half-brother Cebriones) at Cebren; and a possible Iliadic artifactual site (related to the bow of Pandarus) at Zelea. Moreover, Dardanium’s Iliadic coin designs and coins excavated at Hisarlik indicate that the latter location is at the Trojan War site of Dardanium’s near neighbor Ilium.
Although CWA includes many more coin-issuing cities and coin types, its Iliadic coins are less common. Perhaps surprisingly, the coin designs and subjects that are not found in the Iliad seem to tell us more. For example, the group that represents Crethis and her much better known son Homer includes 7 cities in CWA and only 4 in NWA. One of the latter is from Gergis showing its sibyl Herophile, who originated there, but the other three are from the general area of Bithynia, at similar distances from Ilium and Pergamon. Though Homer could have chosen a Trojan War locale of NWA or CWA, he may have needed to spend much time learning about his setting, and he seems to have spent more of his career in CWA.
More significantly, the Altar of Pergamon group that represents Telephus and his family, who are not mentioned in the Iliad, is represented at 10 cities in CWA and only 3 in NWA. The latter are all in Bithynia and vicinity, similarly distant from Ilium and Pergamon, and perhaps insulated from the Athenian revision of the Iliad. Furthermore, Telephus is represented on coins issued far from Anatolia, in all directions, as shown by the above listings for Bactria, Capua, Cos Island, Damascus, Serdica, and his native Tegea.
Based on those coins, far more numerous than those that clearly show Priam which are from Ilium only, we could believe that the legendary Telephus was much more than a short-term defender against Greeks who had lost their way, and then accepted his help to find NWA. We could imagine instead that Telephus was a powerful king with an impressive capital city in a great territory. It seems that he could have done much more than Priam to lead a prolonged defense against 1,186 hollow ships led by Achilles and packed with Greeks.
The story of what we know as the Trojan War could have been much more extensive prior to the Athenian revised version of the Iliad. The revision may have omitted much or most of the early conflict, in which Achilles led the conquest of 23 locations, to focus on a final campaign at Hisarlik.
As with many oral myths, the details become confused, and we often have multiple versions. The characteristics of Pergamon and Ilium such as their wall heights, citadels, river flow directions, and seaport distances could have been intermingled, explaining some of the reasons given for relocating the war from NWA to CWA per Lascelles and Crowe. In the numismatic realm, we could now see how Pergamon’s ruins could contain coins of the Iliad’s Thymbra, though their city’s name could differ.
Overall, based on the numismatic evidence, it does not appear that the Trojan War should be relocated from NWA to CWA. Though we see no likelihood that the Trojan War and the land called Troas will be renamed, we should consider that the mythological war was probably much larger than a campaign at Hisarlik, perhaps traceable to the first of the West’s “world wars” against the East.
7.0 REFERENCES
Aeschylus Agamemnon 458 BCE Transl G. Theodoridis 2005
http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Agamemnon.htm.
American Numismatic Society http://numismatics.org.
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