Ptolemaic Empire

Abstract: Berenike was a gateway to the distant lands of Africa and the Indian Ocean littoral
and the archaeological record from the site testifies to the scope and rich array of goods
passing through this Red Sea port. However, investigation of the Hellenistic origins of the
town began in earnest only after a full magnetic survey was completed of the western fringes
of the site where the Ptolemaic foundation was believed to have been established. Recent
excavations in 2010 and 2012 have contributed important new data about the architecture of
this part of the town. Of particular interest were the remains of a presumed tetrapyrgion
associated with a huge defensive complex, roughly 150 m by 80 m in size, which may have
been used, among other things, for bringing through wild elephants from Africa imported
for use by the Ptolemaic army. This contribution initiates a series of articles by the author on
the Hellenistic defenses now under excavation at Berenike, presenting an overview of the
location and structure of the great fort/base of Berenike Trogodytika and its role in the
network of military harbors on the Red Sea coast, and the posts on the routes and fortified
outposts of the Eastern Desert.

The connection between the presence of the administration of a Hellenistic Kingdom and a royal mint appears at first glance to be relatively straightforward. Silver coinage is most often considered to be first and foremost a means of state payment, mainly for military purposes, and even bronze coinage – ostensibly produced for the purposes of non-state exchange – has been recently demonstrated to play an important role in state financial systems. Although coinage represents only a small percentage of state revenues, this connection between minting coinage and the state as first user often serves as confirmation of the intuitive connection between the site of the administration and that of monetary production. For the Ptolemaic kingdom, the concentration of all monetary production in Egypt into a single mint based in Alexandria – the locus of the Ptolemaic king himself – is a clear demonstration of this link.
The distribution and production of Ptolemaic mints in Cyprus, however, requires a re-evaluation of the relationship between monetary production and territorial administration. While Egypt had only a single mint under the Ptolemies, coinage was produced in no fewer than four cities in the comparatively tiny island of Cyprus. Salamis, Kition, and Paphos each housed mints which consistently produced the full range of coins on the Ptolemaic tri-metallic system throughout the Hellenistic period and Amathous briefly produced Ptolemaic silver coinage in 170/169 and 169/168 BC.
Despite the proliferation of mints throughout Cyprus, the mint at Nea Paphos differs significantly from the other centers of monetary production. In terms of geography, it is the only mint in the western half of the island. While Salamis and Kition are separated by only 45 km, there are more than 110 km between Salamis and Paphos with the Troodos forming a natural obstacle to travel between the cities. Moreover, in spite of its status as the administrative center of the island, Nea Paphos is the least productive mint of Cyprus for the majority of the Hellenistic period. Salamis and Kition clearly housed large Ptolemaic garrisons requiring a supply of coinage for their payment. Nonetheless, coinage is an easily transportable good and there is no obligation for coinage to have been produced in the cities themselves rather than in a central mint in the administrative center of the island. The goal of this paper, then, is to re-examine the nature of the link between the two functions of the city of Nea Paphos – royal mint and administrative center – and to reflect on monetary production in Cyprus and more largely on the Ptolemaic monetary system as a whole.