Bithynian coinage

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Tetradrachm of Nicomedes II Tetradracma de Nicomedes II. Bitinia. 127-94 a. C. Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia.jpg
Tetradrachm of Nicomedes II

Bithynian coinage refers to coinage struck by the Kingdom of Bithynia that was situated on the coast of the Black Sea.

Black Sea Marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and Asia

The Black Sea is a body of water and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Western Asia. It is supplied by a number of major rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Don, and the Rioni. Many countries drain into the Black Sea, including Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Contents

Extent of monetization

Asia Minor is known for having kingdoms that issued abundant coinage during some points in their history. After Pergamon under the Attalid dynasty expanded, smaller kingdoms exploited the political situation and increased their power in the region. Bithynia, Cappadocia and Pontus are well-known and studied for their abundant coinage at certain times. Bithynian kingdom incorporated the most monetized areas under its domain when compared to the other two kingdoms. Bithynian rulers struck long and continuous series of silver and bronze coinage. Elsewhere, Cappadocians are primarily known for their military issues of coins, and the less monetized Pontic region primarily struck bronze coinage. [1]

Pergamon ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey

Pergamon, Pergamos or Pergamum, was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus and northwest of the modern city of Bergama.

Attalid dynasty dynasty

The Attalid dynasty was a Hellenistic dynasty that ruled the city of Pergamon in Asia Minor after the death of Lysimachus, a general of Alexander the Great.

Cappadocia Place in Katpatuka

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in the Nevşehir, Kayseri, Kırşehir, Aksaray, and Niğde Provinces in Turkey.

The purpose of the first royal Bithynian and Cappadocian bronze coinage is still unknown. [1]

History

The first king was Zipoetes I c. 298 BC – c. 279 BC. It is thought that there were no coinage struck during his reign. [2]

Zipoetes I, also Zipoites I or Ziboetes I, possibly Tiboetes I was the second independent ruler of Bithynia.

The first Bithynian king to strike coins was Nicomedes I (c. 280 BC – c. 250 BC). He is primarily known for bringing the Gauls known as Galatians to the Asia Minor in 277 BC to fight against his brother and Antiochus I. This short-sighted mistake brought troubles for local Greeks for a century. In early 260s BC, possibly in 264 BC according to Eusebius, he moved the capital to Nicomedia on the Propontis. There was a mint in the new capital. Silver tetradrachms and drachms of the Attic weight are known. Nicomedes I is known to have struck some bronze coinage too. [3] Both Bithynian and Cappadocian coinages were started with minor series of bronze coins. [1]

Gauls Celtic inhabitants of a large part of Europe called Gaul, before the Roman domination

The Gauls were a group of Celtic peoples of West-Central Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period. The area they inhabited was known as Gaul. Their Gaulish language forms the main branch of the Continental Celtic languages.

Galatians (people) people of Galatia

The Galatians were a Gallic people of the Hellenistic period that dwelt mainly in the north central regions of Asia Minor or Anatolia, in what was known as Galatia, in today's Turkey. In their origin they were a part of the great migration which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The originals who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios c. 278 BC. They consisted mainly of three tribes, the Tectosages, the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii, but they were also other minor tribes. They spoke a Celtic language, the Galatian language, which is sparsely attested.

Eusebius Greek church historian

Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon and is regarded as an extremely learned Christian of his time. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel, and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the Biblical text. As "Father of Church History", he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs.

Successor of Nicomedes I was Ziaelas (c. 250 BC – 230 BC). He is known for having minted bronze coinage. However, only a few specimen have survived. [3]

Reign of Prusias I (c. 232 BC – 182 BC) saw birth of a more regular silver and bronze coinage for the kingdom. [3] The first large issues of coins can be thus attributed to him. [1] Bronze coinage of Prusias I and Prusias II have not been differentiated in the most common catalogues. However, those related to Ziaelas can be attributed to Prusias I. [3]

Nicomedes II is notable for having struck the first gold staters in the kingdom's history. Those coins had his portrait on their obverse, and a galloping horseman on the reverse. [4] He also introduced the year number of the Bithynian era on his coins, replacing the Seleucid era. [5]

Both Nicomedes III and Nicomedes IV struck similar tetradrachms as their predecessor Nicomedes II. [2]

End of the kingdom

Roman provincial coin of Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius Provincial Demeter BMC12 1.xcf
Roman provincial coin of Antoninus Pius

On the death of king Nicomedes IV in 74 BC the kingdom was bequeathed to the Roman Empire, and subsequently reconstituted as a Roman province. It was later part of the province of the Bithynia and Pontus. Roman administration saw introduction of a new provincial currency, and Bithynian polity's capital was moved back to Nicomedia. [2] [6]

During Roman rule the provincial cities that, in the combined province of Bithynia and Pontus, issued coinage reached 29 cities during the second century AD. Some of these cities on the Bithynian region included Apamea Myrlea, Bithynium, Nicaea, Nicomedia and Tium. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

Bithynia region in Anatolia

Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine Sea. It bordered Mysia to the southwest, Paphlagonia to the northeast along the Pontic coast, and Phrygia to the southeast towards the interior of Asia Minor.

Nicomedes I of Bithynia King of Bithynia

Nicomedes I, second king of Bithynia, was the eldest son of Zipoetes I, whom he succeeded on the throne in 278 BC.

Nicomedes II of Bithynia

Nicomedes II Epiphanes was the king of Bithynia from 149 to c. 127 BC. He was fourth in descent from Nicomedes I. Nicomedes II was the son and successor of Prusias II and Apame IV. His parents were related as they were maternal cousins.

Ziaelas, third king of Bithynia, was a son of Nicomedes I and Ditizele.

First Mithridatic War

The First Mithridatic War was a war challenging Rome's expanding Empire and rule over the Greek world. In this conflict, the Kingdom of Pontus and many Greek cities rebelling against Rome were led by Mithridates VI of Pontus against the Roman Republic and the Kingdom of Bithynia. The war lasted five years and ended in a Roman victory which forced Mithridates to abandon all his conquests and return to Pontus. The conflict with Mithridates VI would continue in two further Mithridatic Wars.

Mithridates IV of Pontus, sometimes known by his full name Mithridates Philopator Philadelphus, was a prince and sixth ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus.

Etazeta was the second wife of Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia and a ruler of Bithynia.

Laodice of Cappadocia

Berenice or Laodice of Cappadocia, also known as Laodice was a princess from the Kingdom of Pontus and a queen of the Kingdom of Cappadocia.

Nicomedes III Euergetes was the king of Bithynia, from c. 127 BC to c. 94 BC. He was the son and successor of Nicomedes II of Bithynia by an unnamed woman.

Kingdom of Pontus

The Kingdom of Pontus or Pontic Empire was a state founded by the Persian Mithridatic dynasty, which may have been directly related to Darius the Great and the Achaemenid dynasty. The kingdom was proclaimed by Mithridates I in 281 BCE and lasted until its conquest by the Roman Republic in 63 BCE. It reached its largest extent under Mithridates VI the Great, who conquered Colchis, Cappadocia, Bithynia, the Greek colonies of the Tauric Chersonesos, and for a brief time the Roman province of Asia. After a long struggle with Rome in the Mithridatic Wars, Pontus was defeated; part of it was incorporated into the Roman Republic as the province Bithynia et Pontus, and the eastern half survived as a client kingdom.

Cappadocia (Roman province) province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia

Cappadocia was a province of the Roman Empire in Anatolia, with its capital at Caesarea. It was established in 17 AD by the Emperor Tiberius, following the death of Cappadocia's last king, Archelaus.

Bithynia and Pontus Roman province

Bithynia and Pontus was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia (Turkey). It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus. The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces.

Orsabaris, also spelt as Orsobaris was a Princess from the Kingdom of Pontus.

Orodaltis was a princess from Anatolia who lived in the 1st century BC and was a contemporary to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD.

Andronicus of Pergamum was an ambassador of Attalus II Philadelphus. He was sent to Rome in 156 BCE, to inform the Roman Senate that Prusias II of Bithynia had attacked the territories of Attalus.

Ptolemaic coinage

Coinage of the Ptolemaic Kingdom was in use during the last dynasty of Egypt and, briefly, during Roman rule of Egypt.

Coinage of the Kingdom of Pontus

History of coinage of the Pontic Kingdom probably began during reign of Mithridates II of the Kingdom of Pontus. Early Pontic coinage imitated coinage with Alexander the Great's portraits. Later coinage is well known for its high decree of realism in portraits of the Pontic kings who were proud of their Iranian ancestry. Pontic coin portraitry developed isolated from wider Hellenistic tradition. However, Mithridates V and his son Mithridates VI partially abandoned oriental influences in the coin portraitry.

Rhodian coinage

Ancient Rhodian coinage refers to the coinage struck by an independent Rhodian polity during Classical and Hellenistic eras. The Rhodians also controlled territory on neighbouring Caria that was known as Rhodian Peraia under the islanders' rule. However, many other eastern Mediterranean states and polities adopted Rhodian (Chian) monetary standard following Rhodes. It has been speculated how much Rhodians had influenced the spread of the monetary standard. Coinage using the standard achieved a wide circulation in the region. Even the Ptolemaic Kingdom, a major Hellenistic state in the eastern Mediterranean, briefly adopted the Rhodian monetary standard.

Bosporan era

The Bosporan era, also called the Bithynian era, Pontic era or Bithyno-Pontic era, was a calendar era used from 149 BC at the latest until at least AD 497 in Asia Minor and the Black Sea region. It originated in the Bithynian Kingdom and was also used in the Pontic Kingdom and, for the longest time, in the Bosporan Kingdom. The calendar era begins with the assumption of the royal title by Zipoetes I of Bithynia in October 297 BC, which marks the start of its year one. The Bosporan year began at the autumnal equinox.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 William E. Metcalf (5 January 2016). The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. Oxford University Press. p. 185. ISBN   978-0-19-937218-8.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ancient coinage of Bithynia". snible.org. Retrieved 2018-02-09.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Otto Mørkholm (31 May 1991). Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamaea (336–188 BC). Cambridge University Press. p. 130. ISBN   978-0-521-39504-5.
  4. ↑ Per Bilde (1996). Aspects of Hellenistic Kingship. Aarhus University Press. ISBN   978-87-7288-474-5.
  5. ↑ Jakob Munk Højte, "From Kingdom to Province: Reshaping Pontos after the Fall of Mithridates VI", in Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen (ed.), Rome and the Black Sea Region: Domination, Romanisation, Resistance (Aarhus University Press, 2006), 15–30.
  6. 1 2 Wayne G. Sayles (June 1998). Ancient Coin Collecting IV: Roman Provincial Coins. F+W Media, Inc. pp. 46–47. ISBN   0-87341-552-3.

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