A GALATIAN TETRADRACHM OF SELEUCID TYPE
(Schweizer Muenzblaetter 211, Sept. 2003)
Richard P. Miller
Barbarous imitations of the tetradrachms of Antiochus III (born c. 242, ruled 223-187 B.C.) are known from several
areas of Asia Minor . Antiochus was in the region from 216 to 213, fighting his sometime satrap Achaeus, who had
usurped the royal authority while the King was campaigning in Coele Syria and the marches of Egypt.
A few barbarous tetradrachms from Asia Minor, which may be termed «Galatian», seem to be based on the
early Antioch series. Our coin's type closely resembles several other examples, as we shall see. It was obtained
in commerce and its provenance is unknown.
The Galatians were originally Danubian Celts who had come south through Macedonia and Thrace in 280/79 . Some stayed
in mainland Greece, terrifying the coastal cities, while others crossed into Asia Minor in 278/7, part of them
at the invitation of Nicomedes of Bithynia, whom they helped to suppress a pretender to his throne . They then
became the terror of western Asia Minor, too, as Galatians. Sometimes defeated by the Hellenistic kings and sometimes
serving as mercenaries in their armies, the Galatians were finally driven into central Asia Minor by the Roman
general Cn. Manlius Vulso, in 189. Many of them settled within the ill-defined boundaries of Phrygia, keeping their
tribal organizations intact. By the 1st century BC they were firm allies of Rome, fighting in her wars against
Mithradates VI of Pontus .
Galatians of Asia Minor
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Fig. 1. New Galatian tetradrachm. SC Uncertain Mint 49.
R. P. Miller Collection, Canton, Michigan USA
(coin sold to Richard Miller by Mike R Vosper, Coins)
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Obv. Diademed head of a young king to r., sideburn represented by a row of dots; two pellets below neck truncation;
dotted border.
Rev. BASILEWS on r., ANTIOCOU on l.; Apollo seated l. on
omphalos, testing arrow and resting l. hand on grounded bow; in outer left, H.
AR Tetradrachm, 16.91 g, 12.00. R. P. Miller collection, Detroit, Michigan, USA (Fig. 1)
The new coin shows very little wear. The portrait is of summary style but of good craftsmanship, and was probably
created by a trained artisan familiar with Greek coin engraving. The flan is notably different from most other
imitations of Antiochus III's coinage. It has been laid flat on an anvil and hammered at a slight angle around
much of the circumference. This would help spread the flan and perhaps create greater circularity. The flan was
then placed, hammered side down, on the anvil die. The result of striking is a «bevelled» appearance
around the obverse die impression, while the reverse is quite flat. The practice was known in Asia Minor beginning
with coins of Antiochus Hierax, and was much used on Alexander tetradrachms of the coastal cities. After the battle
of Pydna (168), when the Romans put an end to the Macedonian kingdom and minting of these pseudo-Alexanders virtually
ceased in Asia Minor, similar hammering was done on the successor, wreathed tetradrachms struck by some of the
same cities.
But our coin was likely struck late in the 3rd century or early in the 2nd. Its portrait clearly derives from tetradrachms
of Antiochus III of a type struck at the very outset of his reign, at Antioch. (Fig. 2).
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Fig. 2 SC 1041.1, Tetradrachm of sideburned Antiochus III, portrait
type Ai. Antioch mint.*
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It shows the king, aged 19 or 20, with a long sideburn, reminiscent
of his older brother Seleucus III's coin portraits . There cannot have been a great number struck, since all 33
examples known to G. LE RIDER are from the same obverse die, which was also used to strike his first series of
gold octodrachms in 223 . Still, some found their way into Asia Minor, where the Galatians would have seen them
at this time, if not earlier; examples have been found in Phrygian hoards .
Circulation of the sideburned Antiochus tetradrachms, the first of his reign, would have spread from the Antioch
mint into Asia Minor, perhaps even before his campaigns there in 216-213 and almost certainly no later. Evidence
for a terminus ante quem is found in the Peace of Apamea, concluded between Antiochus and Rome in 188 following
his defeat at Magnesia in 190. Under its terms, Antiochus gave up all claim to Asia Minor north of the Taurus .
It is most unlikely that a mint in the lost territory would have continued to strike Antiochus's coinage after
the settlement, especially at the risk of offending the Romans.
The portrait on our coin, and pellets below the neck truncation, in addition to the hammered flan, are keys to
its place of origin. SC 1003 ( = WSM 1699, pl. 85, 2) bears a close resemblance, as do WSM 1700g (pl. 85, 4) and
WSM 1701b (pl. 85, 6). These three portraits are plainly from the same engraver's hand as our coin. WSM 1699 (overstruck
on a royal tetradrachm, probably Seleucid) and 1701b show the hammering described above; 1700g does not. WSM 1699
and 1701b each have a single pellet in the neck truncation. Our coin has two unrecorded marks: the two obverse
pellets and the H reverse control mark. The WSM examples and our Galatian tetradrachm are all, clearly, from Uncertain
Mint 49, which Houghton and Lorber have identified as probably being located in Phrygia, perhaps at Apamea .
Semi-barbarous coins such as the above, most likely struck within Galatian territory, and at any case on the periphery
of the principal areas of Seleucid control, suggest that this mint did not have official status, at least when
the issues of Series 3 were struck However, the clear copying of an Antiochene coin of Seleucus III, and the use
of Antiochene controls, provide evidence that an official mint produced Series 1, 223-222 BC. It would have been
under the control of the slain Seleucus III's court when it began striking coins of Antiochus III with the portrait
dies at hand. But the dies of Series 3, as we have seen, are semi-barbarous in nature; it is hard to imagine a
Seleucid mint official or military authority allowing this to occur. Their control marks, too, tend to the chaotic,
and are unlike regular Seleucid markings (Fig. 3) .
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Fig. 3. SC 1003 = WSM 1699. SC Uncertain Mint 49.*
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The supposition may be advanced, then, that as Seleucid authority was withdrawn from the region, perhaps to consolidate
and focus the army further to the west in the fight against Achaeus, the issuance of coins by Mint 49 was turned
over to the Galatians to administer. How long they did so remains a question, but the fairly close relationship
between the three series, 1 to 3, suggests that the mint may have been discontinued quite early.
Thus we may hypothesize with some confidence as to where, by whom, and approximately when, these Galatian tetradrachms
were struck. Perhaps we may also begin an inquiry as to why they were struck. Apparently, the coins were not issued
in large numbers; in fact, unlike prolific imitations of Hellenistic coinage by the Danubian Celts, they are quite
rare. This leads one to suppose that they had some significance for the Galatians in addition to monetary use,
these few, isolated coins. The discovery of more examples could help us to determine what that significance may
have been, as well as to refine their dating.
Richard P. Miller, M.A.
Dept. of Classics, Greek and Latin
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan, USA
I am indebted to Catharine Lorber for this observation.
* American Numismatic Society; photographs by Oliver Hoover.
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