Greek Imperial Medallions

Author(s): Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee

Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 34, Parts 1 and 2 (1944), pp. 65-73
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
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 GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS
By JOCELYN M. C. TOYNBEE
(Plate iii)
True medallions, in the sense in which the Roman bronze medallions proper have
been defined,1 were unknown to the classical and Hellenistic Greeks. We have no evidence
that their governments ever adopted the practice of striking special coin-like pieces for
distribution to selected individuals on special or solemn occasions. When they struck
coins of unusually large size, such as the 5o-litra Demareteia, to take the most obvious
example, they appear to have done so because sudden wealth-that of Carthage, in Gelon's
case-had come their way and lured them into ostentatious and reckless coining.2 In spite
of their abnormal size these pieces formed part of the regular coinage and share their com-
memorative types with smaller pieces of the same series they were essentially media
of exchange ; and neither in style nor content do they display that special character which
distinguishes the majority of Roman money-medallions, or multiples in the precious metals,
from the ordinary gold and silver currency. It was to commemorate his victory over
Demetrius, probably in I67 B.C.,2a and the annexation to Bactria of the Indus country
that Eucratides minted his vast gold pieces of 2o Attic staters, known from the example in
the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris-the most hybristic display of opulence ever perpetrated
by a minting authority in ancient times.3 This tour-de-force does, indeed, approximate more
closely to a Roman money-medallion, for, although the piece shares both obverse and
reverse types with smaller coins,4 it can hardly have been minted in anything like the quantity
in which the Demareteia were coined. It has been suggested that these giant coins were
issued as a means of dividing out a portion of some captured gold hoard among the higher
ranks of Eucratides' army 5; it seems, however, unlikely that an individual recipient would
have readily exchanged or melted down so dazzling a prize, while the gold from which
it was struck was probably neither Bactrian nor Indian but imported by Eucratides himself
from the West.5a In any case the great staters were an isolated experiment: they initiated
no series of medallion issues.
Nor can we correctly apply the term ' medallion ' to those large bronze pieces struck
by the Greek cities in imperial times, the size and weight of which show them to be of
higher value than the more ordinary coins. Their frequency and their normally mean
technique, low relief, and countermarks reveal them to be, not presentation pieces, but
current money issued for circulation. Even the more unusual of these large pieces, with
reverse types of specially interesting or elaborate content or with personifications instead
of imperial portraits on the obverse,6 cannot, on these counts, be differentiated from the
rest as true medallions, although it is possible that some of them may have been actually
treasured as mementoes. Personifications of city-goddess, Demos or Boule, also occur on
coins of moderate size ; nor is the style, whether on obverse or reverse, really medallic. 6a
There are, however, among the issues of Greek imperial bronze two series of pieces
which seem to stand out in contrast to all the rest for their remarkably medallic character.
The larger of these two series consists of certain Antinous pieces, struck between A.D. I34
and I38, for the most part, in Epirus, Phocis, Achaia, Arcadia, Aeolia, Jonia, Pontus,
Bithynia, Mysia, Lydia, Phrygia, Galatia, Cilicia, and Egypt.7 The Antinous pieces taken
1 E.g. J. M. C. Toynbee, Arch. Journ. xc, (head of city-goddess of Sardis, veiled and turreted,
I942,
34ff. on obverse).
2
C. T. Seltman, Greek Coins I04 f. 6a Some of the larger and rarer of these pieces
2'1 W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India may have been struck by the local minting authorities
I98, 207. '
as extraordinary coins' commemorating particular
3 Seltman, op. cit, 235, pl. 55, no. 5. occasions. But their style does not suggest that they
4 E.g. Journ. internat. d'arch. num. I9I3, pl. i8, were special pieces designed by special artists specially
nos. I7, I8. commissioned with the work.
5 Seltman, op. cit. 235, n. 2. I G. Blum, 'Numismatique d'Antinoos' (JIAN
sa Tarn, op. cit. I04. I914, 33-70, pIs. I-5).
6 E.g. BM Cat. Greek Coins: Lydia pl. 26, no. I

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66 JOCELYN M. C. TOYNBEE

as a whole fall into three groups-first, large, rare pieces with splendid obverse heads and
busts, some of them magnificently modelled in high relief, and reverse designs less strikingly
medallic, perhaps, but still markedly plastic in technique and executed with the utmost
care 8; secondly, smaller pieces rendered in the same medallic style as that of the large
pieces 9; and thirdly, small, non-medallic pieces, of which the mediocre style and, in some
cases, minute dimensions, leave little room for doubt that they served as current money.10
We might, indeed, be tempted to claim for the first and second Antinous groups the title
of bronze medallions proper, large and small, did not the occurrence in the third group
of a number of the same reverse types as in the medallic groups show that the medallic
pieces stand, not apart from the regular coinage, as the Roman bronze medallions do,
but in a definite relationship to the coin system. If, as seems highly probable, the Antinous
pieces were festival issues, struck for such occasions as the annual ceremonies and four-
yearly festivals, established by Hadrian at Mantineia in Arcadia in the dead hero's honour,1'
we might draw a general comparison between them and the Roman vota festival issues of
the later Empire. The small non-medallic pieces would have circulated as cash, as did
the ordinary vota solidi. The small medallic pieces, the size and weight of which would
bring them within the scope of the regular currency as media of exchange, are reminiscent
of the silver miliarensia as ' medallic coins ', issued to certain sections, perhaps, of the
people, but distinguished from the common coins by their style. The large bronze pieces,
rare and of exceptional beauty, would correspond, in style, at least, to the gold and silver
Roman multiples of the late third and fourth centuries, potentially money, but actually,
no doubt, presented as mementoes or tokens of honour to favoured individuals. These
masterpieces, which we might tentatively describe as ' Greek imperial money-medallions ',
can be conveniently studied in Blum's article and in the accompanying plates ; and in
addition to the pieces illustrated by Blum we may note the outstandingly fine Arcadian
piece of Betourios in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, New York.12 The majority of cities
minting Antinous pieces struck types in high relief with plastic, rounded forms-deep
bare busts viewed from every variety of angle, draped busts, seen from the side, and heads,
all obviously inspired by sculptured portraits, on the obverse, and reverse designs modelled
in a style to match. On pieces minted at Tarsus in Cilicia, on the other hand, we find a
somewhat flatter style, but no less truly medallic in its exquisite delicacy and technical
finish.13 The reverse types are of great interest and variety in content and unrivalled as
compositions, whether they show the single figure of an animal (horse, bull, panther, boar,
ram, etc.) or of a deity (Athene Promachos, Apollo (?) riding on a griffin, Dionysos on panther-
back, Hermes on horseback, Men, Antinous-Hermes, etc.) or more elaborate and pictorial
designs (Sol driving a quadriga, river-deities, Hermes Nomios, Poseidon in hippocamp-
car, etc.). When we compare these superb portraits and reverse types with the portraits
and reverse types of the contemporary Greek provincial coinage, the probability suggests
itself that their dies (and those of the smaller medallic pieces) were the product, not of
local talent, but of imperial medallists from Rome, commissioned by the Greek cities to
design these special pieces. If court medallists were indeed employed to design the Antinous
medallions, large and small, this would give new content to the dedicatory formula which
so frequently appears on Antinous pieces of all three groups. For then we must suppose
that the magistrate who ' dedicated ' (av?r:OKr, expressed or implied) 14 an Antinous
issue to his city would be responsible, not only for defraying the whole or part of the
cost of the issue, but also for securing the services of a medallist to design the types of the
medallic groups, for providing his fee, and, in the event of his travelling to the city in
question and working on the spot, for paying his fare and finding him hospitality. As
Blum has already pointed out, 15it is possible to arrange certain of the cities issuing Antinous
8 E.g. ibid. pls. I, nos. 10, I3-I9; 2, nos. I, 2, 12 Numismatic Notes and Monographs I 7, I923,
5-9, I2-i6; 3, nos. I, 2, 6-II; 4, nos. I, 2, 4-II, I ff.,pI. I.
I3, 14; nos. i, 6-8.
5, 13 Blurm, Op. cit. pl. 4, nos. 5-IO.
14
9 E.g. ibid. pls. I, nos. 20-22; 3, no. I2; 4, nos. 3, Mr. Mattingly has suggested to the present writer
I2; 5, nos. 4, 9, I0. that the legend &V?eT1KE may contain a reference to
10 Eg. ibid. pls. I, nos. 9, II, 12, 23; 2, nos. 3, 4, an actual &v&OT,a, a statue or votive offering of some
8, 20 ; 3, nos. I3-I7 ; 5, nos. 5, II. kind, represented by the medallion type.
11 Pausanias viii, 9, 7-8; cf. Blum, op. cit. 6i. 15 op. cit. 6;.

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JRS vol. xxxiv (I944) PLATE III

R P A SS T II -

GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS: I. ANTINOUS, STRUCK AT TARSUS, WITHS KYDNOS ON REVERSE, IN BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE,
PARIS. 2. ANTINOUS, WITH APOLLO ON REVERSE, IN BIBLIOTHEQU E NATIONALE, PARIS. 3. HADRIAN, STRUCK AT
ELIS, WITH SKOPAIC APHRODITE PANDEMOS ON REVERSE, IN BRITISH M USEUM. 4. FAUSTINA II, WITH DIONYSIAC SCENE
ON REVERSE, IN KAISER-FRIEDRICH MUSEUM, BERLIN. 5. GOLD NIKETERION, WITH ATHENE ON OBVERSE AND ALEXANDER
HUNTING A LION ON REVERSE, IN FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE. 1 (see pp. 67 if.)

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 GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS 67

pieces into groups on the basis of the remarkably close stylistic resemblances between
the large bronze medallions which they respectively struck-resemblances, we might add,
so close as to warrant the attribution of all the pieces of a given group to a single artist,
who travelled, it may be, from city to city designing medallions beforehand, well ahead
of the occasion on which they were to be released. Two Antinous pieces, both of them in
Paris, are inserted in broad ' frames ', which mark them out unmistakably as medallions.
One (pl. iii, i), struck at Tarsus, shows on its obverse a nude, low bust of Antinous facing
towards the right (ANTI NOOC HPQC) and on its reverse the river-god Kydnos reclining
towards the left, leaning on an overturned urn and holding reed and branch (KYANOC).16
The second piece (pl. iii, 2) bears no legends, but seems to belong to the Greek imperial, rather
than to the Roman, series. On its obverse is a draped bust of Antinous facing to the left
(cf. Blum op. cit., pls. 3, no. 7 (Tium); 5, no. I (Alexandria)) and on its reverse is Apollo,
wearing a long chiton and holding a lyre, seated on the back of a winged griffin, which
prances towards the right (cf. Blum op. cit., pl. 3, no. 9 (Chalcedon) ). The designs on both
sides are executed in very high relief and in a remarkably fine style.'7
The second series of Greek imperial bronze medallions consists of a set of pieces
struck at Elis for Hadrian with fine medallic busts of the Emperor on the obverse and on
the reverse a representation of the Olympian Zeus of Pheidias, showing either the complete
statue or the head alone.'8 These are quite distinct from current coins both in style and
types. The Paris piece, showing on the reverse the majestic head of the god crowned
with an oak-wreath and facing towards the right,'9 was believed to be unique until the
recent discovery of a second specimen, struck from the same reverse, but from a different
obverse, die, in the Leake Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.20 The well-
known Florence piece shows the complete statue-Zeus seen in profile seated towards the
left.2' Another piece, in Berlin, shows the same reverse type, but struck from a slightly
different die.22 A third type, known from two specimens, one in Berlin, the other in Athens,
shows the statue seen in profile towards the right.23 A fourth type, known from a piece
in Berlin, shows the statue seen three-quarters.towards the left.24 In all these types Zeus
is seated on a high-backed throne with arms, while his feet rest upon a decorated footstool;
he grasps his sceptre in his left hand, which is extended in front of him 25; and a Nike is
perched on his extended right hand. The distinctively medallic style of these Hadrianic
pieces is at once apparent. The large scale and rounded, plastic technique of the obverse
portraits of the Emperor and of the reverse types, both that of the head of Zeus and those
of the complete statue, immediately differentiate these pieces from the ordinary provincial
currency. Like the Antinous medallions, they are the productions of no local die-sinker,
but of an imperial medallist of the first rank from Rome, specially commissioned by the
Emperor to work for him in the Peloponnese.26 With the Pheidian medallions of Hadrian

16 Riv. ital. di num. I9II, tav. 4, no. 4. [P1. iii,
no. I;]
17 No. 8 (classed with the Roman series). [P1. iii,
no. 2.] These legendless types are certainly peculiar
tof an Antinous piece. The reverse designs of his
Alexandrian series (see Blum, op. cit. pl. 5, nos. I-I I),
which are legendless but for the letters denoting
the year of issue, afford the nearest parallel. With
the deep, undraped obverse busts on the Arcadian,
Achaian, Bithynian,. and Mysian Antinous medallions
(Blum, op. cit. pls. I, nos. 14, i 8-2I ; 3, nos. 9, i i) com-
pare the deep, semi-nude bust on Romnan medallions
of Hadrian (Gnecchi, I medaglioni romani ii, tavv. 38,
no. 9; 39, no. 2). Mr. C. T. Seltman and the present
writer arrived quite independently at the conclusion
that the former and the latter are both the work of
the same hand. The reverse designs of the smaller
-nedallic pieces sometimes show inferior technique, sug-
gesting that they are the work of pupils or imitators of
the great masters. Cf. infra. p. 68, n. 29. The present
writer is greatly indebted to Mr. Seltman for kindly
allowing her to make use of his unpublished paper,
Greek Sculpture and some Festival Coins, communicated
to the Hellenic Society on 5th May, 1942. References
are made here to Section V -of that paper.
18 A. B. Cook, Zeus iii, pl. 69 (reverses only)
Toynbee, op. cit. pl. I, nos. 4-8.
19 A. B. Cook, op. cit. iii, pl. 69, nos. ia, ib
Zeitschrift fur Num. I912, Taf. io, Nr. I (rev, only).
20 Illustrated London News, 27th September, I941,
392; Toynbee, op. cit. pl. i, no. 8.
21 A. B. Cook, op. cit. iii, pl. 69, no. 2; ZN I9I2,
Taf. io, Nr. 3 (rev. only).
22 ZN I9I2, Taf. Io, Nr. 3a (rev. only).
23 A. B. Cook, op. cit. iii, pl. 69, no. 3 ; ZN
I9I2,
Taf. IO, Nr. 4, 4a (revs. only).
24 A. B. Cook, op. cit. iii, pl. 69, no. 4; ZN I9I2,
Taf. IO, Nr. 5 (rev. only).
25 In the three-quarters type the sceptre is held
higher up than in the other types, possibly to avoid
undue foreshortening.
26 For the general style of these obverse portraits
on the Hadrianic Elean medallions compare the bare-
headed busts of Hadrian on medallions of the Roman
series (e.g. Gnecchi, op. cit. ii, tavv. 38, nos. 2, 3, 4
39, nos. 3, 6; 40, no. 6; 4I, no. 2).

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68 JOCELYN M. C. TOYNBEE

we should group some of the other bronze pieces of his listed by Imhoof-Blumer and
P. Gardner with the same medallic obverse portraits and copies of other famous works
of art at Olympia and Elis as their reverse types. 27 Such, for example, are the piece which
represents the reclining statue of the river-god Alpheios, holding reed and wreath, at
Olympia,28 the piece with the same figure of Alpheios, holding a wreath and grouped with
Kladeos, reed in hand, and the nymph Olympia, with eagle and olive-branch,29 the Berlin
and Athens pieces with the type of the Praxitelean Dionysos at Elis,30 and the badly-worn
British Museum piece with the type of the Skopaic Aphrodite Pandemos riding on a goat,
also at Elis (pl. iii, 3).31 The close stylistic correspondence between the Elean medallions and
the Arcadian Antinous medallions shows that both series were the work of the same school
of medallists, in fact of the same hand.32 All these Elean medallions show the bust of
Hadrian on the obverse facing towards the right, with the exception of the pieces with
the reverse types of Zeus seated in profile towards the left, of Zeus seated three-quarters
towards the left, and of the nymph and river gods, which show the bust facing towards the
left. The leftward-facing portraits are all struck from the same die and are accompanied
by the legend LiC AVTOKPATWP AAPIANOC. The medallions with the rightward-
facing busts, closely linked, as we have seen, with the Arcadian Antinous medallions,
were presumably also struck for the first celebration in the autumn of 134 of the four-yearly
festival establishea for Antinous at Mantineia.33 It was probably in the summer or autumn
of I34 that Hadrian went east to the Jewish war.34 Did he visit the Peloponnese and
attend the Mantineian festival when en route for Palestine from Rome, bringing his medallist
with him, or having sent him on ahead to work for him on the spot ? 35 The medallions
with AIC are later, dating from the time of Hadrian's second acclamation as imperator
at the end of the Jewish war, between I4th April, I35,36 and the December of that year.37
If Hadrian remained at the front until the end, were the AIC medallions designed by the
same medallist, still working in the Peloponnese, for the occasion of another imperial
visit there when the Emperor was en route for home, probably in the summer of I35 ? 38
The news of the acclamation must have reached the artist at the very last moment before
the medallions were struck, for tIC cuts into the drapery of the bust and must therefore
have been added later to the die.39
31 Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. pl. P,
27 Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias 70-74.
Cf. Head, Historia Numorum ed. 2, 426. no. 24 (rev. only); BM Cat. Greek Coins: Pelopon-
28
Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. 7I nesus pl. xvi, no. 4 (rev. only). [P1. i, no. 3.] The
Rhousopoulos Collection Sale Catalogue, Hirsch, obverse die of this piece appears to be the same
Munich, May, I905, Taf. 29, Nr. 2587; Pausanias v, as that of the Cambridge piece: the legend reads
24, 7: &VEeTJKE & EKaTEpCOEV Trapa TOV Aia 11RAor6(TE AYTOKPA TWPA/PIANOC.
Kal -r6v 'AMEi6V roT-av6v. Mr. Seltman (op. cit.) notes 32 Seltman, op. cit. On the reverse of the Alpheios
the resemblance of this figure to that of Alpheios piece the river-god is represented with the head of
in the east pediment of the temple of Zeus and con- Antinous and is obviously by the same artist who
siders, the medallion design to be a free adaptation designed the obverse portraits of the Arcadian Antinous
of the sculpture. medallions. Mr. Seltman names him the 'Alpheios
29 Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. 74; engraver ' and suggests that he was personally familiar
ZN 1904, Taf. 3, Nr. I; Toynbee, op. cit. pl. i, with Antinous and was perhaps also the author of
no. io; Mr. Seltman (op. cit.) notes that the technique the Marlborough Antinous sard (Burlington Fine
of this reverse is not so good as that of the other Arts Club: Exhibition of Ancient Greek Art 1904,
medallions and suggests that it may be the work of pl. 90, 0. 87).
a less skilled hand. He also points out that the 33 Vide supra p. 66. Cf. Seltman, op. cit.
Kladeos of this design recalls by the shape of his 34 P. L. Strack, Untersuchungen zur romischen
smooth head the reclining Kladeos in the east pediment Reichsprdgung des zweiten. Jahrhunderts ii, 133.
of the temple of Zeus. 35 Toynbee, op. cit. 39. Cf. Seltman, op. cit.
30 Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. 74; 36 The Wroxeter Diploma (D. Atkinson in CR
ZN I885, 384; Toynbee, op. cit. pl. I, no. 9. As 1928, II-I4, and Report on Excavations at Wroxeter
far as can be judged from the cut in ZN the obverse (Birmingham Arch. Soc. I942), I85 ff.), an official
die is the same as that of the Paris medallion with the document, proves that Hadrian was not yet IMP II
head of the Pheidian Zeus as reverse type. At any rate at this date.
the legend reads AYTOKPATWP ALPIANOC, 3 IG xii, Suppl., 239, proves that Hadrian's
as on the Paris piece and on the Rhousopoulos Alpheios second acclamation took place during his nineteenth
piece, and not AYTOKPA TWUPAAPIANOC, tribunician year. CIL xiv, 4235, shows that Hadrian
as on the Cambridge piece and on the Berlin and entered upon his twentieth tribunician year in Decem-
Athens pieces with the type of Zeus seated towards ber, 135. Cf. Seltman, op. cit. (Appendix).
the right. The obverse portrait of the last two pieces 38 Toynbee, op. cit. 39; cf. Seltman, op. cit.
is very similar to, if not quite identical with, that of 3 Seltman, op. cit. The extant Hadrianic medallion
the Cambridge piece. struck at Elis comprise, then, three types of obverss

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 GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS 69

We may also, perhaps, claim as a real Greek imperial bronze medallion an isolated
piece in Berlin (pl. iii, 4). The obverse has the legend (AYCTCI NA CCBACTHand shows the
bust of Faustina II in high relief, facing to the right. The reverse is legendless, but bears
an elaborate scene in which Dionysos, holding thyrsos and patera, stands in the centre
at an altar flanked by a panther and a Bacchante, while the Emperor and Empress stand
on the other side of the altar attended by a number of small figures, some of which are seen
among trees and hills above the actual scene of sacrifice.40 Apart from its Greek legend,
the piece is, in style and technique, indistinguishable from the best work of the Roman
medallists.
In addition to the Antinous bronze money-medallions, the Elean bronze pieces of
Hadrian, and such isolated phenomena as the Berlin Faustina piece, the imperial age has
left us one category of indubitably true Greek medallions, ' medals ' in the full sense of
the. word, presentation pieces issued for special occasions, coin-like in appearance, but
standing completely outside the regular monetary system. These are the great gold pieces
of the third century with types and legends connected, some closely, others more remotely,
with Alexander the Great, which were obviously distributed as prizes (niketeria) to victors
in the great Greek Games. They are represented to-day by two main series. The earlier
of the two is known from three pieces found at Tarsus in I867 with a gold Roman multiple
of Alexander Severus 41 and now in Paris.42 Each has a different obverse-a bust of
Alexander to the right, wearing a lion-skin hood, a head of Alexander to the right, wearing
a diadem, and a bust of Philip II of Macedon (?) to the left, turned three-quarters towards
the front, wearing a diadem and an ornamental cuirass. The two Alexander pieces
bear the same reverse type-Alexander on horseback spearing a lion (BACIACYC
AAE-EANAPOC),while the Philip (?) piece shows Nike holding a large palm-branch and
driving a slow quadriga towards the right (BACIACWC AAEEANAPOY). Their respective
diameters and weights are 67 mm., 98'7 gramrnes; 70 mm., IIOC3I 3grammes; and
67 mm., 93 *83 grammes. The second series is known from twenty pieces found, according
to reports, at Abukir in Egypt in I90z.43 Five of the twenty medallions are in Berlin,44
eight are in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, New York,45 and three are in the Walters

portrait and eight reverse types, each of the former 42 JIAN 1907, pl. 8, nos. 1-3. Cf. Rev. num. 1I903,j
being combined with three of the latter in only I-30, pls. 1-3.
one case, that of the head of the Pheidian Zeus, is 43 JIAN 1907, pls. 9-14. Cf. H. Dressel, Fiinf
the same reverse type coupled with two different Goldmedaillons aus dem Funde von Abukir (I906).
obverse types. Coins of Elis struck in the names Dressel's arguments for the genuineness of the Abukir
of Hadrian, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, medallions are accepted provisionally by the present
and Geta show a type of the Olympian Zeus quite writer, who has only had access to the originals of the
distinct from that of the Hadrianic medallions (ZN pieces in Berlin. But she understands that the
1912, Taf. io, Nrr. 6-io). The god is seated authorities of the Museum of the American Numismatic
three-quarters towards the left his throne has Society, New York, are not entirely convinced by
no arms or decorated footstool; he has only a Dressel's arguments, after prolonged study of the
small bunch of himation shown on the left shoulder; eight examples from the Pierpont Morgan Collection.
his left arm is extended behind him; and the Nike Nor did a piece similar to the Abukir medallions,
faces away from the god. Three Elean pieces of shown at that Museum some years ago, add to their
Septimius Severus, in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna confidence in the original twenty medallions known.
respectively, show the head of the Zeus of Pheidias Much of the section which follows must, therefore,
on the reverse. They are obviously inspired by the be regarded as tentative, pending further evidence
Hadrianic medallions, although the god faces towards for or against the authenticity of the Abukir pieces.
the left, and their technique is decidedly medallic Meanwhile it must be admitted that to doubt the
(Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. pl. P, no. 23 ; antiquity of these medallions is to raise a serious
ZN I9I2, Taf. I0, Nrr. 2, 2a). Possibly they were problem. If they were not made in the third century
struck as special *pieces for Septimius Severus on A.D., they must be nineteenth-century work. Is it
some such occasion as his sojourn in Thrace in I96, really conceivable, on general grounds, that a modem
when he held military games in honour of Geta's forger capable of such excellent workmanship, of such
birthday (SHA, Max. du. 2 J_RS 1920, I64), or the consummate mastery of style and subject-matter,
celebration of his eastern victories, c. 203. The should have remained undetected for nearly fifty
Hadrianic medallion types of Alpheios and of the years ?
Skopaic Aphrodite Pandemos were also imitated on 44 -IAN I907, pls. 9, no. I; I0, no. I ; II, no. Ic
medallic pieces struck at Elis for Septimius Severus I3, no. I; 14, no. 3.
(Imhoof-Blumer and P. Gardner, op. cit. 7I, 72). 45 Ibid. pls. 9, no. 2; io, no. 3 ; ii, no. 2; I2,
40 P1. i, no. 4. nos. I-4; I4, no. 2.
41 Gnecchi, op. cit. i, tav. I, no. 9.

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70 JOCELYN M. C. TOYNBEE

Art Gallery, Baltimore,46 while the present ownership of the remaining four is unknown.47
Their diameters range from 4I to 6o mm., their weights from 47 75 to I I2 66 grammes.48
The Abukir series contains eleven different obverse portraits and fourteen different reverse
designs variously combined 49; only two of the twenty pieces show the same combination
of obverse and reverse types.50 The obverse portraits are :-head of Alexander with
Ammon-horn and diadem to left; helmeted bust of Alexander, cuirassed, to right, with
a cavalry battle in relief on the helmet ; helmeted bust of Alexander, cuirassed, to right,
with the rape of Ganymede in relief on the helmet; helmeted bust of Alexander, draped
and cuirassed, to left, with Artemis Tauropolos in relief on the helmet; frontal bust of
Alexander, with diadem, spear, and richly-decorated shield and cuirass; veiled bust of
Olympias to left, with sceptre; veiled bust of Olympias to right, with serpent-staff;
veiled bust of Olympias to right, holding a fold of her veil ; laureate bust of Caracalla
to left, seen from behind, with paludamentum, cuirass, spear, and decorated shield;
laureate bust of Caracalla to left, seen three-quarters to front, with cuirass, balteus, spear,
and decorated shield ; and laureate head of Apollo to left, with a laurel-branch to the
left of him. The reverse types show :-Alexander, naked, seated to the left on a pile of
arms, in front of his horse, flanked by two of his predecessors on the Macedonian throne,
Philip I and Philip II, standing, bearded and fully armed (BACIA6QN lAInlnlQN);
Alexander, half-draped in a himation wrapped round his lower limbs, seated on a stool
towards the right, while Nike stands facing him, holding a helmet and a large shield with
Achilles and Penthesilea in relief upon it (BACIACYC AAC-ANAPOC); Alexander,
wearingohunting dress, on foot to the right, spearing a boar, with two hounds and a tree on
the left (BACIACYC AAC6ANAPOC); the same design without the tree (BACIACYC
AAC6ANAPOC); Alexander, wearing military dress, on horseback to the right, spearing
a fallen foe (BACIAeYC AA6EANAPOC); Alexander, wearing military dress, holding
helmet and spear and crowned by Nike, driving a frontal quadriga, flanked by two helmeted
and armed warriors (BACIAQOC AA6EANAPOY); Nike, holding a large palm-branch,
driving a slow quadriga towards the right (BACIACWCAACEANAPOY) 51; Nike, half-
draped, standing to the right, her foot on a helmet, and contemplating a shield ornamented
with the figure of a man and woman in relief and upheld by a winged Genius, while a
trophy with two captives, male and female, seated at its foot is seen on the right (BAGCIAQC
AAC6ANAPOY); Athene, patroness of Alexander, as Parthenos, helmeted, standing to
the right, holding spear and helmet and accompanied by a snake, while behind her on the
left, is a tree and a cippus, topped by an owl and inscribed QAYM/nlA/Qoc; Athene
helmeted, seated to the left on a high-backed throne and offering a patera to a snake coiled
round the trunk of an olive-tree (BACIACQOCAACeAMAPOY); Perseus rescuing
Andromeda, while Eros stands on a rock on Perseus' right and slyly aims at him with
bow and arrow; a Nereid riding on the back of a.young sea-Centaur, who hastens over
the waves towards the left, trident in hand ;. a Nereid riding on the back of a sea-bull
towards the left; a Nereid riding backwards on a sea-dragon towards the left, veiling herself
with her left hand and holding a shell (?) upon her extended right. None of the mythological
reverse types-those of Perseus and the voyaging Nereids-bears a reverse-legend ; they
are connected indirectly with Alexander through his mother Olympias.52 A third, and
somewhat less imposing, series of gold niketeria is represented by a piece at Cambridge
(Fitzwilliam Museum) from the Leake Collection (pl. iii, 5). It bears on its obverse the head
of Alexander's patroness Athene, facing towards the left and wearing a Corinthian helmet
decorated with a snake in relief; the reverse shows the same subject as that on two of

Ibid. pls. ii, no. 3; I3, no. 3 ; 4, no. I.

4 this Abukir reverse shows, as does its Tarsus counter-
pls. 9, no. 3 ; Io, no. 2 ; I3, no. 2 ; I4, no- 4.
4 7Ibid.
48 The weight of one of the pieces of unknown
ownership is not recorded.
4 See table in Dressel, op.. cit. 69.
50 JIAN 1907, I0, nos. I, 2.
5' Cf. the similar type on the Philip (?) piece from
Tarsus, which, although not identical with the Abukir
type, doubtless served, as its model. We note that
part, the omega form W, instead of the form Q
always found elsewhere on the Abukir medallions.
52 The Perseus and Andromeda type doubtless
alludes to Olympias' love for her husband, while the
Meerthiasos scenes suggest the train of Thetis, from
whom Olympias claimed descent. Cf. Dressel, op.
cit. I8, n. 3, 49.

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 GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS 71I

the Tarsus medallions-Alexander on horseback towards the right, hunting a lion

(AAC6A NAPOC).53
It is hardly conceivable that pieces of such beauty and magnificence can have been
awarded by any personage less august than the Emperor himself, present, actually or
symbolically, as president of the Games. From their constant references to Alexander
and from the close connection between their types and those of the autonomous provincial
coinage of Ma.cedonia in imperial times, it is obvious that the Games in question were
held in the north of Greece. The Abukir piece with the head of Apollo on its obverse and
an Alexander type on the reverse 54 may have been given as a prize at the Th'Oia'A7XEav5pia,
which are known to have been held at Thessalonica under Gordian IL55 But for the rest,
it is natural to suppose that the Games at which they served as niketeria were the Olympic
Games held at Beroea.56 The fact that a gold Roman medallion of Alexander Severus
was found with the Tarsus trio suggests that these pieces were struck and awarded by
Alexander the Great's imperial namesake and admirer.57 An earlier and still more ardent
imperial devotee of Alexander, Caracalla, the first Roman Emperor to practise this devotion
openly and explicitly as the ' new Alexander ', the reincarnation of the deified king,58
actually appears on the obverse of three of the medallions from Abukir. But if Mowat's
and Dressel's interpretation of the legend OAYM/FI1A/AOC in the Athene Parthenos
reverse type be the right one,59 the awarding Emperor was not Caracalla himself but
Gordian III, since the date of the series would be fixed by this legend as the year 274
according to the Actian reckoning, or A.D. 242 to 243. In the late autumn of 242 Gordian
passed through Moesia and Thrace on his way to the scene of the Syrian war, and he may
well have taken this opportunity of visiting Macedonia for the Olympic and Pythian Games
at Beroea and Thessalonica respectively. Similarly, Alexander Severus may have awarded
the Tarsus medallions at the Olympic Games held ten years previously in 232 to 233, when
returning in triumph from the eastern war. An ' extraordinary ' celebration of the Olympic
Games is known to have been held in 246 to 247; and Dressel would assign to this later
date the Abukir piece with Alexander driving a frontal chariot as reverse design.60 As he
points out, the closest parallel of fixed date to this design is the reverse type of the Roman
bronze medallion struck for Philip I's entry upon his second consulship in 247, with
portraits of the Emperor and of his wife and son upon the obverse. 61 But the motif of the
frontal quadriga also occurs earlier, on Roman medallions of Alexander Severus 62 and of
Gordian III 63; and the fact that on these pieces the heads of the two inner horses are
turned inwards instead of outwards-the only very obvious point of difference between
their types and those of Philip I's Roman medallion and of the Abukir niketerion-would
hardly appear to be sufficient reason for detaching this piece chronologically from the
nineteen other medallions of the series: we may attribute it to the same occasion as that
of the rest, namely, Gordian's visit to Macedonia for the Olympic Games in 242.
If the contrast between the local Greek coinage and the special Antinous and Elean
pieces is a marked one, that between the former and the great gold niketeria is still more
striking. It is difficult to believe that provincial Macedonia could have produced medallions
which in iconography and in technique-in height of relief and plastic modelling -achieved
results more spectacular than those achieved by any other branch of numismatic art in
imperial times. They must be the work of the most skilful medallists employed, or com-
missioned, by the imperial mint in Rome which, as in the second century so in the third,
Gaebler, Die antiken Miinzen Nord-Griechenlands
53 59 Dressel, Op. cit. 55 f. But cf. YIAN I912, 276-
iii. Nr. 875, Taf. 4, Nr. I. [P1.iii, no. 5.]
I, 28i, where Svoronos, rejecting the view that AOC
54 JIAN I907, pl. I4, no. 4. signifies the date, explains it as an abbreviation of
55
Dressel, op. cit. 58. 56pos~-f iiriypal 6XvuplTria86S &ivatat Ki<dMiara v& aTlpafivl
56 Ibid. 56. r6v
-riv oupaviav KOpUVnV En5?VtVT cbs a-rovO povra
5 E.g. SHA, Alex. Sev. 25, 9: 'Alexandri habitu - OpOiv
oUp&vlov 6O6Xov, -TOrTOV ' Tov OveEv, 9iyoVaa OUTOCS
nummos plurimos figuravit, et quidem electros aiT6v TroUrrov -r6v amrXov, bp' o0i 9?lty?ypar-rat-a theory
aliquantos sed plurimos tamen aureos.' ' Lampridius' more ingenious than it is convincing, in the opinion
continually returns to the theme of the Emperor's of the present writer.
cult of Alexander (e.g. ibid. 5, II, I3, 30, 3I, 35, 39, 60 Op. cit. 57; YIAN I907, p1. II, no. 3.
50, 64). 61 Gnecchi, op. cit. ii, tav. IO9, nos. 4, 8.
58 Dio 78, 7-8; [Aurelius Victor,] Epitome de 6 Ibid. ii, tav. 99, no. 7.-
Caesaribus 2I ; SHA, Caracalla 2. 63 Ibid. ii, tav. I05, no. 6 (struck in 24I).

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72 JOCELYN M. C. TOYNBEE

' still attracted to herself the pick of the artistic world.'64 The medallions may have been
ordered and finished beforehand, some weeks or months before the Games were due to
take place, so that the Emperor might take them with him at the time of his departure
for the East ; or artists may have travelled out from Italy in the imperial retinue and
executed their commissions on the spot. Possibly dies and ' proofs ' were prepared in
Rome and sent out to the scene of the festival, while the actual striking was done locally.
The probability that their types were designed in Rome, or by artists of. Roman venue,
does not in any way affect the claim of these pieces to rank as Greek medallions. They
were presented in Greece. The occasions of their issue were the Greek Games. Their
legends are in Greek. The obverse types represent the greatest of Greek imperialists, his
parents, and the Pythian Apollo; while the portraits of Caracalla are accompanied by no
imperial name or titles, as though he were present there less as Roman Emperor than as
' Alexander redivivus '. At the same time it is clear from the content of the reverse types
themselves that the Greek niketeria sprang from the same milieu as the Roman medallions,
which were, be it noted, specially fine in quality anid plentiful in quantity in the reigns
both of Alexander Severus and of Gordian III. The two types of bust depicted in the
Abukir portraits of Caracalla first appear on large bronze medallions of Gordian III 65;
while the most spectacular of the Alexander portraits, showing him full-face, with frontal
bust, although doubtless derived from a cameo,66 is at least foreshadowed 'numismatically'
on a large bi-metallic piece of Commodus in the British Museum.67 We have already
mentioned Roman medallic prototypes of the frontal quadriga design. Alexander's lion-
hunt recalls the second-century types of the Emperor on horseback spearing lion or boar
with the legend VIRTVTI AVG.68 Alexander on a rearing mount, striking at a fallen foe,
is reminiscent of a similar scene on Roman medallions of Lucius Verus.69 The type of
Nike driving a slow quadriga is shared with the niketeria by Roman medallions and coins.
alike ; while Nike standing with shield, trophy, and captives recalls the familiar Roman
medallion and coin types of Victory inscribing imperial successes on a shield. Athene
seated to the left on a throne on. the back of which she rests one arm after the manner
of Securitas, while feeding from a patera a snake twined round a tree, has her counterpart
on bronze medallions of Marcus Aurelius 70; and the tree and owl-on-cippus, which
appear to the left of Athene Parthenos, occupy precisely the same position in Commodus'
medallion design of the running Minerva (MINER AVG).71
The gold niketeria were, in their turn, the source from which two classes of monuments
in particular derived a number of their types, namely, the Macedonian provincial coinage
and the Roman contorniates. These correspondences have been listed and described by
Dressel.72 It is easy to imagine the local Macedonian die-sinkers, in search of inspiration
for their dies, eagerly seizing an opportunity to study these magnificent designs before
their lucky recipients bore them home. The local minting authorities may even have
obtained permission to borrow, or acquire, ' proofs ' from the imperial mint for the use
of artists in their employ. More intriguing and moro remarkable is the close connection
between the types of the contorniates, which were probably all made in Rome during the
fourth and early fifth centuries,73 and those of our extant niketeria ; for it lends support
to the theory of the Roman provenance of the latter's designs. The correspondence between
niketeria and contorniate designs is too close to be accounted for by merely assuming
common prototypes ; the latter must have been derived directly from the former. The
contorniate designers might just possibly have had access to actual third-century niketeria

"BM Cat. Coins of Roman Emp. iv, cviii. 70 Gnecchi, op. cit. ii, tav. 65, no. 3 ; iii, tav. 150,
Gnecchi, op. cit. ii, tavv. 103, no. 4; 104, nos. I,
65 no. 7.
5, 7, 8 ; io6, nos. i, 9. 71 Ibid. ii, tav. 8i, no. 6. For a general discussion
66 Dressel, op. cit. 30. of the niketeria designs and their prototypes see
67 Grueber, Roman Medallions in the British Museum Dressel, op. cit. 21-52.
72 Op. cit. 59-65.
30, no. 45.
68 Gnecchi, op. cit. iii, tavv. 144, no. I2; 146, A. Alf6ldi, A Festival of Isis in Rome 39, n. 59;
73
nos. 3, 4, 7- 4I and n. 79; Klio 1938, 253 ; Die Kontorniaten:
69 Scritti in onore di Bartolomeo Nogara raccolti ein verkanntes Propagandamittel der stadtromischen
in occasione del suo lxx anno (1937), tav. 65, no. 8. heidnischen Aristokratie in ihrem Kampfe gegen das
christliche Kaisertum (Budapest, 1943).

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 GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS 73
which had come into the hands of residents in fourth-century Rome by inheritance from
the original prize-winners or by gift or purchase from their heirs. More probably their
opportunity of drawing inspiration from this source was due to the fact that they had
access to niketeria ' proofs ' or dies,74 still treasured a century later in the archives of the
Roman mint.75 The likeness of contorniates to niketeria certainly suggests that the former
were associated in some way with games in the circus and other public shows and tells
against Alfoldi's theory (op. cit.) that they were not necessarily connected directly with
games, but were propaganda strenae, distributed to the plebs urbana on New Year's Day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GREEK IMPERIAL MEDALLIONS

BLUM(G.), 'Numismatique d'Antinoos' (J7IAN I914, 33-70, PIS. 1-5).
DRESSEL (H.), Fiinf Goldmedaillons aus dem Funde von Abukir (Berlin, I906).
LONGPERIER(A. DE), 'Tresor de Tarse '(RN i868, 309-336; I869- I870, I33).
MOWAT(R. K.), 'Les medaillons grecs du tresor de Tarse et les monnaies de bronze de la communaute mace-
donienne' (RN 1903, 1-30, pls. 1-3).
REGLING (K.), P-W Realencyklopddie,2 s.v. 'Niketerion' (Bd. 33, 318-319).
SVORONOS(J. N.), TA NOMI2MATOXHMATOY ABOYKIP (JIAN 1907, 369-371, pls. 8-14).

74 The use of coin and medallion dies as models
may possibly be an explanation of the contorniates
with incised or intaglio designs.
75 Were ' proofs' or dies of the Antinous money-
medallions also preserved at the Roman mint? The
rare Antinous contorniates were obviously inspired
by the-obverse portraits of the large medallic pieces.
Cf. Blum, op. cit. pl. 5, nos. 13, 14 (deep, nude bust
of Antinous to right, with pedum) and Num. Chron.
I909, pl. 4, no. I (similar Antinous contorniate in
the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow) with Blum, op. cit.
pl. 4, no. 14 (Antinous with pedum) and pls. I, no. I 8 ;
2z, no. I; 3, no. 14 (Antinous without pedum).
J. Sabatier (Description g!twirale des medaillons con-
torniates pl. I6, no. 5) figures a contorniate with blank
reverse and on- the obverse a fine head of Antinous to
right with the legend BETOYPIOC.

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