Ancient Coin of the Day: As I've been reading again about him recently, here's an utterly gorgeous cistophoric tetradrachm of Mark Antony from 39 BC, struck at Ephesus. #ACOTD #Antony

Image: ANS 1935.117.40. Link - http://numismatics.org/collection/1935.117.40

Cistophoroi were an idiosyncratic form of coinage introduced under the Attalid Dynasty, so Mark Antony's coins here are a striking example of the numismatic fusion of Roman republican titles with Hellenistic features https://twitter.com/DocCrom/status/1340312015831764992?s=20

The Obverse is a portrait of Antony wearing a diadem, in the model of the Hellenistic rulers, inside a wreath of ivy leaves. The Legend, however, is markedly republican: M. ANTONIUS IMP. COS. DESIG. ITER. ET TERT. - 'Marcus Antonius Consul Designate for the second and third time'

Plutarch (Life of Antony 24.3) tells us that when Antony entered Ephesus, "women arrayed like Maenads, and men and boys like Satyrs and Pans, led the way before him, and the city was full of ivy and thyrsus-wands and harps and pipes and flutes, the people hailing him as Dionysus"

Similarly, he would assume a Dionysiac way of life later on (Plutarch, Antony 60.3) and styled himself 'the New Dionysus'. However, at this stage he was still blurring his role at Rome with his role as the Eastern Triumvir.

This is also clearly evidenced by the Reverse of the coin, where a Cista mystica is surmounted by bust of Octavia - Antony's wife, and the sister of Octavian - and flanked by serpents. The Legend is III.VIR.R.P.C. - 'Triumvir for the reconstituting the Republic'.

The presence of Octavia on these coins is also interesting, as she features on other cistophoric designs, such as this jugate portrait Obverse with Legends identical to the previous coin.

Image: ANS 1944.100.7032. Link - http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.7032

Octavia was married to Antony for political reasons, in the hope that she "would restore harmony and be their complete salvation" (Plutarch, Antony 31.2). Her presence on coinage of this period reinforces that Antony was still keen to make overtures to his triumviral colleague.

For more on this coins, see: Newman, Robert. “A DIALOGUE OF POWER IN THE COINAGE OF ANTONY AND OCTAVIAN (44-30 B.C.).” American Journal of Numismatics (1989-), vol. 2, 1990, pp. 37–63.

http://jstor.org/stable/43580166 

#ACOTD #Antony