Intriguing Games Issue

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 619. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PAMPHYLIA, Perge. Gallienus, with Salonina. AD 253-268. Æ Decassarion (21.09 g, 5h). Struck during the 260th or 261st Olympiad (AD 261-268). Diademed and draped bust of Salonina right, and radiate and draped bust of Gallienus left, vis-à-vis; I (mark of value) between / Prize crown with palm fronds set on table; crown inscribed OΛVM/ΠIA; table inscribed AVΓOVCTIA; ЄIC/AΓΩN in two lines below. SNG France -; cf. SNG Copenhagen 360 ; cf. SNG von Aulock 4837; BMC -; cf. Klose & Stumpf 248 (all with different rev. legend). VF, mottled red-brown patina. Rare.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

From the inscription on the prize crown, this coin was struck to commemorate a victory achieved by athletes from Perge in a series of games. The question is to what games do the reverse inscriptions refer? The table inscription possibly cites the great Augusteian-Italian-Roman Games, instituted in 2 BC and held every four years (cf. P. Lond. III 1178, ll. 37-83). The prize crown inscription only seems to complicate the issue. Either it is meant to be taken in connection with the table inscription, and thus the whole may refer to the composite games known as the Augusteia Hadriana Olympia, games known elsewhere in Asia Minor, or the inscription may more likely refer specifically to the panhellenic Olympic Games, held at Olympia every four years since 776 BC.