Renewal of the Neocorate

Triton XVI, Lot: 706. Estimate $3000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Laodicea ad Lycum. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ Medallion (46mm, 50.59 g, 6h). L. Ael(ius) Pigres, third Asiarch. Struck mid-August AD 215-mid-August AD 216. A[V]T KAI M AVP • ANTΩNЄINOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ЄΠI Λ AIΛ ΠΙΓ P HTO C ACIAP Γ, ΛAOΔIKЄΩN/NЄΩKOPΩ/• N • in three lines in exergue, Caracalla standing left, holding patera over tripod; attendants on either side, holding statuettes; to left, victimarius preparing to strike bull, attendant holding titulus inscribed CMO/NOM in two line, and two youths; in background, octostyle temple with windows in pediment. Burrell coin type 8a and pl. 25, 99 (same rev. die as illustrated coin) = Berlin 664/1914 = Prowe (Egger 46, 1779); Price & Trell 420 and fig. 226 (same dies); Lanz 148, 119 (same dies); Gorny & Mosch 107, 312. VF, black-green patina with traces of red-brown, some minor roughness. Extremely rare, the fifth specimen known.

This medallion, part of a series struck on behalf of Caracalla (see CNG 81, lot 792), commemorates the renewal of the city’s neocorate, first instituted under Commodus between AD 185 and 189. The neocorate was a position bestowed by the Senate to certain worthy cities of Asia Minor to establish and maintain the imperial cult there. The honor and prestige of this distinction was of great benefit to the city involved and created a reciprocal association between Rome and important provincial urban centers. A series of coins related to this renewal are dated CY 88 (see CNG Inv. 733744). Basing this era on the visit of the emperor Hadrian in AD 129, the coins would have been issued during Caracalla’s trek through Asia Minor during his march East against the Parthians. The three medallions (Burrell coin types 7, 8, and 9), struck under the authority of Pigres, are specific in their reverse designs, indicating the imperial presence in the city at the time, when he visited the temple associated with the cult and participated in the dedication ceremonies.