Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 566. Estimate $6000.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $9000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Ephesos. Homonoia between Ephesos and Alexandria in Egypt. Gordian III. 238-244 AD. Æ Medallion of 16 Assaria (50.37 gm). AVT K M ANTW GORDIANOC CEB, Laureate and draped bust right / EFECIWN ALEXANDREWN, a galley under sail left, cult statue of Artemis of Ephesos in the prow, standing figure of Serapis wearing modius and bearing sceptre in the stern, the ship approaches the harbor of Ephesos, ringed with buildings, the temple of Artemis being located centrally, a boar runs across the ground to right. For the only other example known see Franke & Nollé 555, and Price & Trell, Coins and their Cities, 520, both citing the specimen in Paris, BN inv. 953=Waddington 7046. EF, rough crusty green patina. A spectacular Roman provincial medallion! ($6000) 

According to Pausanias, Strabo, and Athenaeus, Ephesus was founded by Androclus, one of the sons of Codrus, king of Athens. Androclus and his followers had been told by an oracle to settle in a place which would be indicated to them by a fish and a boar. On arriving at the older site of Ephesus the Greeks found some of the local people roasting fish near the sea-shore. One of the fish fell from the fire and, as it had pieces of burning wood attached to it, set a nearby thicket ablaze. This disturbed a wild boar, which was chased and slain by Androclus (hence the boar on the present coin). The new settlers intermarried with the indigenous Carian and Lydian population, adopted their customs and practices, and harmonised their religious beliefs, identifying their great Anatolian Mother Goddess Cybele with the Greek Artemis, who thus became one goddess with a dual nature.Ephesus enters history in the 7th century BC, when it was attacked by the Cimmerians, and by the 6th century came under the suzerainty of Croesus, who presented many columns and some golden cows for a new and splendid rebuilding of the archaic temple of Artemis. After the defeat of Croesus by Cyrus, the city, with the rest of Ionia, fell into the hands of the Persians. Later, it was a member of the Delian League, then once again under Persian domination, and subsequently ‘liberated’ by Alexander. After the death of Alexander, Ephesus was ruled by Lysimachus who, against the wishes of the population, re-located the site of the city to the northern slopes of the hills Coressus and Pion, south of the Kayster. The city of Lysimachus is the area enclosed by the massive ten-kilometer-long walls with towers visible in the background of this coin. After the death of Lysimachus, Ephesus passed to the Seleucids, then the Ptolemies, later the Attalids, and finally to the Romans in 133 BC. Under Rome, the city once again flourished and, with Augustus, became the first city of the province of Asia.The temple and sanctuary of Artemis, also known as the Artemisium, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is outside of the city of Lysimachus near the modern town of Selçuk. The archaic Artemision, which burned down in 356 BC, was rebuilt shortly afterwards, and the 4th Century BC structure is depicted on the above coin issued sometime during Gordian III’s reign. This is the last depiction of the temple before its destruction by the Goths in 262 AD. It housed the many-breasted cult-statue of Artemis Ephesia, known only from Hellenistic and Roman copies and coins, whose cult featured in the celebrated incident during the second missionary visit of St. Paul (Acts 19:17). Christianity came early to Ephesus, which continued as a religious centre and place of pilgrimage by the propagation of the tradition that St. John (of Revelations) came to Ephesus from Patmos in the 1st century AD and took care of the Virgin Mary there for the last eleven years of her life. By the 4th century the cult and the sanctified home of Mary in Ephesus had displaced that of the other divine virgin, Artemis-Diana.The final element which this fascinating coin records is an alliance, or joint festival, of Ephesos and Alexandria, with the patron god of that city portrayed on an equal standing with Artemis. Serapis had been created by Ptolemy I to provide a cult in which both Greeks and Egyptians could worship. His name derives from a combination of Osiris (the Egyptian god of the dead) and the sacred bull Apis, and he is depicted wearing a modius (a corn measure) on his head. Egypt was the granary of the Roman world and Ephesus, the principal city of Asia, must have had strong commercial links with Alexandria. One of the most interesting buildings close to the great theatre, and not far from the ancient harbour, is the Temple of Serapis. This, along with the homonoia coin series, and a number of objects of Egyptian provenance found in Ephesus, all suggest that there was a sizeable colony of Egyptian traders in the city.