Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 806. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsus. Elagabalus. 218-222 AD. Æ 31mm (13.00 gm). AVT KAI M AVP ANTWNEINOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / TAPCOV THC MHTROPOLE AMK, demiourgos crown set on garlanded altar, beside Ciliciarch crown with seven busts and GB. SNG Levante 1078 (this coin); SNG France 1567; BMC Lycaonia pg. 201, 207; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock 6023. Good VF, smooth dark green patina, adjustment marks. [See color enlargement on plate 11] ($750)

Here the combination of the Ciliciarch and the demiourgos crowns symbolize Tarsus’ primacy over the regional league composed of the three provinces of Cilicia, Isauria and Lycaonia. The design did not have to be elaborate, since the presence of the crowns alone demonstrated that to the emperor, Tarsus was the foremost city in the region. On this coin the Ciliciarch crown is crenellated with seven laureate heads of previous emperors, unlike the earlier Tarsian bronze of Caracalla (lot 800) it has eleven laureate heads of previous emperors. The G B stands for G[rammati] (or Gnwmh) BoulhV (gerousiaV), a Greek translation of the Latin senatus consulto, indicating that the special constitution of Tarsus had been approved in Rome. (For a more detailed discussion of the Ciliciarch crown, see lot 800 above.)