Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1082. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHRYGIA, Apamea. Hadrian. 98-117 AD. Æ 20mm (5.44 gm). Laureate bust right, aegis tied at shoulder / The river god Marsyas reclining left, holding aloft rhyton and double flute, resting on rocky outcrop with amphora from which water flows; five chests placed on the height above. BMC Phrygia pg. 96, 155; SNG Copenhagen 211; SNG von Aulock 3492. Good VF, brown patina. ($300)

The figure on the reverse is not the satyr Marsyas, who does have his mythological orgins in Phrygia, but rather the personification of the river Marsyas, which flows from a spring in the heights above Apamea and eventually joins the Maeander. Apamea was known as Kelaenai before being re-founded by Antiochos I, and had the additional epithet of Kibotos, or "chest," for its importance as a regional trading center.