Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 765. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $4250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYDIA, Germe. Septimius Severus, with Caracalla. 198-211 AD. Æ Medallion 45mm (48.23 gm, 6h). Glykon, magistrate. AV KAI L CEPTIC CEVHPOC P KAI AU K M AU ANTWNEINOC EV, laureate and draped bust of Severus confronting similar bust of Caracalla / EPI CTP GLUKWNOC B, GERMHNWN in exergue, nude Herakles seated left on lion skin draped over rock, holding club set on ground in right hand, kantharos in left; standing around him are: Apollo, nude but for cloak, holding plectron and lyre; Artemis in short chiton, grasping bow and drawing arrow from quiver; and a turreted Tyche, holding cornucopiae and placing wreath on Herakles' head. Ehling 160 (V1/R1); Classical Numismatic Group 42 (29-30 May 1997), lot 992 (realized $6900); Giessener Münzhandlung 64 (11 October 1993), lot 547; Fontana Collection (Finarte, 26 November 1996), lot 1020 = Auctiones 8 (27 June 1978), lot 435; otherwise unpublished, but see BMC Lydia pg. 85, 27 (this magistrate for Geta as Caesar). Extremely rare, one of five known (the fourth in the BN). ($5000)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection.

This coin can be more closely dated by the magistrate's office. Glycon appears as strategos for the first time earlier in the Severan period; he appears on a coin of Germe in the name of Plautilla, hence 202-205 AD. He must have accepted his second magistracy in the period 205-209 AD, since it is recorded on a coin of Geta as Caesar. The rather crowded reverse features deities that appear individually on numerous Germe coins in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but not in this grouping, the significance of which is uncertain. We cannot say for sure if reference is being made to a specific event, but the posture of Tyche presenting a wreath to a seated figure (or being presented one herself) is often associated with the sponsoring of agonistic games proclaimed by the emperor and eagerly sought by ambitious towns for the prestige (and income) that the city derived from the affairs. On the other hand, the city fathers would be tapped for hefty contributions toward expenses, often leaving individual magistrates like Glykon bankrupt! He at least got his name on the coin. Germe may have celebrated such a festival, which perhaps coincided with the elevation of Severus' younger son Geta to the rank of Augustus.