Numismatic types from Region

“ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ”
(167-148 BC)
By Konstantinos Kottis

Photo 1 Map of Ancient Macedonia after Philip II

After their victory in the battle of Pydna in 168 BC, Romans divided
Macedonia into four geographical and administrative regions ("Regiones"): 1)
"ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΗ", 2) "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΑΣ", 3) "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ
ΤΡΙΤΗΣ" and 4) "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ" and they named capitals the cities of
Amphipolis (1), Thessaloniki (2), Pella (3) and Pelagonia (4). In "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ
ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ" section, the areas of the ancient local kingdoms of Macedonia of Eordaea,
Lyncestis and Pelagonia, as well as Atintania, Tymphaea and Elimiotis were included.
Τhe Romans granted a local autonomy in many Greek cities, but every mining activity
of gold and silver was subject to Rome. The Romans allowed the preservation of local
troops in regions who had borders with barbaric nations 1.

1
«Ipse, ubi dies uenit, quo adesse Amphipoli denos principes ciuitatium iusserat litterasque omnis, quae
ubique depositae essent, et pecuniam regiam conferri, cum decem legatis circumfusa omni multitudine
 2

The most important part of Macedonian borders was the border line, north of
the area between Heraklea Lyncestis and Heraclea 2 . A large part of today's Greek
Western Macedonia and only a small part of the present state of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia belonged to Ancient Macedonia. As numismatist Asterios
Tsintsifos has rightly observed, the region of Stobi, which didn’t belong to the
Macedonian kingdom, cutted many coins with the portrait of Emperor Caracalla, in
opposite to the truly Macedonian cities in which the Roman Emperor had commanded
to prefer the portrait of God Alexander in their coins3.

Macedonum in tribunali consedit. Adsuetis regio imperio tamen noui in<perii> formam terribilem
praebuit tribunal, summoto aditus, praeco, accensus, insueta omnia oculis auribusque, quae uel socios,
nedum hostis uictos terrere possent. Silentio per praeconem facto Paulus Latine, quae senatui, quae sibi
ex consilii sententia uisa essent, pronuntiauit. Ea Cn. Octauius praetor— nam ET ipse aderat—
interpretata sermone Graeco referebat: omnium primum liberos esse iubere Macedonas, habentis urbes
easdem agrosque, utentes legibus Suis, annuos creantis magistratus; tributum dimidium eius, quod
pependissent regibus, pendere populo Romano. Deinde in quattuor regiones diuidi Macedoniam: unam
fore et primam partem quod agri inter Strymonem et Nessum sit amnem; accessurum huic parti trans
Nessum ad orientem uersum, qua Perseus tenuisset, uicos, castella, oppida, praeter Aenum et Maroneam
et Abdera; cis Strymonem autem uergentia ad occasum, Bisalticam omnem cum Heraclea, quam Sinticen
appellant. secundam fore regionem, quam ab ortu Strymo amplecteretur amnis, praeter Sinticen,
Heracleam et Bisaltas, ab occasuque Axius terminaret fluuius, additis Paeonibus, qui prope Axium
flumen ad regionem orientis colerent. tertia pars facta, quam Axius ab oriente, Peneus amnis ab occasu
cingunt; ad septentrionem Bora mons obicitur; adiecta huic parti regio Paeoniae, qua ab occasu praeter
Axium amnem porrigitur; Edessa quoque et Beroea eodem concesserunt. Quarta regio trans Boram
montem, una parte confinis Illyrico, altera Epiro. Capita regionum, ubi concilia fierent, primae
regionis Amphipolim, secundae Thessalonicen, tertiae Pellam, quartae Pelagoniam fecit. eo
concilia suae cuiusque regionis indici, pecuniam conferri, ibi magistratus creari iussit. Pronuntiauit
deinde neque conubium neque commercium agrorum aedificiorumque inter se placere cuiquam extra
fines regionis suae esse. Metalla quoque auri atque argenti non exerceri, [nec] ferri et aeris permitti.
Uectigal exercentibus dimidium eius inpositum, quod pependissent regi. Et sale inuecto uti uetuit.
Dardanis repetentibus Paeoniam, quod et sua fuisset et continens esset finibus suis, omnibus dare
libertatem pronuntiauit, qui sub regno Persei fuissent. Post non impetratam Paeoniam salis commercium
dedit; tertiae regioni imperauit, ut Stobos Paeoniae deueherent, pretiumque statuit. Naualem materiam et
ipsos caedere et alios pati uetuit. Regionibus, quae adfines barbaris essent—excepta autem tertia omnes
erant—, permisit, ut praesidia armata in finibus extremis haberent.
Haec pronuntiata primo die conuentus uarie adfecerunt animos. Libertas praeter spem data adrexit et
leuatum annuum uectigal; regionatim commercio interruptis ita uideri lacerata <Macedonia>, tamquam
animali in artus alterum alterius indigentis distracto: adeo, quanta Macedonia esset, quam diuisui facilis,
quam se ipsa quaeque contenta pars esset, Macedones quoque ignorabant. Pars prima Bisaltas habet,
fortissimos uiros —Trans Nessum amnem incolunt et circa Strymonem —, et multas frugum proprietates
et metalla et opportunitatem Amphipolis, quae obiecta claudit omnes ab oriente sole in Macedoniam
aditus. secunda pars celeberrimas urbes Thessalonicen <et> Cassandream habet, ad hoc Pallenen,
fertilem ac frugiferam terram; maritimas quoque opportunitates ei praebent portus ad Toronen ac montem
Atho Aeneam<que> et Acanthum, alii <ad Thessaliam> insulamque Euboeam, alii ad Hellespontum
opportune uersi. Tertia regio nobilis urbes Edessam et Beroeam et Pellam habet et Uettiorum bellicosam
gentem, incolas quoque permultos Gallos et Illyrios, inpigros cultores. Quartam regionem Eordaei et
Lyncestae et Pelagones incolunt; iuncta his Atintania et Tymphaeis et Elimiotis. Frigida haec omnis
duraque cultu et aspera plaga est; cultorum quoque ingenia terrae similia habet. Ferociores eos et
accolae barbari faciunt, nunc bello exercentes, nunc in pace miscentes ritus suos. Diuisa itaque
Macedonia partium usibus separatis, quanta uniuersa <esset>, ostendit», Titus Livius, Ab Urbe
Condita Libri, XLV, 29-30.
2
«Ἡράκλεια: Ἀμύντου τοῦ Φιλίππου κτίσμα» (‘‘Heraclea built by King Amyntas’’), A. Westermann
(Gr. Edidit), Stephani Byzantii Ἐθνικων quæ supersunt (Lipsiae, 1839), 134.
3
«Η κοπή νομισμάτων στους Στόβους (Stobensium), υπήρξε μια ακόμη χαριστική βολή για τους
Παίονες και όχι Μακεδόνες κατοίκους των Σκοπίων. Στα 150 χρόνια νομισματοκοπίας εκεί, δεν υπήρξε
ο παραμικρός υπαινιγμός στην θεματολογία για Αλέξανδρο, Ολυμπιάδα και Ηρακλή, που ήταν ο
γενάρχης των Μακεδόνων / The cut of coins in Stobi (Stobensium), has been yet the daring shot to
Paeones and not Macedonians citizens of today Skopje. At 150 years of coinage there, we haven’t a
 3

Photo 2 A Roman cut of Stobi at the age of Caracalla, 198-217AC

Photo 3 Roman coin of Koinon of Macedonia with bust of deified Alexander, 222–235 AD, Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston4

slightest hint of local coin’s themes for Alexander, Olympias and Hercules, who were the originator of
the Macedonians», A. Tsintsifos, “The coins negate Skopjan ’myths”, ΙΧΩΡ 150 (2016), 9.
4
For coins of ΚΟΙΝΟΥ ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ see in Α. Τσίντσιφος, Στα βήματα της λατρείας του Αλεξάνδρου
/ In the steps of Alexander’cult (Θεσσαλονίκη: 2016), 22-24.
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1. The first coin ‘type from "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ":

Jupiter and the club (“ρόπαλον”) of Hercules:
We know two coin ‘types from "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ". In the obverse
of first type, is the head of Zeus, while in the reverse is the club (“ρόπαλον”) of Hercules
(Ph. 4). Zeus / Jupiter in the Orphism was the father of Dionysos Zagreus, a main deity
in the theological tradition of Temenos and Aeakos'House, from where Alexander the
Great came from5. Hercules’s club was a Macedonian symbol of royal origin by Zeus
and Hercules, but also is a solar symbol, a key element of the Macedonian mystical
sacred tradition6.

Photo 4 Jupiter and the Hercules’s club, copper coin of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ", discovered on Visoka, 167-
148BC7

5
«Παρθένε Περσεφόνεια, σὺ δ᾽ οὐ γάμον εὗρες ἀλύξαι, ἀλλὰ δρακοντείοισιν ἐνυμφεύθης ὑμεναίοις,
Ζεὺς ὅτε πουλυέλικτος ἀμειβομένοιο προσώπου νυμφίος ἱμερόεντι δράκων κυκλούμενος ὁλκῷ εἰς
μυχὸν ὀρφναίοιο διέστιχε παρθενεῶνος, σείων δαυλὰ γένεια· παρισταμένων δὲ θυρέτρῳ εὔνασεν
ἰσοτύπων πεφορημένος ὄμμα δρακόντων... καὶ γαμίαις γενύεσσι δέμας λιχμάζετο κούρης μείλιχος.
Αἰθερίων δὲ δρακοντείων ὑμεναίων Περσεφόνης γονόεντι τόκῳ κυμαίνετο γαστήρ Ζαγρέα
γειναμένη, κερόεν βρέφος, ὃς Διὸς ἕδρης» (‘‘Ah, maiden Persephoneia! You could not find how to
escape your mating! No, a dragon was your mate, when Zeus changed his face and came, rolling in many
a loving coil through the dark to the corner of the maiden’s chamber, and shaking his hairy chaps: he
lulled to sleep as he crept the eyes of those creatures of his own shape who guarded the door. He licked
the girl’s form gently with wooing lips. By this marriage with the heavenly dragon, the womb of
Persephone swelled with living fruit, and she bore Zagreus the horned baby’’), Nonnos, Διονυσιακὰ, VI,
155-165.
6
«Καθὸ δὲ ἀπαλεξίκακός ἐστι τῶν ἐπιγείων ὁ ἥλιος, Ἡρακλέα αὐτὸν προσεῖπον, ἐκ τοῦ κλᾶσθαι
πρὸς τὸν ἀέρα ἀπ' ἀνατολῆς εἰς δύσιν ἰόντα. δώδεκα δ' ἄθλους ἐκμοχθεῖν ἐμυθολόγησαν, τῆς κατὰ
τὸν οὐρανὸν διαιρέσεως τῶν ζῳδίων τὸ σύμβολον ἐπιφημίσαντες· ῥόπαλον δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ λεοντῆν
περιέθεσαν, τὸ μὲν τῆς ἀνωμαλίας μήνυμα, τὸ δὲ τῆς κατὰ τὸ ζῴδιον ἐμφανιστικὸν ἰσχύος»,
Porphyry, fragment 5, in Eusebius of Caesarea, Εὐαγγελικὴ Προπαρασκευή / Praeparatio evangelica,
3.11.25-26.
7
V. Lilchikj Adams & A. Jakimovski A., Center of the Kingdom of Pelagonia and the Royal Tomb of
Pavla Cuka (Skopje: 2015), 17.
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This obverse follows a Zeus’s figure of Dodona (holy oracle and land of
Aeakos and Olympias), represented in a rare type of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΗΣ" 8. The
reserve of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ’coin, the Hercules’s club, follows a classic
type of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΗΣ", with Artemis tavropolos, that it has got in reverse
a Hercules’s club in a circular wreath of ears, a clear reference to the metropolitan
sanctuary of capital city Amphipolis, perhaps also to the Kastas complex. The ears /
στάχυες aren’t a symbol of Artemis / Diana but belong to the cult of Demetra / Ceres /
Isis (Ph. 5). The oak is a classic symbol of Dodona, echoing the mother of Alexander
the Great Olympias, being as the sacred tree of Great Mother - Goddess Rhea, a tree
who following the Orpheus΄music by Pieria to Thrace, and Argonauts use it in the Rhea
worship, to receive divine maritime protection9. From Amphipolis, Alexander's fleet
sailed.

2. The second coin ‘type from "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ":

Athena/ Minerva, Castor and Pollux:

The second coin 'type from "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ" is very rare. In the
front the representation of Athena was depicted. In the back, the equestrian Dioscuri,
Castor and Pollux were represented (Ph. 5). As a coin, the formula is imitated by a
similar Roman dinar with a personification of Roma (Ph. 6). Politically the Dioscuri
were symbol of the victory of the Roman democracy against Lucius Tarquinius
Superbus in 495 BC. In the name of this victory, a son of the victor Postumius, founded
Castor's temple on "the ides of July" (15-07-484 BC)10. The Dioscuri in Rome were
later protectors of the Roman Senate.

Photo 5 The 2nd coin 'type of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ", cooper coin with equestrian Dioscuri, 167-148 BC

8
S. Kremydi-Sicilia, “The Tauropolos tetradrachms of the first Macedonian Meris - Provenance,
iconography and dating”, in Κερμάτια Φιλίας. Τιμητικός τόμος για τον Ιωάννη Τουράτσογλου, Ι, (Αθήνα:
Υπουργείο Πολιτισμού – Νομισματικό Μουσείο, 2009), 201.
9
«Δρυΐνοις δὲ φύλλοις στέφονται, διὰ τὸ ἱερὸν εἶναι τῆς Ῥέας δένδρον», σχόλιο στο «στεψάμενοι
δρυΐνοισι θυηπολίης ἐμέλοντο», Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Ρόδιος, Ἀργοναυτικά Α΄, 1124, στο R. F. P. Brunck
(Ed.), Apollonii Rhodii Argonautica ex recensione et cum notis – Accendut Scholia Graeca, ΙΙ, (Lipsiae:
G. Fleischer J., 1813), 92. See also in Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Ρόδιος, Ἀργοναυτικά Α΄, 28-31 and 1119-1126.
10
«Castoris aedis eodem anno idibus Quintilibus dedicata est; vota erat Latino Bello a Postumio
dictatore: filius eius duumvir ad id ipsum creatus dedicavit », Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, ΙΙ, 42.
 6

However theologically, it is doubtful whether the choice of this presentation is

merely a typical expression of Rome. Dioscuri, of course, in the borders of Macedonia
expressed the deterrent to the intruders. But they have been initiated into the mysteries
of Samothrace and their worship symbolized in chthonic cult the rebirth, the military
initiation and the naval protection in the pantheon of Great God’s ceremonies 11. And in
the "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ" region, the tradition of the myths about Cadmus and
Harmony (the sacred marriage of which was the central event in the worship of
Samothrace), has been reported12. During these ceremonies Philip II met the priestess
Olympias13.

Photo 6 Roman dinar, in front the personification of Roma, in the other side Castor and Pollux, this copper coin
was the model of the 2nd coin ‘type of "ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΗΣ", 2nd c. BC.

11
Diodorus Siculus, Ἱστορικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, Book V, 48-49.
12
«Πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Λυγκῆσταί τε καὶ ἡ Δευρίοπος καὶ ἡ τρίπολις Πελαγονία καὶ Ἐορδοὶ καὶ Ἐλίμεια
καὶ Ἐράτυρα. Ταῦτα δὲ πρότερον μὲν κατεδυναστεύετο ἕκαστα, ὧν ἐν τοῖς Ἐγχελείοις οἱ Κάδμου καὶ
Ἁρμονίας ἀπόγονοι ἦρχον, καὶ τὰ μυθευόμενα περὶ αὐτῶν ἐκεῖ δείκνυται. Οὗτοι μὲν οὖν οὐχ ὑπὸ
ἰθαγενῶν ἤρχοντο· οἱ δὲ Λυγκῆσται ὑπ᾽ Ἀρραβαίωι ἐγένοντο, τοῦ Βακχιαδῶν γένους ὄντι· τούτου δ᾽
ἦν θυγατριδῆ ἡ Φιλίππου μήτηρ τοῦ Ἀμύντου Εὐρυδίκη, Ἴρρα δὲ θυγάτηρ / Then come the Lyncestæ,
the territory Deuriopus, Pelagonia-Tripolitis, the Eordi, Elimia, and Eratyra. Formerly each of these
nations was under its own prince. The chiefs of the Enchelii were descendants of Cadmus and Harmonia,
and scenes of the fables respecting these persons are shown in the territory. This nation, therefore, was
not governed by native princes. The Lyncestæ were under Arrhabæus, who was of the race of the
Bacchiadæ. Irra was his daughter, and his grand-daughter was Eurydice, the mother of Philip Amyntas»,
Strabo, Γεωγραφικὰ / Geography, Ζ΄, 7, 8.
13
Ploutarch, Βίοι Παράλληλοι - Ἀλέξανδρος – Life of Alexander, 2, 1-2.
 7

Photo 7 Marble votive relief from Larissa, Greece, in the upper part a personification of Helios with his
tethrippon. In the main they have represented the equestrian Dioscuri as members of Great Gods of
Samothrace ("ΘΕΟΙΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΙΣ"), 2nd BC, Musée du Louvre.

Photo 8 Marble votive relief from Amphipolis, with equestrian Dioscuri (0,48Χ0,43Χ0,12 μ.). In the lower on
the right corner, only the legs of the god - Strymon has survived. It has discovered northwest of today's
Amphipolis, on the river Strymon, not too far from the Kastas's hill and tumulus, 2nd AC (?), Archaeological
Museum. of Amphipolis.

We thank Mr Asterios Tsintsifos, for his suggestions on the coin ‘types.

Copyright ® Kottis Konstantinos 2018.