ANTONINIANII FROM THE MINT OF ANTIOCH UNDER THE REIGN OF PHILIP THE ARAB (244-249 AD)

CLASSIFICATION BY ISSUE :
ANTIOCH AND UNKNOWN EASTERN MINT

Preliminary notice : in order to estimate the duration of each issue, I considered the amount of antoninianii produced by the officina that struck the largest number of coins; indeed, we can suppose that this officina minted antoninianii all along the issue. Comparing these durations with some historical facts, it has been possible to define a relative duration for each issue.

Unknown Eastern mint (AD 244)

There is a debate between specialists on the attribution of the Philip I coins with reverses SPES FELICITATIS ORBIS, VIRTVS EXERCITVS and PAX FVNDATA CVM PERSIS to the Antioch mint, based on the visible difference in style between this group and the coins minted in AD 247-249. If there is an obvious continuity in legends and style (see the hair and cuirass representation) with the Gordian III antoninianii said to be minted in Antioch in AD 242-244, in reality this is due to the fact that these Gordian III antoninianii struck in AD 242-244 as well as the Philip I antoninianii struck in AD 244 come from the same mint, but this mint is probably not Antioch ! Indeed, metal analysis realised by F. Óvári ("Philippus antiochiai veretú antoninianusairól", Numizmatikai Közlöny vol. LXXXVIII-LXXXIX, 1989-1990, pp. 41-48) clearly show the same metal content between these coins, but this metal content is different from the one of real Antioch antoninianii of Gordian III from period AD 239-240 and those of Philip and his family from period AD 247-249. So these arguments leave serious doubts for the attribution of these coins to the Antioch mint.

The coinage of the Unknown Eastern mint then consists of 6 Philip I coins, divided into three reverses and two obverse legends that have never been used by the mint of Rome. As mentioned previously, these three reverses clearly refer to the treaty of peace between Philip and Persian King Shapur I :

> VIRTVS EXERCITVS ("the Courage of the Army"), Virtus standing right, holding spear and shield,

> SPES FELICITATIS ORBIS ("Hope for the World’s Happiness"), Hope walking left, holding flower,

> PAX FVNDATA CVM PERSIS ("Peace Founded with Persians"), Peace standing left, holding branch and sceptre.

Each one of these reverses is systematically associated to a radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right of Philip the Arab, seen from behind, and is known with two obverse legends : IMP IVL PHILIPPVS PIVS FEL AVG (plus letters P M under the bust) and IMP C M IVL PHILIPPVS P F AVG P M (abbreviation of IMPERATOR CAESAR MARCVS IVLIVS PHILIPPVS, PIVS FELIX, AVGVSTVS, PONTIFEX MAXIMVS), which makes it possible to differentiate 2 issues (1st and 2nd issue).

The resemblance of the first legend with the one of the Gordian III antoninianii from the unknown Eastern mint (IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG), and its short duration of use compared to the second legend allows us to think that this obverse legend is the first to have been used, an is therefore the first issue. Moreover, the letters P M found under the bust must be interpreted as "PERSICVS MAXIMVS" and not the usual "PONTIFEX MAXIMVS". This was done in order to introduce Philip as the "Winner of the Persians” - a message that could not be understood by the Persians who did not know the meaning of the Roman monetary legends.

There are also some rare coins of Otacilia Severa (legends MARC OTACI SEVERA AVG and MARCIA OTACILIA SEVERA AVG) that can be stylistically associated to this mint. However, it is difficult to assimilate them with one of the two issues because there is no common reverse, so these issues should be regarded as a short special issue.

These coins were minted after the Peace Treaty with the Persians - for which negotiations probably took several weeks - so as Philip became emperor in March 244 AD, it is likely that the first issue began around April 244 AD. According to the amount of coins found, the 1st issue seems to have lasted less than a month and the 2nd issue between 2.5 and 3 months : the 1st issue was minted during the beginning of Spring 244 AD and the 2nd issue during Spring and part of Summer 244 AD.

Antioch mint, AD 247

Antioch issues include mainly coins of Philip the Arab and Philip II, as well as a couple of extremely rare coins of Otacilia Severa. Contrarily to the Unknown Eastern mint, the reverses of Otacilia Severa coins are the same as the ones of Philip the Arab and Philip II, which confirms their attribution to this group. All reverses of AD 247 issues were copied from reverses emitted by the mint of Rome between 245 and 247 :

> P M TR P IIII COS P P et P M TR P IIII COS II P P (PONTIFEX MAXIMVS, TRIBVNICIA POTESTAS QUATRVS, CONSVL SECVNDVS, PATER PATRIAE: "The High Priest, holder of the Tribunician power for the fourth time, Consul for the second time, Father of the Country"), Felicitas standing left or 2nd representation much rarer : Philip veiled, turned left, sacrificing over tripod,

> AEQVITAS AVG et AEQVITAS AVGG ("the Equity of the Emperor/Emperors"), Equity standing left, holding scales and cornucopia,

> CONCORDIA AVG et CONCORDIA AVGG ("the Harmony of the Emperor/Emperors "), Concordia seated left, holding patera and double cornucopiae,

> ROMAE AETERNAE ("to Eternal Rome"), Roma seated left, holding Victory and sceptre, with or without altar at her feet,

> ADVENTVS AVGG ("the Return of the Emperors"), Philip on horseback left, raising right hand.

We can notice in this group that there are in general 2 types of reverse based on the addition of an element in the legend (AVGG instead of AVG, COS II P P instead of COS P P) or in the representation (presence or not of an altar at Roma’s feet); on the other hand, there is only one version of reverse ADVENTVS AVGG. This indicates the presence of two issues (1st and 2nd issue) with the addition of an element in the legend or in the representation in oerder to differentiate the second issue from the thirst one, plus the addition of a 5th reverse (opening of a new officina) during the 2nd issue.

However, an element comes to contradict a bit this analysis, since coins of Otacilia Severa (legend M OTACIL SEVERA AVG) are known with the following reverses : P M TR P IIII COS II P P (Felicitas standing left and Philip veiled, turned left, sacrificing over tripod), CONCORDIA AVGG, ROMAE AETERNAE with an altar at Roma’s feet (described by Henry Cohen under number 61), ADVENTVS AVGG (I do not know any specimen of it) and AEQVITAS AVG. This shows two things :
1/ coins of Otacilia Severa were struck only during one of the 2 issues, meaning the 2nd issue,
2/ AEQVITAS AVGG does not belong to the 2nd issue, but to the 1st one.
The number of known specimens confirms this hypothesis, as we find the same evolution of quantities between 1st and 2nd issue.

Since these coins were issued to celebrate the elevation of Philip II to Augustus in May or June 247 AD, it is likely that the production of these coins began as soon as this nomination occured, and finished only at the end of the year 247, meaning approximately 6.5 months of production. The 1st emission seems to have lasted between 1.5 and 2 months, and the 2nd one between 4 and 4.5 months. The 1st issue was therefore minted mid 247, and the 2nd one from mid 247 to the end of 247 AD.

Note : the use of "AVG" in some legends is inaccurate since Philip the Arab and Philip II were both emperors at the same time (AVG = 1 emperor, AVGG = 2 emperors). In the same way, the legend P M TR P IIII COS P P never existed in Rome since Philip the Arab received the fourth Tribunician Power and the second Consulate the same year; so the engravers from Antioch intentionally modified these legends in order to differentiate the 2nd issue from the 1st one without worrying about their meaning.

Antioch mint, AD 249

This second group from Antioch mint consists of coins of Philip the Arab and Philip II, and presents only one reverse for each officina, except for the first one, so there is only one issue for this final group (3rd issue). The majority of these reverses are copied from those issued by the mint of Rome in 248 and 249 AD, except for the first officina which struck reverses with the legend P M TR P VI COS P P never used in Rome, with four representations : Felicitas standing left, Philip veiled, turned left, sacrificing over tripod (2 representations already used during the 1st and 2nd issue), radiate lion walking left or radiate lion walking right. The other reverses are :

> SAECVLVM NOVVM ("the New Age"), temple of six columns with statue of Roma inside,

> ("the Eternity of the Emperors"), elephant walking left, driven by a man holding goad and wand (these two reverses were issued by Rome in commemoration of the Secular Games),

> FIDES EXERCITVS ("the Faithfulness of the Army"), four standards with a legionary eagle on the 3rd one,

> FELICITAS IMPP ("the Happiness of the Emperors"), FELI – CITAS - IMPP in three lines inside wreath.

Because the reverses of this issue are copied from reverses issued by the mint of Rome in 249 AD, and because the coins that were used as a model certainly took a few months to arrive to Antioch, we can imagine that the production began around March or April 249 AD. This estimate is confirmed by the duration of this issue (about 4 to 5.5 months), which was before the end of the reign of Philip the Arab. The 3rd emission was therefore minted during Spring and Summer 249 AD.

Note : there are variations for the 1st officina : the radiate lion walking left, holding a thunderbolt in its mouth (for the moment, 3 known specimens from 2 different dies), and Felicitas standing left with the legend R M TR P VI COS P P. It is however necessary to look at this second variation as an error from the engraver, since the Greek letter "P" corresponds to the "R" in the Latin alphabet (such error can also be seen on antoninianii of Gordian III from Antioch with legend POMAE AETERNAE), but it is interesting to note that this error does not appear on the other representations of this officina (Philip sacrificing or radiate lion) as well as on the legends P M TR P IIII COS (II) P P. This would tend to prove that the reverse showing Felicitas standing left was the first representation used in 249 AD, which seems logical since it was already the standard representation of the 1st and 2nd issue.

General remark :

One can notice that the number of specimens listed for each officina is very uneven (see the chapter on the number of specimens). This can be explained by the fact that the mint of Antioch did not strike only antoninianii; then we can think that certain officinas were still striking tetradrachms while others had already begun striking antoninianii.