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

ANTONINIANII FROM ANTIOCH
AND OTHER IMPERIAL MINTS UNDER THE REIGN
OF PHILIP Ist ALIAS "PHILIP THE ARAB" (244-249AD)

Welcome to this website dedicated to the coinage of the Roman Emperor Marcus Julius Philippus (244-249 AD), better known as "Philip the Arab". Here you will discover a poorly known aspect of the complex coinage of this emperor-soldier : the antoninianii issued by the Syrian mint of Antioch (today known as Antakya in the South-East of Turkey).

This mint had a particular place in the monetary production of that period, striking at the same time imperial coins with Latin legends, and provincial tetradrachms with Greek legends. It seems that this Syrian mint may have served as a secondary imperial mint when Rome could not provide enough currencies to this geographical area far away from the Empire capital, hence the discontinuous antoninianii production between March 244 and September 249, end of the reign of Philip.

Documentation on this topic is often scarce, incomplete and difficult to access, making the classification hard to understand for the numismatist interested on this coinage! So I’ve conceived this site in order to provide a clearer vision on the subject by presenting the results of my own researches. It is intended for the amateur numismatists in search of an interesting topic for their collections as well as for the specialists in Philip's coinage.

A first section dedicated to coin striking will allow the neophyte to discover the operation of a Roman mint while another section deals with the historical and economical background (only available in French) of the antoninianii production, in order to better understand the strategic and economic role played by the mint of Antioch. Although I do not present a biography of Philip and his family in this site -since it can be found on numerous websites- some events of his reign that affected the monetary production of Antioch are mentioned in this section.

The three following pages are dedicated to the issues of Antioch themselves : here you will discover my proposal for classification of the antoninianii by issue (this is the FIRST TIME that such classification is proposed for antoninianii of Philip and his family minted in Antioch!), as well as a page presenting the existing associations between bust styles and obverse legends followed by a list of number of specimens found on the Internet and in different auction or sale catalogues which will allow you to know the relative rarity of the existing types. I also added, after this Eastern coins presentation, a page concerning the IOVI & IVNO CONSERVAT coins issued during the Carpic Campaign by an auxiliary mint.

Finally, the last chapter is devoted to my antoninianii collection where you will find some of the coins issued by the mints I dealt with previously. Enjoy your visit !!

Thibaut MARCHAL

Note for English speaking visitors : this website was originally written in French and then translated into English, so I apologize in advance that this site may contain some grammatical mistakes, or unsuitable vocabulary.

Received on November 5th, 2006
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Last updates :

January 15th, 2015 : the first coin of this new year is an extremely rare antoninian of Philip II with reverse ADVENTVS AVGG (see this coin).

I also added a new link to a wonderful study from my friend Otakar Fojt who prepared an exhaustive corpus of Philip gold coins (aurei, quinarii and medallions) based on largest public collections and public auctions.
This study has not been published and is proposed to you for personal, non-profit and research purposes only.

May 16th, 2014 : after a long period without activity on my website, here are 2 new coins, both very rare :
- Philip the Arab with reverse P M TR P IIII COS II P P - Philip sacrificing without tripod at feet (see this coin),
- a coin of Philip I with a UNIQUE draped and cuirassed bust left, seen from behind, reverse AEQVITAS AVG (see this coin).
Up to now, this bust-type was only known for Philip II, reverse P M TR P VI COS P P. Unfortunately it is in a particularly bad condition...

I also updated the page with web links as some of them were broken.

Once again I want to insist about the number of known specimen which is no more updated because of a lack of time; then the rarity of some types may be out of date...