EGYPT. Alexandria. Antoninus Pius, 138-161. Drachm (Bronze, 33 mm, 20.37 g, 12 h), Saite Nome, RY 8 = 144/5. [ΑΥΤ Κ] Τ ΑΙΛ ΑΔΡ ΑΝΤⲰΝ[ЄΙΝΟC CЄΒ ЄΥC] Laureate head of Antoninus Pius to right.
Rev. [CA]ЄΙTHC / L - H Athena-Neith standing front, head to left, holding owl in her right hand and resting her left hand on shield. Dattari (Savio) 6731. Emmett 1813.8. K&G N45.15. RPC IV.4 online 13559. Very rare. Two flan cracks
, otherwise, good fine.
From the Rhakotis Collection, formed in the 1960s and 1970s (with collector’s ticket).
This coin forms part of the 'nome coinage', struck under several emperors starting from Domitian and ending with Antoninus Pius. The division of Egypt into nomes (smaller districts) had its roots in the Pharaonic administration, but continued to be used in the Graeco-Roman period. On the reverse of the bronze drachms struck under Antoninus Pius, the respective nomes are identified through the legend and a local deity is depicted. The present coin shows Neith, identified by the Greeks as Athena, the tutelary goddess of Sais, the capital of the Saite nome. Sais rose to great prominence in the Third Intermediate Period under the Twenty-Fourth Dynasty (727-715 BC). and served as the Egyptian capital under the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty (664-525 BC). Neith was worshiped as a war goddess; in this regard she was often depicted in Egyptian art holding a bow and arrows, and she was the protectress of Lower Egypt. She was also a goddess of magic and medicine (the Egyptians made little distinction between the two) and the mother of the crocodile god Sobek. A. Geissen (‘The Nome Coins of Roman Egypt’, in C. Howgego, V. Heuchert & A. Burnett (eds.), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces, Oxford, 2005, p. 167-170) has suggested that the final emission of nome coins in year 8 of Antoninus Pius is most likely linked to the marriage of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Younger in the same year.
