ASIA MINOR. Uncertain. 2nd-3rd centuries. Tessera (Lead, 15 mm, 2.19 g), the Boule (city council). BOV Lion standing to right, raising its left paw. Rev. Blank. For the iconography, cf. Gülbay/Kireç 86. Very fine.


Several tesserae from Asia Minor refer to the Boule (i.e., the city council). Gülbay & Kireç 232 is a tessera that, like ours, is signed by the council itself. It has a simple genitive legend reading "boulês", meaning "of the city council". More often, however, we find tesserae naming the secretary of the council, the "grammateus". A remarkable tessera in the Vossen collection is signed by a president of the Boule, "boularches", with the name of Laouphilos (Boersema/Dalzell, Vossen col. 45)