EGYPT. Alexandria. Hadrian, 117-138. Obol (Bronze, 18 mm, 4.63 g, 12 h), Heptakomia Nome, RY 11 = 126/7. AYT KAI TPAI AΔPIA CЄΒ Laureate head of Hadrian to right. Rev. ΕΠΤΑΚΟΜ L [IA] Apollo-Horus standing front, head to right, holding long scepter in his right hand and falcon in his left. Dattari (Savio) -. Emmett 1271. K&G N15.1. RPC III 6341. Extremely rare. Surfaces a little rough, otherwise, very fine.


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 obols struck by Hadrian (probably for the emperor's decennalia), the respective nomes are identified through the legend and a local deity is depicted.

The Heptakomia, more precisely the Apollonopolites Heptakomias, was an Upper Egyptian nome whose metropolis, Apollonopolis Heptakomia, is identified with modern Kom Isfaht in the Asyut region. The district is known less from monuments than from papyrological evidence, above all from the archive of Apollonios, who served as strategos of the nome around 113–120, only a few years before our coin was issued. These papyri offer unusually detailed insights into the administration, agriculture, taxation, and local elite of an Upper Egyptian nome in the age of Trajan and Hadrian. Particularly noteworthy is a poetic proclamation celebrating Hadrian’s accession, in which Phoebus Apollo himself announces the new emperor — a striking indication of the close connection between local cult tradition and Roman imperial ideology.