PTOLEMAIC KINGS OF EGYPT. Ptolemy V Epiphanes, 205-180 BC. Hemiobol (Bronze, 18 mm, 3.90 g, 12 h), Kyrene. Laureate and draped bust of Apollo to right, with bow and quiver over his shoulder. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠTΟΛΕΜΑΙΟY Diademed and draped bust of Libya to right; below chin, cornucopiae. CPE -. SNG -. Svoronos -. Apparently unpublished and unique. Minor deposits, otherwise, very fine.
This unpublished bronze belongs to a broader series of issues associated with the epiphany of Ptolemy V, in which a kingdom-wide iconographic program appears to have allowed considerable scope for local imagery. At Kyrene, for example, a bronze coin was struck with the jugate busts of Apollo and Artemis on the obverse and a portrait of Ptolemy I on the reverse, while another type depicts Apollo on the obverse and Artemis on the reverse. Lorber interprets these issues as reflecting the same royal program attested at Alexandria, while the prominence of Apollo Myrtous, the patron deity of Kyrene, simultaneously asserts the city’s local civic identity (CPE II, Vol. 1, pp. 57-58). The present, previously unknown piece fits remarkably well into this context. Its obverse depicts the youthful Apollo as an archer, while the reverse, with the personification of Libya, explicitly evokes the region itself.