LYDIA. Hyrcanis. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Hemiassarion (Bronze, 16 mm, 2.63 g, 6 h), time of Commodus, circa 180-182 (?). MAKЄΔONΩ Mask of Silenos to right, wearing wreath of ivy and fruit. Rev. YPKANΩN Pan, nude and with animal tail, dancing to right, holding pedum in his right hand and raising his left. BMC 2 = RPC IV.2 online 1746.1 (same reverse die). Winterthur 3748 (same reverse die). Very rare. An exceptionally well preserved example of this very interesting issue, perfectly struck and by far the finest known. Extremely fine.




Hyrcanis was a Seleukid foundation in the Hyrcanian Plain, west of Sardis, a fertile region in the Hermos Valley. It was named after colonists from Hyrcania, located on the southeast shore of the Caspian Sea, who were settled there by the Achaemenid kings. The Seleukid interest in the area stemmed from the need to defend their Anatolian possessions from the Galatian threat, and Hyrcanis was just one of many military colonies where the Kings of Asia settled veterans to strengthen local defenses.

RPC roughly dates our coin to the second half of the 2nd century AD, but we can perhaps be more precise. Its Dionysian motifs, along with the inscriptions, align closely with a series of 'mythological' coins struck under Commodus, one of which depicts a procession of Dionysus on the reverse (RPC IV.2 online 11429). The remarkable legends demonstrate the citizens of Roman Hyrcanis' strong awareness of their heritage. The obverse references the Macedonians, while the name of the polis on the reverse alludes to the distant Hyrcanians from the Caspian region. This connection is also reflected in Pliny's Natural History and Tacitus' Annals, where they speak of 'the Macedones, surnamed Hyrcani' (Plin. Nat. Hist. 5.31) and the 'Hyrcanian Macedonians, as they were called' (Tac. Ann. 2.47), respectively.