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Æ - Socrates and Aristeides
| Issuer | Amorium (Phrygia) |
|---|---|
| Year | 133 BC - 30 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 21 mm |
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| Obverse description | Laureate head of Zeus facing right, rendered in bold Hellenistic style with full, voluminous curling beard and thick wavy hair gathered beneath the laurel wreath. The deeply modelled facial features display a strong brow, prominent nose, and parted lips characteristic of late Hellenistic civic bronze coinage of Phrygia. The portrait fills the flan with confident, high-relief workmanship typical of the regional mint tradition. No legend appears on the obverse. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Amorium was a Phrygian city that would later achieve notoriety as a major Byzantine stronghold, but in this earlier period it operated as a semi-autonomous civic mint under loose Attalid and then Roman provincial oversight. The decision to invoke Socrates and Aristeides — an Athenian philosopher and an Athenian statesman — on a Phrygian civic bronze is genuinely unusual, reflecting the deep cultural prestige these figures held across the Greek-speaking world long after Athens itself had ceased to be a political force.
Aristeides the Just died around 468 BC; the gap between his lifetime and this coin's production spans roughly four centuries.