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Coins
Coinage from the kingdom of Edessa was arguably first produced under King Wael son of Sahru (r. 163–165), at a time when Wael had strong Parthian support in the context of Lucius Verus’s Parthian war of 161–166; these coins have Syriac inscriptions, while later coinage was inscribed in either Syriac or (more commonly) Greek. In fact, most coinage from Edessa has inscriptions in Greek and post-dates the deposition of the philo-Parthian Wael, when his successor Ma‘nu VIII Philoromaios (165–176) was allowed to mint silver denarii for Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the Younger, Lucilla, and Lucius Verus. Arguably, however, Roman coins were in use at Edessa before local coins were minted, as is indicated by Syriac countermarks with the names of Edessene kings (Howgego 1985: no.26, 695, 696; Ross 2001: 167 n.6; Luther 2009). The present chapter focuses on Syriac coinage alone (for an overview of Greek coinage, see Ross 2001: 145–162, and Edessene coinage in BMC Arabia xciv–cvii, 91–118, with pl.XIII–XVII): the only known coins with Syriac inscriptions were minted in bronze during the second half of the second century, under the reigns of the kings Wael (r. 163–165), Ma‘nu VIII (165–176), and Abgar VIII (176–211).