Читать книгу A Companion to the Hellenistic and Roman Near East онлайн

32 страница из 236

Figure 14.7D Copper-alloy coin of Macrinus (217–218 CE), minted at Laodicea. The obverse carries the imperial portrait; the reverse shows a figure of the satyr Marsyas, carrying a wine skin and with his hand raised, which was used as a coin type by many Roman coloniae in the Near East. The inscription on the reverse reads COL LAODICIAE METR IIII PROV, “of the colonia of Laodicea, metropolis of the four provinciae.” This is thought to refer to Laodicea’s status as a center for the four regions of the imperial cult in Syria. This role was probably given to Laodicea by Septimius Severus, for the city having supported him in his war against a rival, Pescennius Niger; Laodicea’s rival, Antioch, which had previously been the chief city of the Syrian imperial cult, had supported Niger and was demoted when Severus triumphed.

Figure 14.8A Copper-alloy coin of Macrinus (217–218 CE), minted at Damascus. The obverse bears a portrait of Macrinus; the reverse shows a temple on a platform, approached by a staircase, with an altar at the bottom. At the base of the platform is an arched grotto from which water flows; behind the temple is a tall vine. The image probably depicts the temple at Ain Fijeh, in the Antilebanon to the west of Damascus, which was the source of the Barada river that flows through the city. The surviving remains of the temple stand above a vaulted structure that still contains a spring.