Flattering the Queen?

This little 2.27g coin from Patrae was made quickly, in quantity, at a moment, around the middle 30s BCE, on the edge of the war that would end the Roman Republic.

Achaia, Patrae; circa 35 BCE, AR Triobol or Hemidrachm (15mm, 2.27g, 6h), Damasias, son of Agesilaus, magistrate. (15 or 16 of these coins in ACSearch)

Obv: Head of Aphrodite (with features of Cleopatra?), right, wearing stephane, earringand necklace, her hair bound in a bun at the back

Rev: ΔA/MACIAC in two lines above Patrae monogram; all within wreath.

Ref: BCD Peloponnesos 525-8; RPC 1245A; HGC 5, 57.

Notes: typical for this issue are the crude and overused dies, poorly struck.

The mid-30s BCE date of this coin, suggests that the issue was made in conjunction with Mark Antony's preparations for his imminent war with Octavian. The head of Aphrodite may also have the features of Cleopatra VII, as many issues in the region at this time used her likeness in an attempt to flatter the wealthy queen. For this coin there is even stronger evidence in another coin, same mint, similar timeframe that is explicitly titled Queen Cleopatra.

Kleopatra VII Thea Neotera. 51-30 BCE. Æ (21mm, 9.57 g, 12h). Patrae (Achaia) mint; Agias, son of Lyson, magistrate. Struck circa 32/1 BC.

Obv: ΒΑCΙΛΙCCΑ ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑ, diademed and draped bust right

Rev: ΑΓΙΑΣ ΛΥΣΩΝΟΣ ΠΑΤΡΕΩΝ, crown of Isis.

Ref: Svoronos 1905; RPC I 1245; BCD Peloponnesos 532.

The Place

Patrae, modern Patras, Greece, sits on the southern shore of the gulf of the same name, at the point where the Corinthian Gulf widens toward the Ionian Sea. It was a hinge between worlds: the last good Greek harbor before the open crossing to Italy, and the natural gateway from the western sea into the heart of the Peloponnese. Whoever held Patrae held a door.

[7.21.10] In Patrae, not far from that of Poseidon, are sanctuaries of Aphrodite. One of the two images was drawn up by fishermen in a net a generation before my time.
-Pausanias 7.21

Aphrodite at Patrae was a goddess of the shoreline, of safe arrival and the fortunes of the sea.

The Battle of Actium

By the mid-30s BC Mark Antony governed the Roman East with Cleopatra VII of Egypt. At Alexandria he had parceled out eastern kingdoms to their children, while Cleopatra appeared in public in a robe sacred to Isis and was hailed as the New Isis.

In Rome, Octavian turned these gestures into a case for war, recasting a struggle between two Romans as a defense of Italy against a foreign queen. By 33 and 32 BC a propaganda war was being waged; Antony divorced Octavian's sister Octavia, and Octavian answered with charges of treason against Mark Antony.

Late in the summer of 32 BC Antony's forces concentrated on the western coast, and he and Cleopatra took up residence at Patrae on the Gulf of Corinth, where they set up their winter headquarters before moving in the spring of 31 to Actium, on the southern side of the Ambracian Gulf. Here he minted vast silver coinage to pay his army, the famous "legionary" denarii, struck in the camp at Patrae in the winter of 32/31 BC.

The Triumvirs. Mark Antony. Autumn 32-spring 31 BC. AR Denarius. Legionary type. Patrae(?) mint. Praetorian galley right / Aquila between two signa; LEG XI across lower field. Crawford 544/25;

Plutarch shares a list of omens that predicted trouble for Antony.

The following signs are said to have been given before the war. Pisaurum, a city colonized by Antony situated near the Adriatic, was swallowed up by chasms in the earth. From one of the marble statues of Antony near Alba sweat oozed for many days, and though it was wiped away it did not cease. In Patrae, while Antony was staying there, the Heracleium was destroyed by lightning; and at Athens the Dionysus in the Battle of the Giants was dislodged by the winds and carried down into the theatre.
-Plutarch, Life of Anthony, 60

At the battle of Actium on 2 September 31 BC, Octavian's fleet prevailed; Cleopatra withdrew to Alexandria and Antony followed, "circa 35 BC" is an imprecise date and the estimate rests largely on the issue's character. The hurried, heavy emission of coins at Patrae, in these years, belongs to the the gathering storm.

City of Victory

Following his decisive victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian (later Augustus) reorganized the Peloponnese and established a veteran colony at Patrae. The formal administrative title of this settlement was Colonia Augusta Aroe Patrensis.

Pausanias notes that Augustus annexed nearby Dyme to Patrae, reshaping the whole district around the favored town. By forcibly settling veterans from the Legio XII Fulminata and Legio X Equestris, Augustus transformed a hostile maritime hub into a loyalist bulwark, permanently securing the vital shipping corridor between the Peloponnese and Italy.

Octavian formally established Nicopolis ("City of Victory") in 31-29 BC directly on the promontory in Epirus north of the Ambracian Gulf. This site physically encompassed the location of his command headquarters prior to the Battle of Actium.

Bibliography

• Burnett, Andrew, Michel Amandry, and Pere Pau Ripollès. Roman Provincial Coinage, Volume I: From the Death of Caesar to the Death of Vitellius (44 BC–AD 69). London: British Museum Press; Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1992.

• Classical Numismatic Group. "ACHAIA, Patrai. Cleopatra VII. 51–30 BC. Æ Hemiobol–Hexachalkon … Struck circa 32/1 BC." (BCD Peloponnesos 531, this coin.)

• Goldsworthy, Adrian. Antony and Cleopatra. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010. (Antony's residence at Patrae, 32 BC.)

• Pausanias. Description of Greece, Book 7 (Achaia), 7.17, 7.21. Translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918.

• Plutarch. Life of Antony, esp. 26, 54, 60. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920.

• A. D. Rizakis, Achaïe II: La cité de Patras - épigraphie et histoire ; Athens: Centre de recherches de l'antiquité grecque et romaine, 1998.