The Coinage of Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth-Shean)

Rachel Barkay, The Coinage of Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth-Shean). Corpus Nummorum Palaestinensium vol. 5. Jerusalem: Israel Numismatic Society, 2003. Hb. 272 pp., b/w and color illus., 14 b/w pls. ISBN 965-90558-0-3.

Between 1956 and 1961 the Israel Numismatic Society produced four volumes of the Corpus Nummorum Palaestinensium, a series intended to catalogue the ancient coins produced by the cities and peoples that existed in the territory of modern Israel and the surrounding regions. These volumes, all by Leo Kadman, had Jerusalem and Judaea proper as their main focus (The Coins of Aelia Capitolina [1956], The Coins of Caesarea Maritima [1957] and The Coins of the Jewish War 66-73 C.E. [1960]), with the exception of volume 4, The Coins of Akko Ptolemais (1961), which took one of the nearby cities as its subject. Now, thanks to Rachel Barkay, after a hiatus of almost half a century, we have a new addition to the popular CNP series that continues the look at cities begun back in 1961.

Because The Coinage of Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth-Shean) belongs to a series of Corpora, one might have expected to see here a traditional relatively bald catalogue-and-image format similar to that used for Sylloges. Readers will be pleasantly surprised to learn that not only does Barkay catalogue and illustrate all of the known types for this major city of Coele Syria, but she also engages in a great deal of interpretive discussion, thereby illustrating the importance of the coinage for reconstructing the economic, political, and cultural history of Nysa-Scythopolis. In short, while the curatorial training of the author is evident throughout the catalogue, the larger discussion of the material makes no secret of her archaeologist's heart.

The importance of the archaeological perspective to this study is evident from the first chapter (pp. 15-18), which provides a brief history of the major excavations at Beth-Shean, from the American digs of the early 1920s to the work currently being undertaken by Israeli teams from Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

While illustrating Tel Izatba (the Hellenistic settlement of Nysa-Scythopolis) and several views of the city's Severan theatre with excellent color photographs, in Chapter 2 (pp. 19-34) Barkay combines the evidence of excavation finds, coins, and the limited historical sources in an attempt to sketch the history of Nysa-Scythopolis. The haziness of the other evidence places a heavy burden on the coins as a tool for divining the cultural and political history of the city under the Roman Empire. Bearing this in mind, the author also provides a brief historiography of the nascent study of the city coinages of Coele Syria.

With the archaeological and historical stage admirably set, the main commentary on individual coin types and variants appears in the third chapter (pp. 35-109). Here, the author discusses some 97 types, spanning the early period of Roman domination (57-45 BC) to the end of the civic coinage under Gordian III (AD 238-244), and keyed to the descriptive catalogue on pp. 197-231 and good photographic plates. This chapter substantially adds to our knowledge of the city's coinage by listing a number of entirely new and previously unpublished types, mainly found in private collections, as well as several known types with reread or new dates. For the early period of Roman rule (57-45 BC), Barkay presents a new Gabinian type (no. 2) bearing the portrait of the Roman governor. Nos. 21 and 25 are unpublished issues of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, respectively, and depict Dionysus with his panther. It should come as little surprise that the majority of the new coins date to the early third century AD, the period of highest production at the provincial mints of the Roman Near East. No. 41 is an unpublished large (33mm) bronze of Septimius Severus bearing the remarkable reverse type of Dionysus and his panther attacking Giants, while no. 42 is a new large (30mm) coin of the same ruler with a wreathed inscriptional reverse. Both of these coins are dated year 270 (=AD 206/7), representing a previously unknown emission for Severus at Nysa-Scythopolis. All of his other coins at the city bear the date 267 (=AD 203/4). Both nos. 58 and 73 are unpublished wreathed inscriptional reverse types of Elagabalus, while no. 75, a new issue of the same emperor, depicts Dionysus and his panther. Nos. 81-83 and 87 represent rare and unpublished variants of the nursing Tyche-Nysa and the attacking Dionysus types struck under Gordian III, the last Roman ruler to be represented on the city's coinage before the closure of the mint.

In addition to identifying new types, Barkay also indicates the number of known examples for each type, clearly illustrating just how rare many of these bronze coins truly are. Brief comments on the iconography are also given, sometimes focusing on iconographical minutiae, such as the description of the object held by Tyche on a Neronian issue of AD 66/7 (no. 12), interpreted by various scholars as fruit, a human head, ears of grain, or an ivy leaf. Barkay (p. 48) argues that the mysterious object actually represents a tripartite bunch of ivy berries as an allusion to the important cult of Dionysus at Nysa-Scythopolis. While she is almost certainly correct to see Dionysiac symbolism here, a closer comparison between the object and the wreath worn by Dionysus on a smaller denomination of Nero (no. 13) seems to indicate that the tripartite form is simply that of an ivy leaf, the more usual emblem of the Greek god of wine, first suggested by Y. Meshorer, Masada I (Jerusalem, 1989), p. 125.

Several pages (pp.53-59) are also devoted to the countermarks that appear on civic issues under Claudius (nos. 9-10) and Nero (no. 12). It is convincingly argued that the male heads stamped on the coins of Claudius are actually portraits of the same emperor, and not countermarks related to the Jewish War or depictions of a satyr, as has been suggested by C. Howgego and Y. Meshorer, respectively. Because the head countermarks can be found on almost uncirculated examples of no. 9, Barkay suspects that they were applied shortly after the production of the coins for some local administrative, fiscal, or celebratory reason, rather than to revalidate the coinage. In addition to a different head countermark, the city name NYSA, and the legion number X or XF (for Legio X Fretensis) appear on the issues of Nero to reauthorize his coinage for civic and military use after the official condemnation of his memory.

The remaining chapters are studies of special topics growing out of the coins presented in the preceding chapter. The largest of these studies is devoted to "Deities on the Coins of Nysa-Scythopolis" (pp. 111-154). Here the author investigates the religious/mythological iconography of the civic coinage, which mainly focuses on Dionysus and associated deities, but also includes Zeus, Demeter and Kore, and Nike.

Dionysus, the patron deity of Nysa-Scythopolis, appears on at least one issue under each of the governors or emperors who struck coinage at the city and therefore his iconography is of great interest. Perhaps the most spectacular Dionysiac type is that found on rare issues of Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Elagabalus, and Gordian III (nos. 19, 41, 62, 72, 75, 85-91). Here the god and his panther are shown attacking smaller figures. This type, which has not always been properly described, is reassessed by the author and convincingly interpreted as a scene from the gigantomachy. According to this well-known myth, Dionysus and other gods warred against and finally defeated the rebellious Giants, represented by the smaller figures on the coins.

The evolution of the iconography of the Tyche is also particularly interesting, for over time she became syncretized with Nysa, the nurse of Dionysus in Greek mythology. By the Severan period she appears as Tyche-Nysa the nurse, seated on a high-backed throne and holding the infant Dionysus (nos. 74, 79-84). Although there is a gap of almost three hundred years, one wonders whether this particular typology might have its origin in a local Coele Syrian bronze coinage struck under the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 BC). The series in question (see for example A. Houghton and A. Spaer, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum. Israel I (London, 1998), nos. 1168-1179) depicts an unidentified goddess seated on a high-backed throne that is very similarl to that found on the issues of the third century AD, but instead of Dionysus, she holds a scepter and Nike and is accompanied by a bird (eagle?). Most recently this Hellenistic coinage has been attributed to Jerusalem (see D. Barag, "The Mint of Antiochus IV in Jerusalem, Numismatic Evidence on the Prelude to the Maccabean Revolt," INJ 14 (2000-2), pp. 59-77), but in light of the iconographic parallel and northern findspots, perhaps Nysa-Scythopolis should be entertained as a more likely issuing mint.

The iconographical discussion is not limited to numismatics alone, but also takes stock of the archaeological evidence. For example, the typology of Dionysus holding a patera and standing with his panther, known from several of the city's coins, is compared to a similar depiction on a relief found at Beth-Shean in the 1930s. Likewise, sculpture and mosaics from the site are used as comparanda for the coin images of Tyche. Commentary on the probable location of the city's shrines for each of the major deities depicted on the coins rounds out the supporting archaeological evidence.

In Chapters 5 (pp. 155-166) and 6 (pp. 167-170), Barkay analyzes the numismatic usage of the names and titles of the city, and discusses the problems that have plagued the proper identification of the Pompean Era (beginning in 64/3 BC) as the basis for dating in ancient Nysa-Scythopolis.

The seemingly perennial problem of ancient names for denominations and the methods used to distinguish between them is addressed in Chapter 7 (pp. 171-184). Here, the author defends her use of denominational names derived from Hebrew rabbinical sources and linked to particular coin weights and diameters by Y. Meshorer (see "A Coin Hoard of Bar-Kokhba's Time," INJ 4 (1985), pp. 43-50). Admittedly, such Hebrew terminology makes sense when dealing with the coinage struck by the Jewish forces of Bar-Kochba, but it is unclear why it is appropriate to apply it to the issues of Nysa-Scythopolis, a predominantly Greek city. While there can be no question that the city boasted an important Jewish population, the prevalence of pagan types, Greek inscriptions, and civic titles like Hellenis Polis ("Greek City") on the coinage, make it far more likely that the majority of the inhabitants of Nysa-Scythopolis would have described their denominations in Greek (or Hellenized Latin), rather than Hebrew, terms. Since the Greek denominational names are unknown, it might have been more helpful simply to classify the coins by diameter, as they are in the descriptive catalogue.

The author further argues that neither typology, nor metrology, nor the study of flan diameters can be considered reliable tools for differentiating between bronze denominations. Instead, it is suggested that a better method of denominational classification lies in the measurement of die diameters (actually the diameter of the dotted borders). However, while die measurements allow the coins to be better integrated into the rabbinical denomination system, a number of problems remain. Because the die diameters do not perfectly fit with the sizes attributed to the denominations by Meshorer, it becomes necessary to invent 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 issar denominations, both of which are unattested in the Hebrew sources. In Barkay's defense, it should be understood that the sizes assigned to the rabbinical denominations are at best educated guesses and may in fact be faulty. One problem with the system that immediately comes to mind is the identification of 32-33mm issues of the second and third centuries AD as ma'ah, when we know for certain that the bronze ma'ah struck by the Nabataeans in the first century was only about 23-25mm in diameter (see Y. Meshorer, Nabataean Coins. Qedem 3 (Jerusalem, 1975), nos. 79, 79A, and 83). The Nabataean ma'ah is actually the size given to the pundion, a lower denomination in the rabbinical system. Unless the Nabataean ma'ah was struck to a different standard than the Jewish ma'ah, which seems highly unlikely, it is difficult to accept the sizes attributed to the rabbinical denominations, and, by extension, the denominations assigned to the coins of Nysa-Scythopolis. Even if this were not the case, the differentiation of denominations by means of die diameter seems rather impractical, considering that the majority of the coins were struck partially off flan or were struck with dies larger than the flans. Perhaps such a system could work in the modern world where the methods of coining are much more precise, but in light of the simple technology available in Coele Syria under the Roman administration it seems more like a recipe for chaos in the market place.

The final study in the volume (pp. 185-195) is devoted to the provenance and circulation of coins struck at Nysa-Scythopolis, a somewhat difficult task since the majority of the known coins come from private collections, rather than controlled archaeological excavation. Nevertheless, Barkay shows that the city's coinage was rather small, making up only 30% of the finds at Beth-Shean, and that until the second century AD the currency needs of Nysa-Scythopolis were mainly filled by other larger regional coinages, such as those issued by the Hasmonaen and Herodian kings, as well as the Roman administration at Caesarea Maritima. It is only under the Antonines and Severans that the city's coin increases to a higher level, a phenomenon seen at other cities in Coele Syria in the second and third centuries AD, and which may in part be linked to visits of imperial personages to the region or local celebrations. Inflation and the absence of major regional coinages in the period also played a key role in increasing production at Nysa-Scythopolis and elsewhere.

In The Coinage of Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth-Shean), Rachel Barkay takes up where Leo Kadman left the Corpus Nummorum Palaestinensium in 1961. The high quality of the discussion and presentation of her new volume shows that the long wait was well worthwhile. At the same time, our appetite is whetted for more, making us hope that another forty-two years will not be allowed to elapse before the next volume appears.

—Oliver D. Hoover

The Coinage of Nysa-​Scythopolis (Beth-Shean)

The Coinage of Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth-Shean)