REVUE BELGE DE NUMISMATIQUE ET DE SIGILLOGRAPHIE PUBLIÉE UITGEGEVEN SOUS LE HAUT PATRONAGE ONDER DE HOGE BESCHERMING DE S. M. LE ROI VAN Z. M. DE KONING PAR LA Doon HET SOCIÉTÉ ROYALE KONINKLIJK BELGISCH DE NUMISl\JATIQlJE DE BELGIQUE GENOOTSCHAP VOOR NUMISMATIEK ET SUBSroIÉE PAR LE EN MET DE STEUl' VAN HET MIN'TSTÈRE DE L'ÉDUCATION NATlONAI.E Ml:-:ISTERlE VAN NATIONALE OI'\'OI::llINO ET DE LA CULTURE EN CULTUUR DIRECTEURS: MARCEL HOC~ PAUL NASTER, LÉON LACROIX t ÉMILE BROUETTE eXIlI - 1967 BRUXELLES BRUSSEL A FOUNDATION·TYPE ON THE COINAGE OF THE MUNICIPIUM STOBI The city of Stobi (E-c6f3ot), situated at the junction of the rivers Axios and Erigon (modern Vardar and Crna), was the centre of Paeonia and eventual1y the greatest settlement in the Northern Macedonia of the Roman epoch (1). For the first time it is men­ tioned by Livy, in the narrative concerned with the warfare of Philip V with the Dardani (2). Further, Stobi figures in two more Livian passages: as a velus urbs near to the newly-founded Per­ sis (3) and, in connection with the division of 167 B. C., as a salt emporium belonging probably to the fourth Macedonian meris (4). V\~e do not hear again about it for a long period, until Pliny's entry oppidum Siobi civium Romanorum (NB IV 34), which prob­ ably attests an early and a strong community of the Roman citi­ zens settled there, From Vespasian to Caracalla or Elagabalus (6), Stobi was issuing local money with the reverse inscription muni­ cipium Siobensium, which reflects the elevation of the status of the city. In Elagabalus' time, the famous jurist Paulus Iabelled (1) For its history see B. SARlA, Siobi, RE, II R. IV (1931), col. 47 sqq. and, especially, F. PAPAZOGLOU, Les cités macédoniennes â l'époque romaine, Skopje, 1957, p. 235 sqq. (in Serbian, with a French summary, p. 353). The name is probably of the Paeonian, Illyrian origin: A. :MAYER, Die Sprache der alleti llujrier, J, Wien, 1957, p. 32.2.. (2) LIV. XXXIII 19: circa Slobos Paeoniae improoiso hostes obpressil (197 B.C.). (3) lb., XXXIX 53, 15 (183 B.C.). (4) lb., XLV 19: post non impetratam Paeoniam salis cotnmercium dedit, teriiae reqioni imperauit, ut Stobos Paeoniae deoeherenl preiiumque staiuil. Cf. PAPAZOGLOU, op. cii., p. 235 n. 21. (5) The coins attributed ta the latter are held by H. GAEBLER (Die anti­ ken Miinzen von Makeâonia und Paionia, Il, Berlin, 1935, p. 111 and n, 2) as being Caracalla's. The suggestion has not been accepted but a certain criterium for a distinction bctween the two remained unestablished. The problem will be discussed in another paper, 12 S. DU5ANlé the Stobenses as possessors of the ius ltalicum (6), the highest privilege to he granted to a provincial urbs. During the Jateempire the importance of Stobi as a route centre was considerably in­ creased, and it early became the episcopal residence frequently mentioned in the council acta (from A.D. 325 onward). To aIl appearances, it ceased to exist with the great. SIav invasions of the late sixth century. The excavations carried out at the site of Stobi sinee 1924 unearthed important traces of the Roman and, especially, early Byzantine city (7). The Stobian coins, struek in four periods, under (1) the Flavians (Vespasian, Titus, Titus and Domitian, Domitian and Domitia), (II) Trajan, (III) Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Iunior, and (IV) the Severi (Septimius Severus, Domna, Caracalla, Geta and Ela­ gabalus) (B) represent an interesting material, numismatieally and historically unexploited. Not only a corpus of them is wanting, but also sorne indispensable special studies of their chronology, types and metrology. While preparing a monograph on the mint of Stobi, we shall try to supply the lack of the latter in a number of papers, of whieh the present is the first. As generally held, the earliest issue of the mint is a pseudo­ autonomous type which belongs, regarding its style and execution, to the Flavian period of the coinage of Stobi (9). There are known two variants (10). 1. (fig. 1) Obv. ~1 - V (1. and r. in field). Victory, draped, standing 1. on globe, holding wreath in r. hand and trophy in 1. Border of dots. (13) Dig. L 15, 8. 8. (7) A convenient summary of the dlscoverles is given by E. KITZINGBR, A Survey of the Barly Christian Town of Slobi, Dumbarton Gales Papers, 3, 1946, p. 81 sqq, (8) Cf. supra, n, 5. (9) Cf. GAEBLER, op. eii., 111: « Ihrem SUI nach gehôrte diese Emission der flavischen Zeit an ». A. BOUTKOWSKI (Dictionnaire numismatique, 1, Leipzig, 1881, col. 1469 and 1471) assigned it, with sorne reserve, to the reign of Augustus (the same, recently, A. KERAMITCIEV, L'atelier de monnaies romain à Slobi (in Macedonian, with a French summary), in Recueil des tra­ vaux, Mus. arch. Skopje, 4/5, 1961-6, p. 41 no 14, p. 44). Apart from the technical indications for the Flavian period, mentioned above, against Bout­ kowski's dating runs the faet that there Is no pre-Flavian currency from Stobî (the coin descrihed by hlm, op. cil., col. 1470 sq., does not belong here). (10) Bath described here from the specimens in our collection. A FOUNDATlüN TYPE OF STOBI 13 Rev, $TQBEN - SI - VM (starting high L, ending in exergue). Bovine standing r. Border of dots. AE ~ 1,92 gm. 17 mm. 2. (fig. 2) Obv. MVNI - CI - P. Victory, draped, walkîng L, holding wreath in r, hand and trophy in 1. Border of dots. Rev. STüBENS - IVM (starting high L, ending in exergue). Bovine standing r. Border of dots. AE J, 4,54 gm. 21 mm. With slight differences, no. 1 has been published since J. Eck­ hel (11) several tirnes (12), the Iast time by H. Gaebler, who gave also its photograph (the Turin specimen) (13). AU the editors, due ta the imperfect preservation of the piece, omit the obverse abbreviation for the municipium, a circumstance which probably led to an unacceptable classification of the type as an autonomous one (14). Eckhel, Mionnet, Musmov, take as its obverse the same side we do and describe the animal as a male (« bos 1), « bœuf », « ox 1»). whereas for Gaebler the Victory is on the reverse and the animal should be labelled as the neutral « rind 1). In the first point we agree with the former, since the beginning of the in­ sciption - mu(nicipium), _. now clearly visible, has to be put on the obverse. As ta the second, it is difficult to say anything with certainty, considering the small dimensions of the repre­ sentation, but the appearance of the animal's neck and the bearing of its head tend to identify it as a male. The obverse inscription of the variety nO 2 has been read by its first and the only editor (15) in the unabbreviated form, mu­ nicipiutn, and the reverse type described as an ox. With regard to the close resemblance of the specimens published by Petrovié and us, we are inclined to retain the form MVNI - CI - P as the (11) J. ECKHEL, Doctrina numorum veterum, 1 2, Vindobonae, 1794, p. 77. (12) E. g. T. E. MIONNET, Description de médailles antiques, grecques el romaines, I, Paris, 1806, p. 488; N. A. M~~MOV, The Ancient Coins ot {he Balcon Peninsule, Sofia, 1912, p. 409 nO 6522 (in Bulgarian), (13) GAEBLER, op. cit., p. 111 nO 1 (Pl. XXI 22). (14) In addition to Eckhel, Mionnet, Musmov also B. V. HEAD, BMC, AJac. eie., London, 1879, p. LXII; BOUTt<OWSKI, op. cit., col. 1469; S. \V. STFVENSON, A Diclionary of Roman Coins, London, 1889, p. 763; J. PETRO­ VJé, Slobi in der Numismalik (in Serbocroatian, with a German summary), Numizmalièar (Beograd) 1, 1934, p. 26 no 1 (Pl. I 1). (15) PETROVlé, IDe. cil. (from a private collection). 14 S. DUSANIC FIG. 1 Municipium Slobi : the foundation-issue from A.D. 72/73, variant n" 1 (enlargement X 4). A FOUNDATION TYPE OF STOBI 15 FIG. 2 Municipium Siobi : the foundation-issue from A.D. 72/73, variant n> 2 (enlargement X 4). 16 S. DUSANlé correct one. The animal, rendered without force, seems more likely to be a cow. So far, there has been no serious attempt to interpret and date more precisely the type in question. As the reverse representations of the Stobian coinage show little affinity with the rich mytholo­ gical illustrations from the neighbouring cities of Macedonia and Thracia (16) and, on the other hand, as they sometimes closely follow the types of the imperial money (17), one should presumably try to explain the reverses in question within the framework of a (Roman) symbolism, linked rather with a special occasion than with a local cult (l8). Consequently, it would seem natural to take as a starting-point in this connection the contemporary imperial issues also bearing a cow (heifer) or a bull (ox) on their reverses. As it is known, these are the aurei and denarii struck in Rome for Vespasian and Titus from 74 to 76 (l!J). Apart from the hybrid coins, the male animal seems to appear only in 75 and not to coin­ cide with the female one which is confined to the years 74 and 76, but the two occur in such numerous series of so close a date, that (16) lt has two standard types (the tetrastyle temple in the first two pe­ riods and the Victory in the third and fourth), while an occasional departure from them, scarce as it is, aIways has a definîte association with the city It­ self or with events of general importance.