THE city of Colossae is of particularinterest to Christians because in

about 61 AD Saint Paul wrote an inspir-ing letter to the Christians there. Thecity was abandoned in the 12th centuryand today its remains are buried ina great mound of earth. (Figure 1) Themound had been building up over thou-sands of years as different inhabitantsdemolished old buildings and built newones, or as buildings fell into disuse andwere quarried for other projects. Any coinsfrom Colossae that exist today are ofvalue to historians because they canprovide information about the life of thecity. In a previous article, ‘Colossae: TheBuried City’ (CAB, July 2013), some of thecoins of the city were illustrated anddescribed. They are all very rare. RecentlySt John’s Cathedral in Brisbane acquireda previously unknown coin of Colossae(Figure 2) and it provides some very in-teresting information.

The bronze coin is 29 mms in diameterand weighs 9.59 grams. On the obversethere is a laureate, draped bust of Vol-usian, who was the Roman emperorfrom 251 to 253 AD. The Greek legendon the obverse is Γ (Gaius) O (Vibius) A(Afinius) Γ (Gallus) O (Vendumnianus)OVOΛOVCCIANOC (Volusianus). [OVwas used in Greek for the sound of theEnglish consonant ‘v’ and for the vowelsound in ‘you’.] On Volusian’s head thereis a large countermark, and at first itwas thought to be A (alpha), which inGreek is used for the number 1. It wasthe Reverend Russell Atherton of Dallas,Texas, who realized that it was Δ (delta),which is used for the number 4. This isobvious when the countermark is com-pared with numeral-letters on coinsminted at other cities in the 3rd century.For example, the countermark on a coinminted at Neapolis in Samaria by theemperor Elagabalus is clearly A (Figure

3), while the numeral-letter on a coinminted at Antioch in Syria by Philip IIis clearly Δ (Figure 4), and it is identicalto the countermark on Volusian’s coin.Note the bars on the points of the delta. To understand why the number 4appears on this coin of Colossae one needs

Figure 1 –The mound of Colossae in Turkey. (Photo courtesy of Todd Bolen / BiblePlaces.com)

Figure 2 – Bronze coin of Colossae. Obverse: bust of Volusianwith a countermark on his head. Reverse: Artemis Ephesia with stags.

Figure 3 – Bronze coin of Neapolis in Samaria.Obverse: bust of Elagabalus (218-222 AD) witha countermark on his neck. Reverse: fourhorses pull a cart carrying the sacred stone ofElagabal. An image of Mt Gerizim is to theright of the stone. (Gemini Auction XI, Lot 472)

to know something about the economicsituation of these cities at that time. Inthe 3rd century the Roman authoritieswere continually reducing the amount ofsilver in the denarius and the antonini-anus, and this led to inflation, i.e. theprice of goods would go up. Purely bronzecoins, however, tended to hold their valueand were continually needing to be re-tariffed at higher valuations. Accordingto Kenneth Harl (Coinage in the RomanEconomy, page 141) in order to combatinflation, “Some cities backed up retar-iffing by countermarking coins withdenominational marks of ten, eight, six,four and three assaria.” Therefore, it islikely that the denominational mark onVolusian’s coin increased its value to fourassaria.

Volusian’s coin is not the only coin ofColossae with a countermark. There isa coin of the emperor Geta (209-212 AD)that has the countermark CAPB (Figure5). It has been interpreted as an abbrev-iation of the Greek name of the city ofSardes (CAP) plus the numeral-letter B(2). Sardes stopped minting coins in about253 AD and used the coins of other cities,but countermarked them with the name,Sardes, and the local, current valuation. What is particularly interesting aboutVolusian’s coin is the long, Greek legendon the reverse. It is the name of theauthorizing magistrate and it surroundsan image of Artemis like the idol thatstood in the great temple of Artemis atEphesus, which was one of the Seven

Wonders of the World. (Figure 6) Shewears a large, T-shaped headdress andat her feet two stags look up at her. Shefrequently appears on the coins ofColossae, but she does not appear at allon the coins of Laodicea, which was onlytwelve miles down the road, and thissuggests that there was a degree ofreligious rivalry between the cities. Nodoubt there was an impressive templeto the goddess at Colossae. In the exergueon the reverse of the coin the Greek wordKOΛOCCHNΩN means “(a coin) of theColossians.” Reading long Greek inscriptions orlegends is a tricky business becausethere are no spaces between the words,which are often abbreviated, and theforms of the letters can vary considerablydepending on the current style and thatof the engraver of the die. For example,the letter on the coin to the left of the stagon the left looks like I • I, but it is H andis a form of the letter that was common inthe 3rd century. So to correctly translatethe legend on this coin of Colossae wasdifficult, but fortunately an Australianscholar, Dr Alan Cadwallader, was up tothe task. He is Senior Lecturer in Bibli-cal Studies at the Australian CatholicUniversity in Canberra. He sees thename of the magistrate as AV[PHΛIOC]

MARKIANOC EΠAΦPA CTEΦANHΦOPOC,which he translates as “Aurelios Mark-ianos, son of Epaphras, Stephanoph-oros.” [EΠAΦPA is the Doric genitive ofEΠAΦPAC.] “So what!” I hear you say.Well, for Christians it is significant be-cause it is the first time that the name

Figure 4 – Bronze coin of Antioch in Syria. Obverse: bust of Philip II (247-249 AD). Reverse: bustof Tyche. In the left upper field the numeral-letter Δ = 4. With the epsilon in the right upper fieldit probably means “of the 4 eparchies.” (Classical Numismatic Group, eAuction 368, lot 269)

Figure 5 – Bronze coin of Sardes in Lydia. Ob-verse: bust of Geta (209-212 AD) with counter-mark CAPB. Reverse: Artemis Ephesia with thelegend KOΛOCCHNΩN. (Image courtesy of TomVossen at Vcoins.com)

Figure 6 – Statue of Artemis in the EphesusArchaeological Museum. It would be similar tothe idols of Artemis that stood in the temples atEphesus and Colossae. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 7 – Silver tetradrachm of Antioch inSyria. Obverse: bust of Trajan Decius (249-251AD). Reverse: eagle with wreath in beak.(Image courtesy of Lucernae at Vcoins.com)

‘Epaphras’ has been discovered in anyinscription, originating from Colossae.The name does occur in some ancientinscriptions, but not from Colossae. Thename ‘Epaphras’ occurs in two places inthe New Testament: in the Letter to theColossians and in the Letter to Philemon.In the Letter to the Colossians we readin the first chapter: All over the worldthis gospel is bearing fruit and growing,just as it has been doing among you sincethe day you heard it and understoodGod’s grace in all its truth. You learnedit from Epaphras, our dear fellow-ser-vant, who is a faithful minister of Christon our behalf, and who also told us ofyour love in the Spirit. And in the lastchapter we read: Epaphras, who is oneof you and a servant of Christ Jesus,

sends greetings. He is always wrestlingin prayer for you, that you may standfirm in all the will of God, mature andfully assured. Of course, the ‘Epaphras’on the coin is not the one in the letter, buthe could well be a descendant. The ‘Epa-phras’ on the coin was a stephanophoros,i.e. he had the right to wear a crown orwreath on civic occasions. This meansthat he was an important person in thecommunity, just as the references toEpaphras in Paul’s letter showed him tohave been. Because the name appearson the coin around an image of Artemisit does not necessarily mean that he wasa pagan. As a magistrate it would havebeen his civic duty to authorize the coin,even though he might be a Christianhimself.Actually, when this coin was made itwas a dangerous time to be a Christian.When Trajan Decius (Figure 7) becameemperor in 249 AD he began a generalpersecution of Christians throughoutthe empire. He even executed the bishopof Rome. In 251 he was succeeded byTrebonianus Gallus (Figure 8) who con-tinued the persecution. He ruled jointlywith Hostilian, but after a few monthsHostilian died of the plague and Trebo-nianus Gallus appointed his son, Volus-ian, to be co-emperor. When Volusian andhis father were murdered by their ownsoldiers in 253, Valerian (Figure 9)became emperor and he persecuted theChristians more severely than ever.Thousands died, and if Aurelios Mark-ianos was known to be a Christian hemight have been killed at that time. The word ‘stephanos’ (crown or wreath)occurs in the New Testament in severalplaces, most notably in the gospels whenthe soldiers put a crown of thorns onJesus’s head and hail him as a king.Also it is used by Paul in the sense of aprize. Crowns were commonly awardedto successful athletes, and in his firstletter to the Corinthians Paul writesabout the race of life: Run in such a wayas to get the prize. Everyone who com-petes in the games goes into strict train-

Figure 8 – Silver tetradrachm of Antioch in Syria. Obverse: bust of Trebonianus Gallus (251-253AD). Reverse: eagle with wreath in beak. (Image courtesy of Athena at Vcoins.com)

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Figure 9 – Gold aureus of Valerian I (253-260AD) minted at Rome. Obverse: bust of em-peror. Reverse: Jupiter holding a thunderboltin his right hand. (Numismatik Lanz München,Auction 150, Lot 402)

ing. They do it to get a crown that will notlast; but we do it to get a crown that willlast for ever. From what we know of theEpaphras in Paul’s letter to the Coloss-ians he would certainly have receivedsuch an imperishable crown. Having discovered the name ‘Epaphras’

on this coin of Volusian, Dr Cadwalladerlooked carefully at other coins of Colossaeminted during the same period. Withthe name ‘Epaphras’ in his mind he sawit again on a coin of Trebonianus Gallus,who was the father of Volusian and ruledwith him. (Figure 10) In this case it was

even more difficult to find than on thecoin of Volusian because for some reasonthree of the Greek letters in the name,‘Epaphras’, are below the line of the leg-end. (Figure 11 – diagram) Perhaps thedie-engraver had inadvertently omittedthem and did not want to have to en-grave a whole new die with the compli-cated image of Artemis driving a chariot.The coin has been known since at least1970 when there was an example inthe Hecht Collection. In 1987 Hans vonAulock published his book, Münzen undStädte Phrygiens II, in which the coin islisted and illustrated. Von Aulock natu-rally considered the legend to be AY

MAPKIANOC EΠA CTEΦANHΦOPΩN

ΦPA ANEΘHKEN, with KOΛOCCHNΩN

(of the Colossians) in the exergue. Hewould have assumed that EΠA andΦPA

were abbreviated names or titles. Thecorrect translation of the legend is‘Au[relios] Markianos, [son] of Epaphras,[one of the] crown-bearers, produced [it]’.Some modern scholars argue that Pauldid not write the Letter to the Coloss-ians. Their argument is based on lan-guage-style and theological themes. TheLetter to Philemon, however, is generallyaccepted as an authentic letter of Paul,and in it Epaphras is mentioned, whichsuggests that Paul wrote both letters.(Figure 12) Now with the discovery ofthe name ‘Epaphras’ on coins of Colossaethat suggestion is strengthened. Eventhough the name was fairly common inthe ancient Greek world its appearanceon these Colossian coins supports thehistoricity of Paul’s letter to the Colos-sians. The ‘new’ coin will be on display inSt John’s Cathedral for a limited time.

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Figure 10 – Bronze coin of Trebonianus Gallus (251-253 AD) minted at Colossae. Obverse: bustof Trebonianus Gallus. Reverse: Artemis in a chariot drawn by deer. It is 35 mms in diameter andthe average weight of two specimens is 15.66 grams. (Image: RPC Online, Volume IX, 795)

Figure 11 – Diagram showing the Greek letters in the upper half of the coin of Trebonianus Gallus.

Figure 12 – ‘Saint Paul writing his Epistles’ by Valentin de Boulogne. Oil on canvas, circa 1619. (Wikimedia Commons)

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