IN Part 1 we discussed the coins ofEphesus from the 7th century BC to thedeath of Lysimachus in 281 BC when

Arsinoë, the wife of Lysimachus, was lefton her own with three sons. Coins mintedat Ephesus showed her to be a beautiful

woman, but she was certainly not a wilt-ing violet. She was strong and resource-ful. When her half-brother, Ptolemy Ker-aunos, became king of Thrace she marriedhim hoping that one of her sons wouldsucceed him, but he soon realized that

The road to the harbour at Ephesus. (Wikimedia Commons: detail of a photograph taken by Ad Meskens)

Figure 1 – Decadrachm of Ptolemy II, 285 – 246 BC, with his sister-wife Arsinoë on the obverseand a double cornucopia on the reverse. Sear 7770. (Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 74, Lot 297)

Figure 2 – Octobol of Ephesus, 280 – 250 BC. Sear 4381. (Auktionen Meister & Sonntag,Auction 14, Lot 540)

Figure 3 – Didrachm of Ephesus, 258 – 202 BC.Sear 4382. (Auktionshaus H.D. Rauch, Auction95, Lot 123)

this ruthless woman was a threat andkilled two of her sons. The eldest son es-caped and Arsinoë returned to Alexandriain Egypt where she married her brother,the pharaoh Ptolemy II. Under the jointrule of Ptolemy and his sister-wife thecountry prospered. She was in charge offoreign affairs; and Judaea, Phoeniciaand most of the cities on the southerncoast of Asia Minor came under Egyptiancontrol, and this continued for the wholeof the 3rd century BC. In Egypt Arsinoë

became a goddess and temples were builtin her honour. (Figure 1)Although Ephesus was self-governingit came increasingly under Egyptianinfluence during the 3rd century, but thecoins remained much the same with theemphasis on Artemis, whose temple wasthe city’s big money earner. As well asbronze coins with bees and stags, a silveroctobol was issued from 280 to 250 BCwith the head of Artemis on the obverse.On the reverse there was a palm treeand the forepart of a kneeling stag.(Figure 2) In 258 BC Ephesus camemore under Egyptian control and adidrachm with similar features (but with-out the palm tree) was issued until 202BC. (Figure 3) Some coins of Egypt wereactually minted at Ephesus during thisperiod. (Figure 4) In 202 BC Antiochus III, the king ofSyria, invaded the territories underEgyptian control, and after three yearsof fighting he gained Phoenicia, Judaea,

and even Gaza near the Egyptian border.Ephesus came under his control, andfrom 202 to 133 BC the city issued silverdrachms and bronze coins with a bee onthe obverse. On the reverse there was astag standing with a palm tree in thebackground. (Figure 5) Aradus, whichwas a Phoenician city on an island a fewkms from the coast of what is now Leb-anon, issued a similar drachm from 174to 110 BC. (Figure 6) This suggests thatthere was an alliance between the twocities. Antiochus invaded Greece but in 191BC he was defeated there by a Romanarmy. He escaped to Ephesus to continuefighting the Romans who were supportedby the king of Pergamum, which was aprosperous city to the north of Ephesus.In 190 BC Antiochus was decisivelydefeated at Magnesia, which was about30 kms south-east of Ephesus andSyrian influence in the region ceased. TheRomans then gave Ephesus to the kings

Figure 4 – Gold oktadrachm of Ptolemy III, king of Egypt, 246 – 221 BC. Ptolemy’s wife, Berenike, is on the obverse, and the tiny bee on the reverse indicates that the coin was minted at Ephesus. Sear 7799. (Gorny & Mosch, Auction 169, Lot 167)

Figure 5 – Drachm of Ephesus, 202 – 133 BC. Sear4387. (Emporium Hamburg, Auction 76, Lot 76)

Figure 6 – Drachm of Aradus, 174 – 110 BC. The Greek word to the right of the stag means “of thepeople of Aradus.” Sear 5989. (Numis. BE, Public Auction, May 2013, Lot 107)

of Pergamum and from 189 BC Ephesusissued a new type of silver coin called acistophorus. The word means “basket-bearer” and the coin has a basket on theobverse. A snake slides out of the basket.On the reverse there is a bow-case be-tween two snakes. The basket and thesnakes were used in the religious ritualsof Dionysus, a popular god in the region.Similar coins were issued by Pergamumfrom 190 BC but the Ephesian oneshave ΕΦΕ in the left field on the reverse.(Figure 7)When Attalus III, the king of Perga-mum, died in 133 BC he bequeathed hiskingdom to the Romans. It became theRoman province of Asia (Figure 8 – map)and although Pergamum remainedthe capital Ephesus became the Romanadministrative centre. The Romans con-tinued to mint cistophori at Ephesus butthey put the year of issue on the reverse.Dates from A (1 = 133 BC) to ΞΖ (67 =66 BC) have been recorded. The Ephes-ian coins also have a long torch in theright field on the reverse. (Figure 9) The next major event in the history ofEphesus was the revolt against Rome ledby Mithradates VI. (Figure 10) He wasthe king of Pontus, a region in the north-east of Asia Minor. Although autocraticand cruel he was very clever. Beforeopposing the Romans he travelled incog-nito throughout the Roman province ofAsia to assess the strength of their forces.Then in 88 BC he began his war againstthe Romans. He defeated the Roman

Figure 7 – Cistophorus of Ephesus, 189 – 133 BC. Near the right edge of the reverse there is afacing bust of Artemis. Sear 4389 has Artemis and a stag instead of the bust. (Ira & Larry Gold-berg Coins, Auction 96, Lot 1717)

Figure 8 – Map of the Roman province of Asia. (Detail of a map on the website of enterthebible.org)

Figure 9 – Cistophorus of Ephesus, 133 – 67 BC. Sear 4393. (Roma Numismatics, E-Sale 1, Lot 177)

Figure 10 – Tetradrachm of Mithradates VI, king of Pontus. It was minted in the Pontic kingdomin 89/88 BC. Pegasus is drinking on the reverse, and the Greek words mean, “of king Mithradates,born of a noble father.” Sear 7248. (Bertolami Fine Arts, Auction 12, Lot 313)

Figure 11 – Gold stater showing the cult statueof Artemis of Ephesus. The bee to the left ofthe goddess suggests that the lumps on hertorso are bees’ eggs. Sear 4397. (Gorny &Mosch, Auction 228, Lot 144)

forces and took over their possessions.To commit the Greek cities in Asia Minorto his cause he ordered a massacre of allthe residents who had come from Italy.At Ephesus the Roman families soughtrefuge in the temple of Artemis, but theywere slaughtered there. Mithradates then invaded Greece buthe was defeated by the Roman general,Sulla, who crossed over into Asia Minor.A peace treaty was agreed, but in 74 BCwar began again. This time Mithradateswas roundly defeated by the Romangeneral, Pompey the Great. He fled to thenorth coast of the Black Sea where in 63BC he ordered one of his soldiers to killhim. The soldier obeyed and ran himthrough with his sword.According to Barclay Head, the authorof Historia Numorum, gold coins wereminted at Ephesus when it was under thecontrol of Mithradates from 87 to 85BC. They have a bust of Artemis on theobverse, but on the reverse there was animage of the idol that stood in the templeat Ephesus. This was the first time thatthis image had appeared on coins, andit was weird. It looked like an Egyptianmummy with arms sticking out on theside. (Figure 11) Archaeologists foundcopies of the idol when they were excav-ating the site of the Town Hall (known

Figure 12 – Statue of Artemis in the Ephesus Museum.It is a Roman copy made in the 1st century AD. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 13 – Cistophorus of Ephesus, 58 – 57BC. On the reverse there is a tripod on top ofwhich Apollo stands holding a branch andleaning on a column. The Latin words aroundhim are T.A MPI. T.F. PRO COS and refer to theRoman governor T. Ampius Balbus, Proconsulof Asia. Sear 4398. (Classical Numismatic Group,Auction 99, Lot 447)

as the Prytaneion) and they can be seentoday in the Ephesus museum which isin the nearby town of Selçuk. (Figure 12)The goddess has many bulbous lumps onher chest, and they are usually thoughtto be breasts but on the gold coin in Figure12 they certainly do not look like breasts.Actually nobody really knows what theyare. Some think they are bulls’ testicleswhile others have suggested that theyare bees’ eggs. Although bees’ eggs aretiny when they are laid by the queen bee,the lumps on the idol of Artemis mightrepresent a later stage before the beesemerge. This would be in keeping withthe bee theme surrounding Artemis. David Sear in Greek Coins and their

Values followed Barklay Head in attrib-uting the gold coins to the time of Mithra-dates, but more recently scholars considerthat these coins were issued over a longerperiod after the death of Attalus III in133 BC because some of the coins havedate numbers which are incompatiblewith the period of Mithradates’ controlof the mint. For example, a coin with Δ

(= 4) was probably minted in 130 BC.After defeating Mithradates Pompeyprogressed eastwards to consolidate theRoman provinces and the frontier king-doms. He made Tigranes the king ofArmenia and an ally of Rome. He annexedSyria but left Judaea as a dependenttemple-state, setting the stage for thebirth of Christianity. In the province ofAsia Roman control was strengthenedand some of the Roman governors puttheir names on cistophori minted atEphesus from 58 to 48 BC. (Figure 13) Pompey’s great rival for dominance inthe Roman world was Julius Caesar whohad successfully campaigned in Gaul(modern France). Julius Caesar even-tually defeated Pompey at the battle ofPharsalus in northern Greece in 48 BC.He visited Ephesus where he reformedthe constitution of the province of Asia,and from 48 to 27 BC Ephesus issuedbronze coins with the usual types (bust ofArtemis, bee, stag) although the largestdenomination has a rooster on it. (Figure14) The significance of the rooster isunknown but it might refer to the god,Mên, who was popular in parts of AsiaMinor. (Figure 15)

Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC. He was stabbed to death by a groupof senators led by Brutus and Cassiuswhen he entered the senate in Rome.They did this because they did not wantthe traditional republican rule to bereplaced by a dictatorship. Caesar hadbecome very powerful after defeatingPompey and intended to rule perman-ently as dictator. He was the first Romanto put his own image on a coin struckin Rome (Figure 16) and this shockedmany of his contemporaries.After Caesar’s assassination the peoplewere confused. Mark Antony, who hadbeen a supporter of Caesar and one ofhis generals at Pharsalus, called forcalm, and at the funeral five days laterhe gave a speech in praise of Caesar.In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar,Antony begins his speech with the words,“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend meyour ears.” Although not actually con-demning the conspirators he turnedpublic opinion against them. Brutus andCassius left Rome and moved to theeastern parts of the empire. Ephesuscontinued to be an important city andissued some very interesting coins. Theywill be considered in Part 3. NOTE. With these articles on the coinsof Ephesus, an exhibition of coins ofEphesus will be offered to colleges in SEQueensland and northern NSW. Hope-fully this innovative program will bringthe wonder of ancient coins to youngpeople.

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Figure 14 – Bronze coin 24 mms in diameterminted at Ephesus 48 – 27 BC. Artemis standson the obverse and a rooster stands on the re-verse with a palm branch behind. Sear 4412.(Triton V, Lot 464)

Figure 15 – Bronze coin of Gordian III (238 –244 AD) minted at Pisidian Antioch in AsiaMinor. On the reverse the god Mên stands witha rooster on the ground on the left. (ClassicalNumismatic Group, E-Auction 135, Lot 49)

Figure 16 – Silver denarius of Julius Caesar issued in January 44 BC. It has Caesar on the obverseand the goddess Juno in a chariot on the reverse. On the obverse the words CAESAR DICT QVARTmean “Caesar Dictatorship Fourth.” Sear 1406. (Classical Numismatic Group, Triton XVII, Lot 576)

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