Cilicia, Tarsos, Maximinus I SNG Levante 1092 var. Maximinus I AD 235-238 AE 37mm obv. AVT K G IOV OVH MAXIMEINOC C P-P bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate r. rev. TAPCOV T - HC MHTPOPOLEWC, A/M/K, G/B Nike, stg. on globe, advancing l., holding palmbranch in l. and cilicarch crown with four imperial heads in extended r. hand SNG Levante 1092 var.; SNG Paris 1594-5 (both same dies); BMC 230 VF+, 20.12.05, €279.- The Cilicarch (note spelling with added C, since it derives from "Cilicia") was the High Priest of Cilicia. His most important function was as chief priest of the provincial temple or temples of the emperors. The busts on his crown, which vary considerably from depiction to depiction, are those of the emperors and empresses who were honored in those provincial temples. Tarsus had temples of Hadrian and Sept. Sev., so the crown of the Cilicarch retained its depictions of those imperial families even under Maximinus Thrax. Source: R. Ziegler, Städtisches Prestige und kaiserliche Politik, Studien zum Festwesen in Ostkilikien im 2. und 3. Jh. n. Chr., Düsseldorf 1985. Contributed by Hans Joachim Hoeft, December, 2005.