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.