GAZA'S FREEDOM ON AN ANCIENT COIN
by Mark Fox
Gaza's long and rich history as an important port and link in the Incense Route is largely one of subjugation, but beginning around 108-107 BC, the city was apparently granted autonomous status by the Seleukid king, Antiochos VIII. This act was in line with other bestowals of autonomy to several of Gaza's coastal neighbors (e.g. Sidon and Askalon) at about the same time.
The coin shown below, although undated, is believed by Oliver Hoover in a footnote to his article The Dated Coinage of Gaza in Historical Context (264/3 BC - AD 241/2), in Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau, 2007, to have been struck immediately before the city's earliest known dated civic issues, of the Seleukid Era 205 (108-107 BC.).
Autonomous coinage continued to be sporadically produced until 43-42 BC, during which time (and for many years before) its "freedom" was dictated by the Romans. In 30 BC the Romans added the city to Herod's Judaean kingdom.
ΔHMOY ΓAZAIΩN is commonly translated as "of the Demos of the Gazaeans" (or similar). This would make sense if the personification so invoked was present pictorially somewhere on the coin. Instead, the head on the obverse, identified as that of Zeus by a number of numismatic authorities from as long ago as Sestini and Mionnet to the present, is sometimes seen with a sceptre behind the head, as on some (or all?) the specimens of the left-leaning double cornucopiae variety (e.g. Sofaer 30). An attribution to Demos is therefore unlikely.
The alternative interpretation "of the people of the Gazaeans" sounds awkwardly redundant to our modern ears, but is perhaps more accurate, stressing the coin was issued by "the people" and not some authority above the Gazaeans.
In reading the long version of their bold statement of autonomy (i.e. ΔHMOY ΓAZAIΩN IEΡ[AΣ] AΣY[ΛOY]), the Sofaer authors treated the legend more along the lines of an adjective: "of the Gazaean people, sacred [and] inviolable."
Sold on Forum Ancient Coins:
Rev: ΔHMOY ΓAZAIΩN (clockwise from upper right), a "branch" of two cornucopias attached to stalk-like base, both horns parallel with tops leaning left, each containing a dangling grape cluster. (This coin lay in the FORVM mystery box unattributed for 20 years!). Very rare. SOLD