Numismatikforum

Und nochmal hallo,

weiß jemand, warum über der Mauerkrone der Kybele ein Widder dargestellt ist? Solche Münzen sind finde ich zwar hochinteressant, aber immer nur dann, wenn man auch weiß, was wirklich ausgesagt werden soll.

Kiko

Der Widder (hier über Tyche) ist typisch für Antiochia, und wahrscheinlich das Symbol der dort stationierten Legion.

Danke für die doppelte Aufklärung!

Nochmal zum Widder. Die Erklärungs mit der Legion liest man zwar oft, sie ist aber vielleicht nicht richtig.

Prieur zitiert Müller als Erklärung zum Widder. Er schreibt: " ...this is the sign of the zodiac for the month in which Antioch was founded"

So wie der Adler soll also auch der Widder mit der Gründung Antiochias zusammenhängen.

Da der Widder beispielsweise auch bei antiocheischen Tempelmotiven erscheint dürfte ein Bezug zur hiesigen Legion wohl ausgeschlossen werden können.
Ansonsten gilt wohl Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), wie es shanxi ja bereits festgestellt hat:
This was not the first city founded by a Macedonian prince near this place. Antigonus, in B.C. 307, founded Antigonia, a short distance further up the river, for the purpose of commanding both Egypt and Babylonia. (Diod. xx. p.758.) But after the battle of Ipsus, B.C. 301, the city of Antigonus was left unfinished, and Antioch was founded by his successful rival. The sanction of auguries was sought for the establishment of the new metropolis. Like Romulus on the Palatine, Seleucus is said to have watched the flight [p. 1.143]of birds from the summit of Mount Casius. An eagle carried a fragment of the flesh of the sacrifice to a point on the sea-shore, a little to the north of the mouth of the Orontes; and there Seleuceia was built. Soon after, an eagle decided in the same manner that the metropolis of Seleucus was not to be Antigonia, by carrying the flesh to the hill Silpius. Between this hill and the river the city of Antioch was founded in the spring of the year 300 B.C., the 12th of the era of the Seleuidae. This legend is often represented on coins of Antioch by an eagle, which sometimes carries the thigh of a victim. On many coins (as that engraved below) we see a ram, which is often combined with a star, thus indicating the vernal sign of the zodiac, under which the city was founded, and reminding us at the same time of the astrological propensities of the people of Antioch. (See Eckhel, Descriptio Numorum Antiochiae Syriae, Vienna, 1786 ; Vaillant, Seleucidarum Imperium, sive Historia Regum Syriae, ad fidem numismatum accommodate. Paris, 1681.)
MfG