A Numismatic Perspective on the Architecture of North and West Pontic Cities in the 1st-3rd Centuries AD. Defensive Systems.

Abstract

The coins of the Greek cities of the Roman era (the so-called “provincial coins”) become an important source of information about the issuing ancient city through the historical and architectural themes illustrated on their reverse. They allow not only the detection or nuancing of some events, which the passage of time has largely made forgotten, but also show the ancient monuments to the current researcher, unspoiled by the passage of time, in the splendour of the era of their construction. In this work, part of a wider project, we want to address a category of monuments illustrated by provincial coins from the north and west Pontic area, respectively that of defensive constructions, which were included in the composition of the fortified enclosures of the cities from this area. City gates (often monumental or triumphal), portions of walls, and even entire urban enclosures are themes frequently illustrated by the coin engravers in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. In the following, the monetary issues, which illustrate defensive edifices of the cities of Thrace (Anchialos, Augusta Traiana, Byzie, Hadrianopolis) and Moesia Inferior (Callatis, Marcianopolis, Nicopolis ad Istrum, Tomis) or those of the Bosporan Kingdom, will be analysed from a constructive point of view, as well as from a broader historico-geographical perspective.