Noncanonical Design of "Foundation Scene" Depicted on Coins from the Uncertain Cilician Colony (20 min)

Presenters

Szymon Jellonek, University of Warsaw

Abstract

The foundation scene is one of Roman colonial coinage's most common iconographic motifs. The depiction presenting a yoke of oxen driven by a priest/ founder was almost exclusively used by the colonies. The motif introduced at the very beginning of colonial coinage barely changed over 300 years. The scene was generally presented in a vertical composition. However, there is one intriguing exception.

Only two issues are known from the unidentified colonial mint in Cilicia. They bear PRINCEPS FELIX inscriptions and a bare head of Augustus on the obverse. There are two types of reverses Athena (RPC I 4082) and a yoke of oxen (RPC I 4083). The other is unique because of the bird’s-eye perspective. It is the only known foundation scene presented from such a perspective.

In this presentation, the author attempts to explain the reason for implementing a bird’s-eye view to depict the foundation scene by using an emic approach. The engraver seems to be ordered to execute a depiction presenting the yoke of oxen, however, he had never seen a canonical foundation scene before. Therefore, the engraver chose a bird's eye view to present two oxen and a plow between them.