Imperator Caesar Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Augustus
Reign: Marcus Aurelius
Mint: Ceretapa Diocaesarea, Phrygia
Date: probably 176/177 AD, otherwise 176/179 AD
Nominal: Bronze
Material: AE
Diameter: 35mm
Weight: 26.46g
Reference: RPC IV.2 1836 (#6 this coin)
RPC Online: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/1836
Rare: Specimens 6 (2 in the core collections)
Provenance: Concordia Numismatik Tumeltsham, Austria (Auction 5, Lot 458)
Pedigree: –
Obverse: Bare-headed bust of Commodus (youthful) wearing paludamentum, right, seen from front
Inscription: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙϹ Λ ΑΥΡ ΚΟΜΟΔΟϹ
Translation: Autokrator Kaisaros Lucios Aurelios Kommodos
Translation: Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Commodus
Reverse: To left, Zeus (emperor Marcus Aurelius) standing, right, wearing toga, holding scroll; to right, nude Heracles (youthful) standing, left, wearing lion-scalp, resting arm on club, holding lion skin; both clasping hands
Inscription: ΚƐΡƐΤΑΠƐΩΝ ΔΙΟΚΑΙϹΑΡƐΩΝ
Translation: Keretapeon Diokaisareon
Translation: City of Ceretapa Diocaesarea
Comment: Ceretapa or Keretapa, also called Diocaesarea or Diocaesareia or Diokaisareia, was a Graeco-Roman town of Phrygia Pacatiana. It minted coins bearing the demonym Κερεταπεύς. The coins also show that there was near it a river or fountain Aulindenus. It was a bishopric with Silvanus representing the city at the Council of Ephesus, 431 AD. No longer the seat a residential bishop, it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church. Its site is tentatively located near Kayadibi in Asiatic Turkey.
Coinages from Ceretapa Diocaesarea belong to the rather rare coins. The issue of coins seems to have begun under Antoninus Pius. Then further under Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, as well as a type under Caracalla. I am not aware of any further coins under subsequent emperors. Hercules seems to have been a popular motif on the reverse, initially (under Antoninus Pius) as a pair with Zeus, then later – as here on the coin – the god-father Zeus is replaced by the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Under Caracalla, an issue with Dionysus on the reverse appeared out of sequence.