| Note |
The type of the trophy with two seated captives is surprising at this date. A trophy with one captive, or with one seated and one standing figure, had appeared on imperial coins during TR P XVII and XVIII (AD 172/3 – 173/4). The type with two captives was used on imperial coins of Marcus Aurelius to commemorate the defeat of either the Germans or the Sarmatians, but not until TR P XXX (10 December AD 175 to 9 December 176). So the type in Egypt preceded that at Rome, unless the imperial type of Commodus Caesar with DE GERMANIS and a trophy and two seated captives (RIC III, 605–7; 1532) was struck before the Egyptian year closed at the end of August AD 175. It is doubtful that it could be that early, as Commodus already has the title Sarmaticus, which he acquired only in the autumn of that year (according to Kienast, Eck and Heil 2017, p. 142). Alternatively, the type might have been a selective borrowing from a medallion. On medallions, the trophy with two captives type had been used already in TR P XXVII (AD 173, with the legend Germania subacta), but there the treatment of the trophy was different and it was depicted between figures of Victoria and the Emperor (Gnecchi II, no. 7–9 (pl. 59, 9–10)). So the trophy with two captives type remains surprising in Egypt as early as regnal year 15. It may be that the design was simply copied from the earlier Egyptian types of AD 165/6 which had commemorated victory in the Parthian War.
|