COLOSSAE is an ancient city waitingto be unearthed by archaeologists,

and it is not just any old city but the cityto which Saint Paul wrote one of his mostinspiring letters. Who knows whatwonders will be revealed and how ourknowledge of early Christianity will beincreased? Although Colossae is buried,the coins that were minted there areknown by numismatists and give us aninsight into the life of the city.As a general principle, if a city issued a

coin featuring a particular god or goddessthat deity would have been worshippedin the city and there would have been atemple or shrine to that deity in the city.On the coins of Colossae several deitiesare shown, and the archaeologists will beexpecting to find evidence of their cultswhen they begin excavating the site. Mostof the coins that the archaeologists willfind, however, will be coins that were notminted in the city but circulated widelyin the region. In fact, of the two coinsfound so far just lying on the surfaceone was a billon antoninianus minted atRome in 265-7 AD with the bust of Sal-

onina on the obverse (Sear, RomanCoins, Vol. III, 10633) and the other wasa so-called anonymous follis minted atConstantinople in about 1045 AD (Sear,Byzantine Coins, 1825). This meagre

numismatic finding accords with the city’shistory, that it was in the Roman Empireand then the Byzantine Empire until itwas abandoned in the 12th century.The earliest coins attributed to the city

are two small bronze coins. There is noindication of the date except that on thereverse the Greek word ΚΟΛΟΣΣΗΝΩΝ(of the Colossians) is spelt with Σ, not C.The change to C occurred on coins inabout the first century AD, so these coinsof Colossae would have been mintedbefore that date and they are generallyallocated to the late 2nd or 1st century BC.On the obverse of one of these early

coins there is the laureate head of Zeuswith his symbol, a thunderbolt, on the

COLOSSAETheBuriedCity

by Peter E. Lewis

Figure 4 –View of the Lycus valley showing the mound of Colossae. (Photo courtesy of Todd Bolen / BiblePlaces.com) Overlapping: Reverseof bronze coin from the time of Commodus showing a quadriga. Von Aulock, Phryg. II, 498. (Source: Triton V, January 2002, lot 1737)

Figure 1 – Bronze coin of Colossae with thehead of Zeus on the obverse and a wingedthunderbolt on the reverse. 20 mms diam.Sear 5131. (Source: CNG Electronic Auction206, March 2009, lot 166)

Figure 2 – Bronze coin of Colossae with theradiate head of Apollo/Helios on the obverseand a lyre on the reverse. 14 mms diam.?unpublished. (Source: Münzen & MedaillenAuction 21, May 2007, lot 723)

Figure 3 – Map of the Maeander and Lycus Rivers.

reverse (Figure 1). On the obverse of theother coin there is the radiate head of agod (Figure 2) and such an image wouldpreviously have been recognized as thatof Helios, the sun god, but by this timeHelios was being identified with Apollo,the god of light. That the god on the coinis Apollo/Helios is suggested by the lyre,the symbol of Apollo, on the reverse. Orig-inally in Greek mythology Apollo wasdifferent from Helios but as this coinsuggests he was later identified with him.Colossae is in the valley of the Lycus

River about 200 kms east of Ephesus(Figure 3 – map). Today it is just a largemound (Figure 4) but in the 5th centuryBC Herodotus in his Histories (Book 7,Section 30) described Colossae as ‘aPhrygian city of great size’. In the firstcentury BC Strabo in his Geography(12.8.13) called it a ‘polisma’, which wastranslated as ‘a small city’, but recentlyscholars think the word just means ‘acity’. The fact that no coins were issued byColossae in the first century AD sugges-ted that it was a small city of no import-ance and that the neighbouring cities ofLaodicea and Hierapolis had drained the

life out of it. An earthquake in the reg-ion in 60 AD, which was recorded byTacitus in his Annals (14.27.1), wasthought to have compounded the city’sdecline. But an Australian scholar, DrAllan Cadwallader, has refuted this con-cept. In a chapter entitled ‘Refuting anaxiom of scholarship on Colossae: freshinsights from new and old inscriptions’in the book that he edited with DrMichael Trainor, Colossae in Space andTime (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Rup-recht, 2011), he argued that the citycontinued to be prosperous. As evidencehe described a stone altar that had beenfound at the site and dated to the 1st

century AD. On it 66 names are listed ashaving contributed 1050 denarii for therepair of the city baths. Also he pointedout that 158 different coins have so farbeen attributed to Colossae up to thereign of Gallienus (253 – 268 AD) andalthough fewer than attributed to someother cities it is still a significant num-ber. Most of the coins of Colossae werecatalogued in 1987 by Hans von Aulockin Münzen und Städte Phrygiens II. Dr Cadwallader thinks that the em-

peror Hadrian (117 -138 AD) might havevisited the city on his travels. A bust ofhis wife, Sabina, appears on a coin ofColossae with Artemis on the reverse(Figure 5). Artemis was the sister of

Apollo, and the coin confirms that theircult was still strong at Colossae. Althoughthe emperor’s name does not appear onit, a coin with the radiate head of Helioson the obverse and a recumbent river-god on the reverse (Figure 6) has beenallocated to the time of Hadrian. A coinwith the bust of Sarapis on the obverseand the figure of Hygea (Health) on thereverse (Figure 7) has been allocated tothe time of Antoninus Pius (138-162 AD).Sarapis (Serapis is the more commonspelling in Latin texts) was an Egyptiangod who wore a modius, a vessel formeasuring grain, on his head. He hadbeen created by Ptolemy I (305-283 BC)to appeal to his Greek and Egyptiansubjects. The bust of L. Aelius Caesar (136-138

AD) occurs on the obverse of a coin withthe cult statue of Artemis of Ephesusbetween two stags on the reverse. A

Figure 5 – Bronze coin of Hadrian with thebust of Sabina on the obverse and Artemis onthe reverse. 20 mms diam. Von Aulock, Phryg.II, 549. (Source: Lindgren III, Ancient GreekBronze Coins from the Lindgren Collection,by H.C. Lindgren, 574)

Figure 6 – Bronze coin from the time ofHadrian with the radiate head of Apollo/He-lios on the obverse and a recumbent river-godon the reverse. 16 mms diam. Von Aulock,Phryg. II, 452. (Image courtesy of TomVossen, www.vcoins.com/tomvossen)

Figure 7 – Bronze coin from the time ofAntoninus Pius with the bust of Sarapis onthe obverse and Hygea standing and feeding asnake from a patera on the reverse. 20 mmsdiam. BMC 2. (Source: Gorny & Mosch Auction204, lot 1805)

Figure 8 – Bronze coin from the time ofCommodus as Caesar with the bust of Demoson the obverse and the cult statue of ArtemisEphesia on the reverse. 30 mms diam. VonAulock, Phryg. II, 507. (Collection of StJohn’s Cathedral, Brisbane. Image used withpermission.)

Figure 9 – Bronze coin from the time of Com-modus with the head of Demos on the obverseand Helios in a quadriga on the reverse. 31mms diam. Von Aulock, Phryg. II, 498. (Source:Triton V, January 2002, lot 1737)

Figure 10 – Bronze coin with the bust ofCommodus on the obverse and Artemis drivinga biga of stags on the reverse. 35 mms diam.BMC 14. (Source: CNG Electronic Auction224, December 2009, lot 417)

similar coin (Figure 8) with Demos (thepeople) on the obverse has been allocatedto the time of Commodus as Caesar(175-177 AD). No doubt these coins wereissued to promote the cult of Artemis byidentifying the Artemis worshipped atColossae with the Artemis worshippedat Ephesus in the great temple which wasone of the seven wonders of the ancientworld.

The head of Marcus Aurelius as Cae-sar (139-161 AD) appears on the obverseof a coin with Artemis running andholding a bow on the reverse. In Greekmythology she was a huntress who ranwith the stags. A coin of Commodus hasthe bust of Demos on the obverse, and onthe reverse there is Helios in a quadrigawith the name of the magistrate, Apoll-onius, in the legend (Figure 9). Othercoins with Commodus on the obversehave Artemis driving a biga of stags onthe reverse (Figure 10) or holding a stagby its antlers (Figure 11). A large cointhat Dr Cadwallader thinks is particu-larly significant has the bust of Comm-odus on the obverse and the Tyche (citygoddess) of Colossae holding handswith the Tyche of Aphrodisias on thereverse (Figure 12). Aphrodisias was alarge, prosperous city just to the south-

west, and the coin celebrates an alliancebetween the two cities. Dr Cadwalladerconsiders that the coin shows how impor-tant Colossae was at the time. The coins of Colossae mostly relate to

the cult of Apollo/Helios and Artemis,and seem to have been fairly numerousin the second century. One wonderswhether this output was intended tocounter the growing popularity of Chris-tianity in the area. The worship of Isiswas also growing in popularity in theRoman Empire, but her cult was sanc-tioned in Rome, and Colossae issued acoin, probably in the 3rd century, thathas the bust of Sarapis on the obverseand the standing figure of Isis holdinga sistrum (rattle) and a situla (bucket)on the reverse (Figure 13). Isis was orig-inally from Egypt and it seems she waspopular even in Colossae. The archaeologists will probably be

able to throw light on all these matterswhen they begin excavating at Colos-sae. A team from Flinders University inAdelaide is expecting to work on theproject, but just when this will be hasyet to be determined. When the archaeol-ogists start digging, Christians aroundthe world will be eager to know theirfindings. But what did Paul say in hisletter to the Colossians? Well, you canread it yourself in the Bible. It comesafter his letter to the Philippians in theNew Testament

Figure 11 – Bronze coin with the bust ofCommodus on the obverse and Artemis hold-ing the antler of a stag on the reverse. 35 mmsdiam. Von Aulock, Phryg. II, 575. (Collectionof St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane. Image usedwith permission.)

Figure 12 – Bronze coin of Commodus withhis bust on the obverse and the Tyches ofColossae and Aphrodisias holding hands onthe reverse. 34 mms diam. (Source: CNGElectronic Auction 115, May 2005, 248)

Figure 13 – Bronze coin of Colossae with thebust of Sarapis on the obverse and the figureof Isis on the reverse. BMC 6. 20 mms diam.(Source: Ancient Bronze Coins of Asia Minorand the Levant from the Lindgren Collection,by H.C. Lindgren and F.L. Kovacs, 929)

Figure 14- Aerial view of the mound of Colossae. (Photo courtesy of Dr Alan Cadwallader)

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