DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0059
34 II. LAODICEIA : THE GRAECO-ROMAN CITY.
Zeus Aseis is, on the coins, represented along with a goat. Later
coins, which show a bearded god, supporting a child on his left arm
and extending his right to the horns of a goat, may be assumed to
commemorate the same deityl. The birth of a god was therefore
the subject of a cult-legend of Laodiceia. Another coin shows the
infant god in the arms of a woman, while three armed male figures,
standing around, beat their shields with their swords; but it is
doubtful whether this type has not been to some extent influenced
by the hellenizing tendency and assimilated to the Cretan legend2.
The child is no doubt Sabazios-Dionysos 3, son of Zeus and Perse-
phone; and, as M. Foucart remarks (Assoc. Relig. p. 69), 'we need
hardly say that Zeus and Persephone are not the real names of these
gods, but Hellenic equivalents.' The father and the son, however, are
merely complementary forms of the single ultimate form of the
divinity as male (Ch. III).
Personal names sometimes give valuable evidence of nationality,
but too few at Laodiceia are known. Molossos, no. 12, and Seitalkas
may be Macedonian, unless they point to a settlement of Thracian
mercenaries made by the Pergamenian kings in the Lycos valley to
counterbalance the colonists of Laodiceia, who were attached to the
Seleucid kings4. Such soldiers, originally settled at Tripolis (Ch. V
App. Ill), might spread over the valley in later times. Seitalkas, who
were sometimes planted in the Seleucid coins of the second century with Diony-
colonies of Asia. Seleucus Nikator had siac types, in one case a cornucopia on
placed many Jews in them even before which sits an infant holding a bunch of
Laodiceia was founded (and Antiochus grapes in the right hand. The infant
the Great did so afterwards): Josephus then is Dionysos, and Dionysius chose
Ant. Jud. XII 3 'Ev als ticnae 7r6\eaiv from the city-religion a type that suited
(V rij 'Acri'a Kai Ttj Kara) 2vpia kcu iw avrfj his name. The same child-god seems
7-17 jirjrpcmoXu 'Awio^eia iroKiTelas ainovs to have played a part ill the divine
Tisane, kcl\ rois ivoiKiade'icnv laoripovs drama at Hierapolis; but on its coins
d;7<F<5fi£f MaxfSoVi m\ "EWijctiv, a>f n)i> mother and infant are represented on
TroXiTeiav TavTrjv in xai vvv huipivuv. the analogy of Eirene and Ploutos.
1 Imhoof MG p. 407. On the goat Such Greek ideas must not be taken as
see Ch. IV § 12 g. giving the real nature of the deities.
2 According to Orac. Sib. V l3of, Imhoof MG p. 403.
Rhea came (from Crete) to Phrygia and * Macedonian colonists were charac-
settled there. Aios roved, i. e. the cir- teristic of Seleucid cities (see Sehuch-
cumstances connected with the birth hardt's excellent article in Alh. JSlitth.
of Zeus, is the legend accompanying a 1SS8 p. 1 f); while the Pergamenian
similar type on a coin of Tralleis (Head kings often used Thracian mercenaries
Hist. Num. p. 555). called Tralleis or Traleis, Hist. Qeogr.
3 On Sabazios see Ch. IX § 5. P. p. 112, Friinkel Jnsrhr. Perg. 1 no. 13,
Aelius Dionysius Sabinianus (hardly p. 16.
an imperial freedman § 21) appears on
Zeus Aseis is, on the coins, represented along with a goat. Later
coins, which show a bearded god, supporting a child on his left arm
and extending his right to the horns of a goat, may be assumed to
commemorate the same deityl. The birth of a god was therefore
the subject of a cult-legend of Laodiceia. Another coin shows the
infant god in the arms of a woman, while three armed male figures,
standing around, beat their shields with their swords; but it is
doubtful whether this type has not been to some extent influenced
by the hellenizing tendency and assimilated to the Cretan legend2.
The child is no doubt Sabazios-Dionysos 3, son of Zeus and Perse-
phone; and, as M. Foucart remarks (Assoc. Relig. p. 69), 'we need
hardly say that Zeus and Persephone are not the real names of these
gods, but Hellenic equivalents.' The father and the son, however, are
merely complementary forms of the single ultimate form of the
divinity as male (Ch. III).
Personal names sometimes give valuable evidence of nationality,
but too few at Laodiceia are known. Molossos, no. 12, and Seitalkas
may be Macedonian, unless they point to a settlement of Thracian
mercenaries made by the Pergamenian kings in the Lycos valley to
counterbalance the colonists of Laodiceia, who were attached to the
Seleucid kings4. Such soldiers, originally settled at Tripolis (Ch. V
App. Ill), might spread over the valley in later times. Seitalkas, who
were sometimes planted in the Seleucid coins of the second century with Diony-
colonies of Asia. Seleucus Nikator had siac types, in one case a cornucopia on
placed many Jews in them even before which sits an infant holding a bunch of
Laodiceia was founded (and Antiochus grapes in the right hand. The infant
the Great did so afterwards): Josephus then is Dionysos, and Dionysius chose
Ant. Jud. XII 3 'Ev als ticnae 7r6\eaiv from the city-religion a type that suited
(V rij 'Acri'a Kai Ttj Kara) 2vpia kcu iw avrfj his name. The same child-god seems
7-17 jirjrpcmoXu 'Awio^eia iroKiTelas ainovs to have played a part ill the divine
Tisane, kcl\ rois ivoiKiade'icnv laoripovs drama at Hierapolis; but on its coins
d;7<F<5fi£f MaxfSoVi m\ "EWijctiv, a>f n)i> mother and infant are represented on
TroXiTeiav TavTrjv in xai vvv huipivuv. the analogy of Eirene and Ploutos.
1 Imhoof MG p. 407. On the goat Such Greek ideas must not be taken as
see Ch. IV § 12 g. giving the real nature of the deities.
2 According to Orac. Sib. V l3of, Imhoof MG p. 403.
Rhea came (from Crete) to Phrygia and * Macedonian colonists were charac-
settled there. Aios roved, i. e. the cir- teristic of Seleucid cities (see Sehuch-
cumstances connected with the birth hardt's excellent article in Alh. JSlitth.
of Zeus, is the legend accompanying a 1SS8 p. 1 f); while the Pergamenian
similar type on a coin of Tralleis (Head kings often used Thracian mercenaries
Hist. Num. p. 555). called Tralleis or Traleis, Hist. Qeogr.
3 On Sabazios see Ch. IX § 5. P. p. 112, Friinkel Jnsrhr. Perg. 1 no. 13,
Aelius Dionysius Sabinianus (hardly p. 16.
an imperial freedman § 21) appears on