HADRIAN, AD 117-138. Æ As

HADRIAN, AD 117-138. Æ As (25 mm, 9.61 g, 6 h). Rome mint, struck AD 124-125 for circulation in Seleucis and Pieria (Antioch region). Obv. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS – Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev. COS III – Tyche of Antioch seated left on rocky outcrop, wearing turreted crown and holding a bunch of grain ears; below, the river-god Orontes swims left; S • C across fields. References. RIC II.3 750; RPC II 3756; McAlee 544. Even olive-brown patina with lighter earthen highlights; well-centered and sharply struck, showing full detail in Tyche’s turreted mural crown and the prowling Orontes.

Although struck in Rome, this as was destined for Syria’s great metropolis of Antioch in Seleucis and Pieria. Hadrian’s reverse adapts the famous bronze statue by Eutychides (a pupil of Lysippos): Tyche personifies the city, seated on its mountain crags while the river Orontes flows at her feet. By issuing the type with his own titulature (COS III, third consulship), Hadrian projected imperial patronage over the prosperous eastern port, signalling that the stability of Antioch—and the grain trade symbolized by her wheat—rested on Rome’s protection. The coin is an early example of the localized “provincial” bronzes Rome occasionally produced for regions whose civic identities were too strong to ignore.