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Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other

Coin Portraying Emperor Antoninus Pius

Source of record: Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Canopus, a port city in the Nile Delta, was famous for an ancient sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, god of vegetation and rebirth. His worship included a procession of his priests carrying jars filled with Nile water, the symbol of fertility. The jars, as depicted on this coin, were topped with the head of Osiris, here shown in profile, with an elaborate headdress. Emperor Antoninus Pius, who issued the coin, never set foot in Egypt, but he used this imagery to honor one of Egypt’s ancient traditions. The date this coin was struck is indicated in the back inscription " B ", which means the second year of the emperor's reign, or 138-139 CE. Antoninus Pius reigned as emperor from 138-161 CE.

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1

English description

Obverse: [AVT K T AIΛ AΔΡ ANTΩNINOC EV CEB] Reverse: ETO-VC B

Connections

Deities Osiris

Cross-references (1)

  • ARTIC-id 62850 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.