Serdica in Thracia, 198-217 AD., Caracalla, Tetrassarion, Ruzicka 170.
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Serdica in Thracia, Caracalla, 198-217 AD.,
Tetrassarion / 4 Assaria / Æ 30 (26-29 mm / 16,85 g), brass(?), axes medal alignment ↑↑ (ca. 0°),
Obv.: AVT K M AVP - ANTΩNINOC , laureate head of Caracalla facing right.
Rev.: OYΛΠIAC - C[E]PΔIKHC , Apollo Iatros, slender figure (23,5 mm high), naked, standing left, leaning forwards, right foot turned in, left foot straight, leaning on serpent-entwined staff with right arm and resting left hand on hip; behind him, a small, young (child-form), naked figure of Telesphoros (or small Apollo or Asklepios ?) standing left, raising r. arm (and offering Apollo an uncertain medical object?).
Leon Ruzicka, The Coinage of Serdica, 170 ; Ruzicka, Num.Z. 48 (1915) p. 34, no. 170 (obv. Pl. I, rev. Pl. IV.) (2 pieces (?) listed: Berlin. Pick, Num. Zeitschr. XXIII (1891) 62 and 23, Mandl collection) . object?).
In Apollo's role as a healer, his appellations included Acesius (ἈκÎσιος, Akesios, from ἄκεσις, "healing"), Acestor (ἈκÎστωÏ, AkestÅr, literally "healer"), Paean (Παιάν, PaiÄn, from παίειν, "to touch"), and Iatrus (ἸατÏός, IÄtros, literally "physician").
Iatros is just the Greek word for a doctor, a medical doctor. Apollo himself was inherently medicus.
Patricia Lawrence about the smaller figure on the reverse on http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=51500.0 : "I don't know, and perhaps we never shall know for the Serdica coins."
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