v49_0119 - CHERSONESE TAURICA - PANTICAEA Unité, (MB, Æ 21)

TAURIC CHERSONESE - PANTICAPEUM

(4th-1st century BC)

Founded in the 6th century BC, Panticapée (Kertch) was a colony of Miletus, located west of the Cimmerian Bosphorus. The head of the satyr Pan adorns the rights and constitutes a play on words with the name of the city according to the legend. In fact, it is Silene. Before being called Panticapée, the city would have borne the name of Apollonia. The coinage sometimes presents homotypes with the coinage of Apollonia Pontica. The region of Panticapée was famous for its immense reserves of gold immortalized by Herodotus (III, 116).