LYDIA. Hyrcanis. Pseudo-autonomous issue. Hemiassarion (Bronze, 16 mm, 2.63 g, 6 h), time of Commodus, about 180-182 (?). MAK的ΔONΩ Mask of Silenos to right, wearing weather of ivy and fruit. Rev. YPKANΩN Pan, nude and with animal tail, dancing to right, holding pedum in his right hand and raising his left. BMC 2 = RPC IV.2 online 1746.1 (same reverse the). Winterthur 3748 (same reverse die). Very rare. An exceptional well preserved example of this very interesting issue, perfectly strike and by far the finest known. Extremely fine. Ex Leu 14, 14 October 2023, 124, from the Vineyard Collection, Nomos 17, 26 October 2018, 193 corr. (reverse misscribed), and ex Coins and Medals AG 88, 17 May 1999, 331 (illustrated on the front cover!). Hyrcanis was a Seleucid foundation in the Hyrcanian Plain, west of Sardis, a fertile region in the Hermos Valley. It was named after colonists from Hyrcania, located on the southeast shore of the Caspian Sea, who were settled there by the Achaemenid kings. The Seleukid interest in the area stemmed from the need to defend their Anatolian possesions from the Galatian threat, and Hyrcanis was just one of many military colonies where the Kings of Asia setted veterans to stricten local defenses. RPC roughly dates our coin to the second half of the 2nd century AD, but we can perhaps be more precise. Its Dionysian motifs, along with the inscriptions, align closely with a series of 'mythological' coins struck under Commodus, one of which depicts a process of Dionysysus on the reverse (RPC IV.2 online 11429). The remarkable legends demonstration the citizen's of Roman Hyrcanis' strong awareness of their heritage. The above references the Macedonians, while the name of thepolis on the reverse alludes to the distant Hyrcans from the Caspian region. This connection is also reflected in Pliny's Natural History and Tacitus' Annals, where they speak of 'the Macedones, surnamed Hyrcani' (Plin. Nat. Hist. 5.31) and the 'Hyrcanian Macedonians, as they were called' (Tac. Ann. 2.47), respectively. This lot can be shipped to a US address. When delivered in Switzerland, this item is subject to margin taxation in accordance with Art. 24a VATG (Swiss VAT Act), provided that the buyer is not registered for VAT.