Rare evidence for the appearance of Paionian kings and cavalry?

[Sarissa336]

Hi Everyone,

Nicholas L. Wright provides an illustration of a tetradrachm from the reign of the Paionian King Patraos which clearly shows a horseman on the reverse side (possibly the King himself) in crested helmet and corselet with pteryges. You can see this image at p. 3 of his paper:

https://www.academia.edu/1502593/The_horseman_and_the_warrior_Paionia_and_Macedonia_in_the_fourth_century_BC

There are other images of this coin elsewhere on the internet which seem to confirm these armour details, occasionally with greater clarity, such as:

http://macedonianissues.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/macedonian-names-and-makedonski-pseudo.html (scroll half way down the page for the coin. This time the horseman can be observed in a crested helmet with long sleeved tunic and corselet, showing shoulder guards and pteryges).

Keeping this in mind, I was struck to discover that there is a very rare example of another Paionian tetradrachm, this time depicting the otherwise unknown Paionian King Teutamados, who appears to have reigned during the second half of the 4th century BC. The best image for this I could find is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/antiquitiesproject/6576380263/

The horseman on the reverse shows a portrait of the King himself carrying a light spear. He wears some obscure form of helmet / headgear (or even bouffant hairstyle?), with a pointed beard. He also seems to be wearing a long-sleeved tunic on top of a scale (?) corselet, with discernable shoulder guards and pteryges. The thickness of the leg perhaps even suggests baggy trousers or chaps of some form (!?)

I've never seen this striking coin image before. Has anyone come across it? You can read a little more about it here:

http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/Archive/8?&id=220&type=a

cheers,

David

[Duncan Head]

The Wright article is very interesting. Back when I wrote AMPW I thought there was just one Paionian coin showing the combat scene. Subsequently I found out that there were several different variants on the same theme, with differences not only in the appearance of the horseman but in the dress and equipment of his victim - as Wright discusses. His other Paionian coins article is available at http://www.numismatics.org.au/pdfjournal/Vol22/Vol%2022%20Article%202.pdf - it says much the same thing.

Teutamados I am wary of, because the name appears to be Celtic. That the Balkan Celts imitated Macedonian coins is well known, and my first thought was that they may have done the same with Paionian coins. And a quick Google brings up http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/25375223/orchid-grower-unearths-new-king: I haven't read the article, but the summary suggests "Teutamados was not a Greek king, but a Celtic king who was given the throne of Paionia". But neither source so far says where the coin was found, as far as I can see, so do we know that Teutamados actually ruled in Paionia at all?

[Sarissa336]

Yes, the Wright articles are very interesting and persuasive. I found this other article listed on the internet which seems to argue that Teutamados did rule in Paionia, but I haven't as yet read this piece so I don't know the character of supportive evidence:

Kretz, R. "Teutamados – A New King of Paionia" in Numismatic Circular CXIV.5 (October 2006)

Also this, written originally for Macedoniae Acta Archaeologica by E. Pavlovska-Darkovska, accessible via:

https://www.academia.edu/675954/_-_Tetradrachm_of_Teutamadus_-_Unknown_Paeonian_Ruler_

It has an English language summary (p.189) which theorises ("it can be assumed") that Teutamados did rule Paionia, although the provenance of the coin does seem to be obscure.  I guess this still remains a bit of a mystery - unless of course Kretz has something more substantial to offer.