Appia, Phrygia
Trajan 98-117 CE
Caius Plô. Polliο, Strategos
AE 10g 23mm
Obv: Laureate head of Trajan right. ΑΥ ΚΑ ΝЄ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟ Є ΓЄ ΔΑΚΙΚΟ.
Rev: Cybele seated left, holding patera and resting elbow on drum, lion at her feet left. ΑΙ ΓΑ ΠΛΩ ΠΩΛΛΙΩΝΟ Τ Β ΑΠΠΙΑΝΩΝ,
RPC III, 2625
Like many smaller Roman cities that minted coinage in Asia Minor, little is known about Appia. It was mentioned by Pliny the Elder, who stated it was in the conventus of Synnada. Its coinage is rare, though appears to have been minted over a relatively long period – from Nero to Philip I. Most of the reverses are typical of provincials, though interestingly it appears that only under Trajan was Kybele depicted.
It is possible that Trajan went through Phrygia on his way to the Parthian War, though it’s unlikely he went through Appia itself.
The worship of Kybele was definitely not new under Trajan, and is a ubiquitous theme for Phrygian coinage. However, there does appear to be an uptick in the reverse during his time. This may be more likely due to the expansion of civic coinage under Trajan, and the answer could be simply that it was common for cities to hire the same engravers (and in some cases used the same reverse dies), and so it was natural for those engravers to use similar subjects.