Messenia, Kyparissia
Julia Domna, Augusta. 193-217 CE
AE 21.5mm 5.41g
Obv: ΙΟΥΛΙΑ ΔΟΜΝA, draped bust right
Rev. KYΠAPICCIEΩN, Dionysos standing left, holding long thyrsos and jug. Mionnet II 232
Ex Roland Dauwe Collection of 3rd Century Empresses
Pausanias wrote:
“And as you go toward Kyparissia from Pylos, there is a spring under the city close to the sea; they say the water veiled up where Dionysos struck the ground with his thyrsos, and so they call the spring Dionysias.”
Imhoof-Blumer and Gardner have speculated that this coin depicts a statue of Dionysos near that spring.