Roman Provincial Lydia Hyrkaneis

Hyrcanis - Hyrkaneis - MAKЄΔONΩ YPKANΩN​

Hyrkaneis/Hyrcanis was a Seleukid foundation in the Hyrcanian Plain west of Sardis, a fertile region in the Hermos Valley named after colonists from Hyrcania on the south-east shore of the Caspian Sea settled there by the Achaemenid Kings. Seleukid interest in the area arose from the need to defend their Anatolian possessions from the Galatian menace and Hyrcanis was just one of a whole number of military colonies where the Kings of Asia settled veterans to bolster local defenses.

The remarkable legends [MAKЄΔONΩ YPKANΩN] attest to the vivid awareness of the citizens of Roman Hyrcanis of their descent. As the obverse refers to the Macedonians, whereas the name of the polis on the reverse alludes to the far-away Caspian Hyrcanians. This is also mirrored in Pliny's Natural History and in Tacitus' Annals, who speak of 'the Macedones, surnamed Hyrcani [Plin. Nat. Hist. 5.31] and the Hyrcanian Macedonians, as they were called [Tac. Ann. 2.47].