The Hieromykes on a new coin type of Dion in the Decapolis and the Stygian riverscape of Southern Syria

Abstract

The article presents a new coin type from the city of Dion in the Decapolis (present-day southern Syria). It is the largest denomination of the civic coinage issued under Septimius Severus and it shows a reclining river god. The new coin type is taken as the starting point to discuss a coin type from the neighboring city of Adraa, which also shows a reclining river god identified as Hieromykes. On the coins of Adraa,a female figure sits by the river god. It is the personification of Styx. The Underworld River is localized by late antique authors in this region and thus a Stygian riverscape in southern Syria is created, to which also the coinage attests.