Rome and the East
coins, which, like those of most other Mesopotamiancoloniae, are entirely in
Greek. The legends come in a variety of forms:ΚΟΛΩ(νία)Μ(ητρόπολις?)
Α(ὐ?)Ρ(ηλία?) orΜΑΡ(κία?)ΕΔΕΣΣΑ;ΜΑΡ ΑΥ ΑΝΤ(ωνινιανὴ)ΚΟΛ
ΕΔΕΣΣΑ;ΜΗΤ ΚΟΛ ΕΔΕΣΣΑ, and so forth; the colonial coins begin
under Elagabal, or possibly Caracalla, and continue under Severus Alexan-
der (..–) and Gordian III (..–).^176 But then, still under Gor-
dian III, we find coins with the Emperor on the obverse, and on the reverse
one figure seated on a podium and, before him, another standing figure,
wearing a high tiara and offering him a statuette. The identifications are
not left open to doubt; they are the Emperor himself and ‘‘King Abgar’’:
ΑΥΤΟΚΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟΣ,ΑΒΓΑΡΟΣΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ. Other coins with Gor-
dian on the obverse show King Abgar, riding a horse, on the reverse, or a bust
of him wearing a tiara.^177 The coins thus offer a remarkable confirmation of
the view reached by von Gutschmid in in studying the entries relating
to kings of Edessa which are scattered through the eighth-century Syriac
World-Chronicle, whose author should properly be identified as Pseudo-
Dionysius of Tell-Mahrē.^178 The text of the chronicle is now available in a
modern edition, but one only usable by fluent readers of Syriac.^179 In spite
of the excellence of von Gutschmid’s work, it should be stressed that the list
as established by him, and often subsequently quoted, was the result of ex-
tensive correction and adjustment; in particular, the chronicle plainly places
each of the later kings a couple of decades too early. The work needs to be
completely re-done in the light of subsequent documentary evidence. In the
mean time no reliance whatsoever can be placed on the numbering, or exact
dates or identities of the kings, as derived from this chronicle.
It is however clear that the list, however confused in the course of trans-
mission, does embody reflections of a genuine succession of kings known
from contemporary evidence. Von Gutschmid’s attempt to make sense of it
was in itself entirely justified. He concluded, as regards the third century,
that in..– there fell the thirty-five-year reign of a King Abgar, to
whom he gave the number IX, and whose full name was L. Aelius Septimius
Abgar. Without all the evidence being necessary here, this is essentially cor-
.BMC Mesopotamia, xciv–cvii, –.
. See H. Gesche, ‘‘Kaiser Gordian mit dem Pfeil in Edessa,’’Jahrb. f. Num. u. Geldg.
(): .
. A. von Gutschmid, ‘‘Untersuchungen über die Geschichte des Königreichs Os-
roene,’’Mémoiresdel’AcadémieImpérialedesSciencesdeSaintPétersbourg, th ser., XXXV ().
. J.-B. Chabot, ed., ‘‘Incerti Auctoris Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dic-
tum,’’CorpusScriptorumOrientalium,ScriptoresSyriIII. I–II (–). For a very useful study
of this work, see W. Witakowski,TheSyriacChronicleof Pseudo-Dionysiusof Tel-Mahrē().