Tab Vind 2,154, RPC 1651 and the Provenance of Philippians

Tab. Vind. 2.154, RPC 1651, and the Provenance of Philippians1 Paul A. Holloway Sewanee, Tennessee USA I would like to consider two pieces of material evidence relevant to the interpretation of Philippians. The first is Vindolanda Tablet (Tab. Vind.) 2.154, a troop strength report from the Roman garrison at Vindolanda in the north of England dating from between 92 to 97 C.E. It was kindly brought to my attention by Sandra Bingham of the University of Edinburgh in a personal email this past April. The second is RPC 1651, a small copper coin that was issued at Philippi for much of the first and second centuries C.E. The first piece of evidence will clarify a point of language in Paul's letter. The second will say something about Philippi itself. Both pieces of evidence promise to cast light on the provenance of the letter. 1. It was not uncommon for ancient letters to indicate the date when they were written—or more correctly the date when they were sent—and in a few instances also the place. Peter White estimates about fifteen percent of Cicero's letters contain a dateline,2 while Cicero himself remarks that Atticus included a dateline in nearly all of his letters.3 According to Suetonius, Augustus included not only the date but the hour in which a letter was sent.4 The typical form a dateline took can be illustrated from Cicero, Fam. 12.16 (= 328 SB), which concludes: D(ata) VIII Kal(endas) Iun(ias) Athensis, "Mailed May 25th from Athens." The modern interpreter of Paul's letters is, of course, not so lucky. Paul never included a dateline in any of his letters, and we are only sometimes able to assign a place of writing (though never a firm date) on the basis of internal evidence. Here then is the relevant evidence from Philippians, most of which will be familiar enough. Paul is in prison awaiting trial on capital charges. The city in which he is being held has an established community of Christ-believers. Most of these are supportive, but a number are opposed to Paul. The latter, Paul claims, have stepped up their efforts at proclamation, he says, out of jealousy and spite, "imagining that they raise up affliction to my bonds."5 1 This paper was read at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in San Diego in November 2014. It offers preliminary reflections on materials that I plan to discuss in more detail in my forthcoming commentary on Philippians for the Hermeneia series. 2 Cicero in Letters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 75-6. 3 Att. 3.23.1 = 68 SB. 4 Aug. 50. 5 Phil 1:15-17. 1 Paul has apparently been in prison for some time—a point often overlooked by commentators—since he complains that the Philippians have been slow in sending to his aid,6 a delay of sufficient length to have caused offense were it not for the fact that they "lacked opportunity,"7 presumably meaning that they could not find a trustworthy carrier.8 Part of the reason for the delay may also have lain in the length and difficulty of the journey from Philippi, since Epaphroditus, the person finally charged with carrying the Philippians' gift, fell ill along the way but pressed on becoming critically ill in the process.9 Epaphroditus has since recovered and Paul is sending him back with the present letter.10 Paul plans to send Timothy when he knows something more definite about his case,11 and he claims to be "confident in the Lord" that he will himself be free to visit Philippi in the near future—which in this case probably means "I doubt you'll ever see me again."12 2. The traditional view is that Paul wrote Philippians in Rome, but Caesarea Maritima has also been reasonably proposed. According to Acts Paul was imprisoned awaiting trial in both of these cities, and while much of Acts is novelistic, there is good reason to accept these claims, since Paul in Roman custody does little to support the author of Acts's larger thesis that Paul received a positive reception from gentiles.13 There will also have been opposition to Paul from other Christ-believers in either of these locations, though perhaps the alleged motives of jealousy and spite noted above fit better with Rome where Paul was by his own admission an interloper.14 That said, deciding between Rome and Caesarea probably makes little actual difference for the interpretation of Philippians, since in either case Philippians will be one of Paul's last letters, and since for all practical 6 Prisoners in Roman custody typically paid for their own upkeep. Jens-Uwe Krause, Gefängnisse im römischen Reich (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1996); S. Arband, W. Macheiner, C. Colpe, "Gefangenschaft," RAC 9:318-45; cf. Brian Rapske, The Book of Acts and Paul in Roman Custody (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Carlisle: Pater Noster, 1994) 209-16; Richard J. Cassidy, Paul in Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul (New York: Crossroads, 2001) 124-42. 7 Phil 4:10. 8 The difficulty in finding a reliable carrier for a letter, not to mention for money and other goods, is well known; see, for instance, the evidence collected in John L. White, Light from Ancient Letters (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) 215. 9 Most commentators simply assume that Epaphroditus fell ill after arriving in the city of Paul's imprisonment. But according to 2:27, 30 Epaphroditus's initial illness as well as its critical worsening were due to his efforts to reach Paul with the Philippians' gift, implying that Epaphroditus fell ill on the way and then continued on at some risk to his health. It is also noteworthy that while the Philippians had received word of Epaphroditus's condition (2:26), they did not know just how bad it had become (2:27a), suggesting that someone traveling in the opposite direction had passed Epaphroditus on the road when he was in the initial stages of his illness and had brought news of this back to Philippi. This fact is important in determining the distance between Paul and Philippi. It is also important in calculating the number of implied trips between Paul and Philippi, as we shall see below. 10 Phil 2:25, 27. 11 Phil 2:19, 23. 12 Phil 2:24. Paul's plan to send Timothy may be taken at face value. However, his professed confidence in the Lord that he himself will be able to visit soon should be read as an echo of his earlier effort at 1:25-26 to allay the Philippians' fears that he may be executed—effectively withdrawn at 1:27 and then explicitly contradicted at 2:17-18. 13 Pervo, Acts, 552-53. 14 Rom 15:20. 2 purposes Caesarea and Rome were merely two phases in the same lengthy incarceration beginning in Judea and ending in Rome. There is also a case to be made that Paul was imprisoned for a time in Ephesus.15 This has been a particularly attractive alternative to scholars who partition Philippians,16 since the more exchanges between Paul and the Philippians one assumes—Reumann manages to discover ten!17—the more difficult it is to imagine Paul as far away as Rome or Caesarea. But even if one allows for a lengthy Ephesian imprisonment, which must remain uncertain, it is unlikely that Philippians was written there, since the letter contains no reference the Jerusalem collection, which was foremost on Paul's mind during his stay in Ephesus, and to which the Macedonian churches were to make a significant contribution.18 The difficulty in finding a letter carrier and the resulting delay in sending to Paul's support, as well as the difficulties of Epaphroditus's journey also argue against an Ephesian provenance. Other locations are theoretically possible, since Paul claims to have been jailed on multiple occasions,19 although it is doubtful that any of these was a lengthy imprisonment in anticipation of a capital trial as Philippians requires.20 3. A key piece of evidence in determining the provenance of Philippians is Paul's boast in 1:13 that his witness has spread ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ πραιτωρίῳ, "in the whole πραιτώριον." The Greek πραιτώριον transliterates the Latin praetorium, which was originally used to refer to a Roman general's tent or camp headquarters and then by extension to members of his staff such as his military council or personal bodyguard. By the late Republic the term was used to refer to a military governor's residential compound as well as its guardsmen. Eventually, of course, it denoted the imperial guard in Rome established by Augustus.21 It has been suggested that πραιτώριον in Phil 1:13 refers to an official building, such as the residence of a provincial governor, as it does for instance in Acts 23:35.22 If this is the case, then Philippians was almost certainly written from Caesarea, since it is unthinkable that imperial buildings in Rome during the early Principate would have borne mili- 15 The principal arguments for an Ephesian provenance were set forth at the beginning of last century by Paul Feine, Die Abfassung des Philipperbriefes in Ephesus mit einer Anlage über Röm 16,3-20 als Epheserbrief (BFCT 20/4; Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1916); Adolf Deissmann, "Zur ephesinischen Gefangenschaft des Apostel Paulus," in Anatolian Studies presented to Sir William Mitchell Ramsey (W. H. Buckler and W. M. Calder, eds.; Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1923) 121-27; and G. S. Duncan, St. Paul's Ephesian Ministry: A Reconstruction with special reference to the Ephesian origin of the Imprisonment Epistles (London: Hodder and Stoughton/New York: Scribners, 1930). While by no means impossible, the evidence for an Ephesian imprisonment remains circumstantial (1 Cor 15:32; 2 Cor 1:8-10; for the former see Abraham Malherbe, "The Beasts at Ephesus," JBL 87 [1968] 71-80). 16 E.g., J.-F. Collange, L'épître de saint Paul aux Philippiens (CNT 10A; Neuchâtel and Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1973). 17 John Reumann, Philippians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AYB; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008) 7. 18 1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8-9; Gal 2:10; cf. Rom 15:25-28. Philippians was almost certainly written after the collection had been completed and thus not from Ephesus. 19 2 Cor 11:23. 20 Cf. Paul's short imprisonment in Acts 16 and Peter's in Acts 12. 21 Sandra Bingham, The Praetorian Guard: A History of Rome's Elite Special Forces (London: I. B. Tauris, 2013). 22 Cf. Mt 27:20; Mk 15:16; John 18:28, 33; 19:9. 3 tary names implying that Rome was an occupied city.23 It is unlikely, however, that πραιτώριον here refers to a building, since the whole expression reads ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ πραιτωρίῳ καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν, "in the whole πραιτώριον and all the rest," where "all the rest," given Paul's usage elsewhere,24 is most naturally interpreted as a reference not to other buildings but to other personnel.25 This would imply that πραιτώριον is also a reference to personnel.26 This interpretation also makes excellent sense of 1:14 where Paul continues: "and the majority of the brothers in the Lord . . . are daring more and more to speak the word without fear." Taken together vv. 13-14 would then describe the effect of Paul's imprisonment first on those outside the church and then on those inside. That τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν likely refers to other personnel has been taken by some to favor a Roman provenance, but not all are convinced. For as already indicated, during the late Republic a provincial governor's personal guard was also known as his praetorium. If this nomenclature continued in the Empire after the establishment of the imperial guard at Rome, then it is possible that ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ πραιτωρίῳ at Phil 1:13 refers not to the imperial cohorts but a smaller detachment of provincial guardsmen assigned to a governor's praetorium. Here the commentary tradition reaches something of an impasse, for all the evidence that Roman governors were protected by a contingent of "praetorians" comes from the late Republic before the establishment of the Praetorian Guard in Rome.27 One is therefore left to speculate whether this terminology continued after the establishment of the imperial guard. Neither option is without potential embarrassment. 4. This brings me Tab. Vind. 2.154, which as I have already indicated is a troop strength report from the Roman outpost at Vindolanda in Northern England. Vindolanda is about 30 miles west of Newcastle and a mile south of Hadrian's Wall.28 It seems that writing materials were in short supply on the British frontier at this time and that records were written in ink on small oak tablets a little bit larger than a postcard. Writing tablets of this sort were unknown prior to the excavations at Vindolanda, where several hundred were recovered. It is my understanding that a few have now been found elsewhere. The 23 J. B. Lightfoot St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians: A Revised Text with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations (London: Macmillan, 1868) 99-104. 24 1 Thess 4:13 ("that you not grieve as the rest [οἱ λοιποί]) and 5:6 ("let us not sleep as the rest [οἱ λοιποί]"); 1 Cor 7:8-12 ("to the unmarried and widows . . . to those married . . . to the rest [τοῖς λοιποῖς]); 2 Cor 13:2 ("I warned those who sinned previously and all the rest [τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν]"); Rom 11:7 ("the elect obtained, but the rest [οἱ λοίποί] were hardened"); cf. Michaelis, 51. 25 Chrysostom, however, understands both expressions locally. He first equates τὸ πραιτώριον with τὰ βασιλεία, anachronistically assuming that someone of Paul's stature was detained in the "imperial palace" not in the castra praetoria, after which he is forced to interpret καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς πᾶσιν locally: οὐδὲ ἐν τῷ πραιτωρίῳ µόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ πόλει . . . πάσῃ, "and not in the praetorium [= palace] only, but also in all the city" (In Epist. ad Phil., hom. 2 [PG 62.192b.14-16]); cf. Theodoret, In Epist. ad Phil., ad loc. 1:12-13 (PG 82.564A). 26 Similar expressions in which ὅλος ("whole"), which is often used of buildings, refers to people include: "the whole Sanhedrin" (Mt 26:59; Mk 15:1); "the whole people" (Acts 2:47); "the whole church" (Acts 15:22; Rom 16:23; 1 Cor 14:23); "the whole civilized world" (Rev 3:10; 12:9). "the whole household" (Heb 3:2-5; Tit 1:11); "the whole city" (Mk 1:33; ); "the whole world" (1 John 2:2; 5:19). 27 E.g., Cicero, Ver. 4.65; 5.92. 28 Alan K. Bowman, Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and Its People (New York and London: Routledge, 1994; second ed. British Museum Press, 2004) 4 tablets at Vindolanda were buried under a layer of clay that preserved them. Restoring them was quite a technical feat, since in situ they had the consistency of wet tissue paper. Tab. Vind. 2.15429 begins with a date (month and day, not year) and the name of the cohort's praefectus, Julius Verecundus, whose service, however, can be dated to between 92 and 97 C.E. Next the cohort's total strength is reported, which at the time was 752. At this point the list is divided into two parts: those absent from the fort on assignment elsewhere and those still attached to the main garrison, about twenty of whom were either ill or wounded. We are interested in those absent. Most of these, 337 to be precise, had been sent to reinforce the nearby fort at Coria. But at line five we learn that 46 had been sent to London to serve in the governor's bodyguard. The text reads: ex eis absentes singulares legati xlvi. This is interesting for a couple of reasons. For instance, it indicates that in at least some cases provincial governors recruited their bodyguards from auxiliary units in their province. But what is especially interesting for our purposes is that those guardsmen are not here called praetoriani, as one would expect if that title were still being applied to provincial guardsmen at this time, but singulares. In other words, while provincial governors continued to have a contingent of guardsmen under their direct control, these guards were no longer called praetoriani but singulares. To be sure this tablet dates from the end of the first century, but the most likely cause for this change in terminology—from praetorianus to singularis—would be the establishment of the imperial Praetorian Guard in Rome by Augustus. As is well known, this guard quickly increased in importance over the course of the first century, so that by the time of Nero, it not only had its own permanent camp, built by Tiberius in 23,30 but had been increased to 12 cohorts with a nominal strength of six thousand.31 To my knowledge, this change in terminology has not yet been adduced in interpreting Paul's expression in Phil 1:13. I at least was unaware of it before Dr. Bingham brought it to my attention. But there is more. Shortly after Dr. Bingham brought the Vindolanda evidence to my attention I came across Michael Speidel's Guards of the Roman Imperial Armies (Bonn, 1978), which examines in detail some 83 pieces of mostly epigraphic evidence regarding provincial singulares. Despite its title, the evidence Prof. Speidel reviews is for both imperial and senatorial provinces.32 This evidence ranges over the first four centuries C.E., and much of it is a bit late for our purposes. However, several pieces of evidence fall within our period, and they would all appear to support the conclusion I have drawn from Tab. Vind. 2.154.33 29 http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/TVII-154. Tacitus, Ann. 4.2; Suetonius, Tib. 37.1. 31 AÉ 1978, 286. Vitellius strengthened the PG to 16 cohorts of 1000 (Tacitus, Hist. 2.93.2); cf. Brill's New Pauly, Antiquity, 11.773-6. 32 Speidel, Guards, 15. 33 For evidence that the term praetorium may have continued on occasion to be used for a governor's guards, see Speidel, Guards, 20 and n. 97, who cites as the principal evidence for this IG 12.5.697: στρατιώτηρ ἐκ τῶν τοῦ πραιτωρίου τοῦ ἀνθνπάτου, "a soldier of those of the πραιτώριον of the governor (of Achaia)"; however, R. Egger, "Das Praetorium als Amtssitz und Quartier römischer Spitzenfunktionäre," SAWW 250 (1966) 26, interprets this as a reference to the governor's residence. Speidel, also cites AÉ 1933.57, which speaks of a governor's princeps praetorio but this may simply mean the officer in charge of "headquarters"; cf. Boris Rankov, "The Governor's Men: The Officium Consularis in Provincial 30 5 I cannot discuss this evidence in detail, but here is a representative list: (1) CIL 13.7709, which speaks of the singulares of Achilius Strabo, governor of Germania inferior, datable to the 70's C.E.;34 (2) B. and H. Galsterer, Die römischen Steininschriften aus Koln (Cologne: Wissenschaftliche Katalogue des Römisch-Germanischen Museums, 1975) no. 260, the funerary inscription of Titus Flavius Tullio, who identifies himself as a singularis also serving in Germania inferior, presumably from the Flavian period (between 70 and 89 C.E.); (3) Jules Baillet, Inscriptions grècques et latines des tombeaux des rois où syringes à Thèbes (MIFAO 42; Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale du Caire, 1926) graffito 1688, by a certain Ammonios, a singularis of C. Minicius Italus, prefect of Egypt in 103-4 C.E.; and (4) P. Lond. 2851, a troop strength report which lists the singulares of Fabius Justius, governor of Moesia inferior in 105 C.E. Judging from Baillet, graffito 1688, which is in Greek, the term singularis was simply transliterated in Greek as σινγουλαρίος,35 though Josephus (BJ 3.120), speaking of general Vespanian's military guard, translates ἐπίλεκτοι. Speidel writes, "army commanders in the Empire were denied a praetorian cohort . . . praetorian guards became an imperial prerogative." Instead of a "cohors or ala praetoria" they now possessed "less formally a numerus of pedites and equites singulares" (5-6). Again none of this evidence is referenced in the commentaries on Philippians that I have consulted, but it seems to me that it argues strongly that by the time Paul wrote Philippians praetoriani referred exclusively to the imperial guard at Rome and—assuming Phil 1:13 refers to personnel—that Philippians can therefore be reliably assigned to a Roman imprisonment. 5. Let me turn now to my second piece of material evidence, RPC 1651, which does not speak directly to the provenance of Paul's letter, but to Philippi itself and especially to a possible point of civic pride that might have caused Paul to mention his guards in the first place, something he does not do in Philemon, for instance—or for that matter in Colossians, if Colossians is indeed one of Paul's authentic letters, which I doubt. RPC 165136 is a small copper coin (semis37) reading VIC(oria) AUG(usta) on the front and Adminstration," in Adrian Goldsworthy and Ian Haynes, eds., The Roman Army as a Community (JRASup 34; Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1999) 19. A praetorianus is mentioned in CIL 3.6085, 7135, and 7136 serving as a stationarius (police officer) near Ephesus, but this can simply mean that he was a former imperial guardsman (cf. Bruce, Philippians xxii); for a singularis similarly employed, see AÉ 1937.250. 34 Cf. AÉ 1923.33. 35 Cf. IG 10.2.384, 495, 583; IGR 3.394; AÉ 1937.250; 1940.216 (= IGLS 4037); 1969-70.602; 1973.538; Balliet, graffito 1473 (= SB 6638.1); P. Oxy. 20.2284; and P. Ross. Georg. 3.1 (collected by Speidel, Guards); see also Michael Speidel, "Two Greek Graffiti in the Tomb of Ramses V," Chronique d'Égypte 49 (1974) 384-86). 36 Andrew Burnett, Michel Amandry, Pere Paul Ripollès, eds., Roman Provincial Coinage. Volume 1: From the Death of Caesar to the death of Vitellius (London and Paris: British Museum and Bibliothèque de France, 1992, reprinted with corrections 1998) pl. 81:1651. 37 Roman coins tended to decrease in nominal value by halves. The nominal unit was the as, half of which was the semis ("half"), and a quarter of which was the quadrans ("quarter"), not unlike the American dollar, half-dollar, and quarter-dollar. During the early Principate, two asses equaled a dupondius, two dupondii a sesterius, and four sesterii a denarius. The gold aureus was worth twenty-five denarii. 6 COHOR(s) PRAE(toria) PHIL(ippensis) on the back. An unusually large number of these (approx. 150) have so far been recovered.38 Photo, Forum Ancient Coins (used with permission) Coins of this sort—commonly called "semi-autonomous"—are notoriously difficult to date since they do not name the current emperor. Collart (1937) dated this coin to the reign of Augustus and interpreted it as commemorating Augustus's victory over Antony in 31 B.C.E. and his settlement at Philippi of a cohort of praetorians when he re-founded the colony in 30 B.C.E., an interpretation consistent with the literary evidence but not required by it.39 This interpretation went largely unchallenged until the publication of RPC 1 (1992), which based on the coin's copper composition dated it no earlier than the reign of Claudius, though still allowing a reference to an early settlement of praetorians by Augustus.40 This re-dating has not been taken into account in subsequent interpretations of Philippians, which still rely exclusively on Collart, if they mention the coin at all.41 It seems to me, however, that if this re-dating is accepted it casts considerable light on the interpretation of Philippians, since it not only dates the striking of the coin close to the time of Paul's letter, but more importantly attests to Philippi's continuing pride in its praetorian foundations, a fact that Paul now a prisoner of the Guard would presumably to be allud38 RPC 1 lists 85 specimens held in various Western museums; Katerina Chryssanthaki-Nagle, L'histoire monétaire d'Abdère en Trace (VIes. av. J.-C.-IIe s. ap. J.-C.) (Meletemata 51; Athens: Boccard [Paris], 2007) 795-98, lists another 45 found in Abdera; Sophia Kremydi-Sicilianou, Multiple Concealments from the Sanctuary of Zeus Olympios at Dion: The Roman Provincial Coin Hoards (Meletemata 35; Athens: Boccard [Paris], 2004) 85-89, lists 2 from Amphipolis 1998; 1 from Ierissos 1976; 7 from Dion 1999 (cat. nos. 1508-1514); 1 from Dion 1998 (cat. no. 77). Coins of this type have also been found in the Agora of Athens, J. H. Kroll, The Athenian Agora, vol. 26: Greek Coins (Princeton, 1993) 184, no. 476. 39 Philippe Collart, Philippes, ville de Macédoine, depuis ses origins jusqu'à la fin de l'époque romaine (2 vol.; Paris: Boccard, 1937), 1:231-35; 2: pl. 30.8-11; whose arguments were accepted in subsequent Sylloge: SNG Evelp., 1275-77; SNG ANS, 674-681; SNG Cop., 305-306; SNG Tüb., 1031. The literary evidence mentions Octavian and Anthony adding 8000 praetorians after Philippi (Appian 5.1.3). It does not mention where they were settled when their service was completed, but that a cohort was settled at Philippi is a reasonable guess. 40 Burnett et al., eds., Roman Provincial Coinage 1, 288, 308. M. Durry, "Sur une monnaie de Philippes," REA 1940: 412-416 had already dated the coin to the reign of Claudius, while H. Gaebler, AMNG 3.2:102-3 nos. 14-15 simply dated it to "Imperial times." 41 E.g., Reumann. Other New Testament scholars still following Collart include: Lukas Bormann, Philippi: Stadt und Christengemeinde zur Zeit des Paulus (NovTSup 78; Leiden: Brill, 1995) 22 n. 67; Peter Oakes, Philippians: From People to Letter (SNTSMS 110; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) 13, 25; Laura S. Nasrallah, "Spatial Perspectives: Space and Archaeology in Roman Philippi," in Joseph Marchal, ed., Studying Paul's Letters: Contemporary Perspectives and Methods (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012) 53-74. 7 ing to at Phil 1:13. Further evidence of the continuing importance of the Praetorian Guard for the civic self-understanding of the Philippians are several military diplomata (official retirements papers) witnessed by one or more imperial guardsmen from Philippi, which Peter Philhofer has now collected and published, as well has a handful of inscriptions, most recently discussed by Cédric Brélaz, in which soldiers from Philippi are identified as former imperial guardsmen.42 Additional arguments for a later dating of the coin have been proposed by Sophia Kremydi-Sicilianou.43 Recent coin finds at Dion (1998), Amphipolis (1998), Ierissos (1976), and especially the large datable circulation hoard found at Dion in 1999, indicate that the coin, which appears in a variety of sub-types (e.g., Victoria standing on a globe, on a pedestal, or simply walking), continued in production as late as the reign of Antoninus Pius.44 The content of these finds also suggests that the sub-type in which Victoria is depicted standing on a globe mark the coin's earliest issues, since this iconography does not appear on the coins that are datable to the second century. From this KremydiSicilianou theorized that the Victoria on a globe was intended to evoke the Victoria that Augustus placed in the renovated Curia in 29 B.C.E., which Victoria was also on a globe and became a widely circulated symbol of Roman imperial domination throughout the first century.45 But as she goes on to observe, the Victoria in the Curia was initially called Victoria Romana and so far as we know only began to be referred to as Victoria Augusta in the reign of Claudius, after which it became an especially important piece of imperial propaganda in the reign of Vespasian, who was anxious to style himself as a new Augustus in an effort to establish a new dynasty after the civil wars of 69-70.46 KremydiSicilianou proposes that the coin was therefore first struck by Vespasian near the beginning of his reign, though an issue as early as Claudius cannot be ruled out.47 A question raised by Kremydi-Sicilianou's dating of the coin is whether the settlement of praetorians at Philippi referred to on the reverse of RPC 1651 might actually have taken place not in the reign of Augustus but early in the reign of Vespasian, when large numbers of soldiers were decommissioned after the civil wars that elevated him to emperor. This is quite possible, but if RPC 1651 was a commemorative issue linking Vespasian to Augustus, then a reference to an earlier settlement by Augustus—a point of continuing civic pride now exploited by Vespasian—still remains the best explanation, even if Vespasian himself also settled guardsmen there, which at this point, like most 42 Peter Philhoffer, Philippi: Vol. 1: Die erste christliche Gemeinde Europas; vol. 2: Katalog der Inschriften von Philippi (WUNT 87 and 119; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995 and 2001; revised ed. 2009 [non vidi]) Index, s.v. cohors; Cédric Brélaz, Corpus des inscriptions grecques et latines de Philippes. Vol. 2: La colonie romaine, Part 1: La vie publique de la colonie (Études Épigraphiques 6; Paris: École française d'Athènes, 2014) Index, s.v. cohors. See further: T. Sarikakis, "Des soldats Macedoniens dans l'armée romaine," Ancient Macedonia 2 (Thessalonica: Institute of Balkan Studies, 1977) 431-63; F. Papazoglou, "Quelques aspects d l'histoire de la province Macédoine," ANRW 2.7.1:302-69, esp. 338-52. 43 Sophia Kremydi-Sicilianou, "Victoria Augusta on Macedonian coins: remarks on dating and interpretation," Τεκµήρια 7 (2002) 63-84; idem, Multiple Concealments, 85-89; more generally, idem, "'Belonging' to Rome, 'Remaining' Greek: Coinage and Identity in Roman Macedonia," in Christopher Howgego et al., eds., Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 95-106. 44 Kremydi-Sicilianou, "Victoria Augusta," 64. 45 Ibid., 69; cf. Paul Zanker. Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988) 79-85. A large statue of Victory on a globe was also set up in the Athenian Agora. 46 Kremydi-Sicilianou, "Victoria Augusta," 73. 47 Kremydi-Sicilianou, "Victoria Augusta," 76-9. 8 theories surrounding this coin, must remain uncertain. That Vespasian staffed the ranks of his army with recruits from Philippi is reasonable,48 and that at least some of these eventually became part of his imperial guard is consistent with the military diplomata compiled by Pilhofer, three of which date from Vespasian's reign49—though in this case it is possible that these witnesses were members of the Guard before Vespasian came to power. At this point it seems to me that the direction of inference may well run the other way around, which is to say that instead of the coin casting light on Paul's letter, it is Paul's letter that casts light on the coin. For if on the basis of Tab. Vind. 2.154 and the further evidence adduced by Speidel we conclude that Philippians was indeed composed while Paul as a prisoner of the Praetorian Guard in Rome, and if we are looking for a reason why Paul's makes so much of the identity of his guardsmen, then an earlier settlement of Guardsmen at Philippi—as originally proposed by Collart—makes excellent sense. This was a point of continuing civic pride first exploited by Paul and then by none other than the emperor Vespasian when he first issued our coin. Once the coin was struck, that same civic pride guaranteed that it be re-issued until the mid-second century. Select Abbreviations AÉ AMGN CIL IG IGLS IGR MIFAO P. Oxy. P. Ross. Georg. RAC REA RPC SAWW SB SNG ANS SNG Cop. SNG Evelp. SNG Tüb. L'Année Épigraphique Antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenland Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum Inscriptiones Graecae Les inscriptiones grecques et latines de la Syrie Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes Mémoires publiés par les members L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale du Caire Oxyrhyncus Papyri Papyri russischer und georgischer Sammlungen Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum Revue des études anciennes Roman Provincial Coins Sitzungsberichte des Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien) Sammelbuch griechischer Urkunden aus Aegypten, ed. Preisigke Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, American Numismatic Society Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Réna H. Evelpidis Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Tübingen Bibliography Arband, S., W. Macheiner, C. Colpe. "Gefangenschaft." RAC 9:318-45. Baillet, Jules. Inscriptions grècques et latines des tombeaux des rois où syringes à Thèbes. MIFAO 42. Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale du Caire, 1926. 48 Kremydi-Sicilianou, "Victoria Augusta," 77, imagines Philippi to be renamed "colonia vitrix" by Vespasian based on Philhofer's reconstruction of CIL 3.1.660. But that reconstruction has now been strongly challenged by Brélaz, Corpus des inscriptions grecques et latines de Philippes, II.1, no. 151. (I wish to thank Prof. Brélaz for a private email exchange regarding this inscription in which he kindly shared his expertise with me.) 49 Items 030A, 202 [cf. 203], 705. 9 Bingham, Sandra. The Praetorian Guard: A History of Rome's Elite Special Forces. London: I. B. Tauris, 2013. Bormann, Philippi: Stadt und Christengemeinde zur Zeit des Paulus. NovTSup 78; Leiden: Brill, 1995. Bowman, Alan K. Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and Its People. New Edition. London: British Museum Press, 2003. Brélaz, Cédric. Corpus des inscriptions grecques et latines de Philippes. Vol. 2: La colonie romaine. Part 1: La vie publique de la colonie. Études Épigraphiques 6. Paris: École française d'Athènes, 2014. Bruce, F. F. Philippians. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. Burnett, Andrew, Michel Amandry, Pere Paul Ripollès, eds. Roman Provincial Coinage. Vol. 1: From the Death of Caesar to the death of Vitellius. London and Paris: British Museum and Bibliothèque de France, 1992, reprinted with corrections 1998. Cassidy, Richard J. Paul in Chains: Roman Imprisonment and the Letters of St. Paul. New York: Crossroads, 2001. Chrysostom, In Epistolam ad Philippenses (in PG 62) Chryssanthaki-Nagle, Katerina. L'histoire monétaire d'Abdère en Trace, (VIes. av. J.-C.-IIe s. ap. J.-C.). Meletemata 51. Athens: Boccard (Paris), 2007. Collange, J.-F. L'épître de saint Paul aux Philippiens. CNT 10A. Neuchâtel and Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1973. Collart, Philippe. Philippes, ville de Macédoine, depuis ses origins jusqu'à la fin de l'époque romaine 2 volumes. Paris: Boccard, 1937. Deissmann, Adolf. "Zur ephesinischen Gefangenschaft des Apostel Paulus." in W. H. Buckler and W. M. Calder, eds. Anatolian Studies presented to Sir William Mitchell Ramsey. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1923, pp. 121-27. Duncan, G. S. St. Paul's Ephesian Ministry: A Reconstruction with special reference to the Ephesian origin of the Imprisonment Epistles. London and New York: Hodder and Stoughton and Scribners, 1930. Durry, M. "Sur une monnaie de Philippes," REA 1940: 412-416 Egger, R. "Das Praetorium als Amtssitz und Quartier römischer Spitzenfunktionäre," SAWW 250 (1966) 147. Feine, Paul. Die Abfassung des Philipperbriefes in Ephesus mit einer Anlage über Röm 16,3-20 als Epheserbrief. BFCT 20/4. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1916. Galsterer, B. and H. Die römischen Steininschriften aus Koln. Cologne: Wissenschaftliche Katalogue des Römisch-Germanischen Museums, 1975. Krause, Jens-Uwe. Gefängnisse im römischen Reich. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1996. Kremydi-Sicilianou, Sophia. "Victoria Augusta on Macedonian coins: remarks on dating and interpretation," Τεκµήρια 7 (2002) 63-84. _____. Multiple Concealments from the Sanctuary of Zeus Olympios at Dion: The Roman Provincial Coin Hoards. Meletemata 35; Athens: Boccard (Paris), 2004. _____. "'Belonging' to Rome, 'Remaining' Greek: Coinage and Identity in Roman Macedonia," in Christopher Howgego et al., eds., Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 95-106. Kroll, J. H. The Athenian Agora. Vol. 26: Greek Coins. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Lightfoot, J. B. St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians: A Revised Text with Introduction, Notes, and Dissertations. London: Macmillan, 1868. Malherbe, Abraham. "The Beasts at Ephesus," JBL 87 (1968) 71-80. Nasrallah, Laura S. "Spatial Perspectives: Space and Archaeology in Roman Philippi," in Joseph Marchal, ed., Studying Paul's Letters: Contemporary Perspectives and Methods. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012, pp. 53-74. Oakes, Peter. Philippians: From People to Letter. SNTSMS 110. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Papazoglou, F. "Quelques aspects d l'histoire de la province Macédoine," ANRW 2.7.1:302-69. Pervo, Richard. Acts. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009. Philhoffer, Peter. Philippi. Vol. 1: Die erste christliche Gemeinde Europas. Vol. 2: Katalog der Inschriften von Philippi. WUNT 87 and 119. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1995 and 2001. Rankov, Boris. "The Governor's Men: The Officium Consularis in Provincial Adminstration," in Adrian Goldsworthy and Ian Haynes, eds., The Roman Army as a Community. JRASup 34. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1999, pp. 15-34 10 Rapske, Brian. The Book of Acts and Paul in Roman Custody. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Carlisle: Pater Noster, 1994. Reumann, John. Philippians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary AYB. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008. Sarikakis, T. "Des soldats Macedoniens dans l'armée romaine," Ancient Macedonia 2. Thessalonica: Institute of Balkan Studies, 1977, pp. 431-63. Speidel, Michael. "Two Greek Graffiti in the Tomb of Ramses V," Chronique d'Égypte 49 (1974) 384-86. idem, Guards of the Roman Imperial Armies: An Essay on the Singulares of the Provinces. Antiquitas 1. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 1978. Theodoret, In Epistolam ad Philippenses (in PG 82). White, Peter. Cicero in Letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Zanker, Paul. Power of Images in the Age of Augustus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988. 11 12