B. The LEG/MAKED ONW N Series of Macedonian Republican Tetradrachms and the War with Andriscus
A short series of otherwise normal Macedonian republican tetradrachms with the curious addition on the reverse of the Roman letters LEG,[10] and above them a hand holding a (olive?) branch, has long been brought into connection with the war against Andriscus. H. Gäibler, relying on the evidence of what he took to be recut dies and on his interpretation of the branch as a punning reference to the probable cognomen of the P. Iuventius defeated by Andriscus in 148 (
/Thalna), believed that the coins were issued by a leg (atus pro quaestore ) under Iuventius.[11] P.A. MacKay argues strongly against Gäbler's interpretation of the letters and branch on the reverse, and with the later support of C. Boehringer, decisively refutes Gäbler's theory of the recut dies.[12] MacKay sees in the LEG/ MAKED ONW N coins a senatorial decemviral commission (leg [atio ] or leg [ati ]) sent to settle the affairs of Macedonia after the war, though apparently not yet to organize a province, which MacKay sees as following shortly thereafter.[13] P. R. Franke, accepting the association of the series
with the events of the war with Andriscus, interprets LEG as leg (iones ) and imagines their purpose to have been to pay the Roman troops in 148.[14] Finally, J.-L. Ferrary, joined by F. W. Walbank, is skeptical of MacKay's view and suggests that the coins were produced by one of the legates defeated by Andriscus ca. 149.[15]
In fact, we are by no means compelled to believe that the LEG/MAKED ONW N series is to be associated with the Andriscan war. For the date of the series it seems that only two firm pieces of evidence exist: (1) the Siderokastro hoard (IGCH 642), which gives only a terminus ante quem, from its Aesillas coins, of ca. 90 B.C. , if not later;[16] (2) a BAS IL EWSF IL IPP OY type from the Imhoof collection in Berlin, which appears to have been struck over a LEG/MAKED ONW N type.[17] Boehringer corroborates from autopsy of the coin the traces of LEG/MAKED ONW N under the BAS IL EWSF ILPP OY reverse;[18] but while MacKay in his discussion of this coin refutes Gäbler's theory of a recut die, he takes no notice of the traces of LEG/MAKED ONW N that scholar had read. The coin must be an overstrike, though MacKay denies the existence of any overstrikes that would connect the series with any other.[19] BAS IL EWSF IL IPP OY struck over a LEG/MAKED ONW N type should refer to Philip Andriscus, the identification Gäbler originally urged, although indeed Boehringer has opted for Philip V.[20] In any case, if Andriscus is a terminus ante quem for the LEG/MAKED ONW N series, it cannot be associated with the settlement of the war against him, as MacKay wished, and there is no reason why it could not go back as far as 168, when a senatorial legatio is of course known to have been in Macedonia.