The spectacle building on the coins of Heraclea Pontica

This paper examines the reverse type adopted on some bronze coins struck at Heraclea Pontica (Bithynia) under Gordian III (AD 238-244), which shows a spectacle building of uncertain interpretation. It revisits previous scholarship and proposes a new hypothesis on the basis of comparisons with extant iconographic models in imperial and provincial coinage and of the surviving archaeological evidence of similar monuments in the Roman provinces. It is argued that the coins depict neither a theatre nor an amphitheater or a stadium, as it has been suggested in the past, but a circus-hippodrome that was used both for chariot races and athletics.