By Prof. Dr. Tedo Dundua, Dr. Emil Avdaliani
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia
The idea of freedom has been associated with red Phrygian caps or “liberty” (soft felt or conical wool headdress). The use of the cap is most often associated with ancient Rome, protests against taxation during the reign of Louis XIV, or the French Revolution. However, there are also examples from ancient Georgia, namely Colchis.
As evidenced by the representation of Phrygian caps on ancient coins from Rome to Colchis, the Phrygian cap has been in use for millennia.
Figure above wearing Phrygian cap. This cap was associated with many people in Antiquity, including Phrygians.
The central figure on the reverse is a pileus, which was a cap worn by emancipated Roman slaves. Symbol of freedom. M. Iunius Brutus, after the assassination Caesar, used this symbol to proclaim the end of tyranny.
Mithras is a Graeco Roman god of Persian descent, god of light, justice and the sun. He wears a Phrygian hat. This means that pileus is often confused with Phrygian caps, the latter becoming a freedom cap.
The French revolution, on its part, continued this confusion by taking the Phrygian cap, as a symbol of freedom.
This is again Mithras as equestrian on the municipal copper coins of bilingual (Graeco-Colchian/Western Georgian) Trapezus under the Roman rule. He wears a Phrygian hat (T. Dundua, and Others). Online English-Georgian Catalogue of Georgian Numismatics. 2013-2015 http://geonumismatics.tsu.ge/en/catalogue/types/?type=26)
Here are the municipal copper coin of Dioscurias, in Colchis (modern Sokhumi in Western Georgia), with the effigies Dioscuri’s cap and thyrsus. The coins are similar in style to the Pontus municipal copper coins – the obverse is based on Amisus’ coins from 120-111 B.C. and the reverse is based on municipal numismatics from the South and North Black Sea Coasts struck between 105-90 B.C. The coins of Dioscurias can be dated to the 2nd century B.C. The beginning of the first century B.C. Mithridates VI – king of Pontus – annexed the East Black Sea Coast exactly at that time. Mithridates now in control of Dioscurians restored their municipal structures and issued their own copper coins with “caps for liberty”. Mithridates’ garrison remained in Dioscurias, and the official appointed to run the mint was T. Dundua. Online English-Georgian Catalogue of Georgian Numismatics. 2013-2015 http://geonumismatics.tsu.ge/en/catalogue/types/?type=22).
In Georgia (Colchis, Iberia), the Phrygian cap is a symbol of freedom, just as it is everywhere else in Europe.
https://www.academia.edu/43553444/Liberties_and_Phrygian_Caps_in_Georgia
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