Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XI 7 April 2016
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Lokris, Lokris Opuntii AR Stater. Circa 369 BC. Head of Demeter left, wearing barley-wreath, pearl necklace and elaborate 'boat' earring with crescent and five pendants / Ajax the Lokrian, nude but for crested Corinthian helmet, advancing right on rocky ground, holding short sword and round shield decorated on its interior with griffin, transverse spear behind hero's legs; OΠΟΝTΙΩΝ to left. SNG Berry 570 (same dies); Gulbenkian 495–496 (same obverse die); SNG Lockett 1693 (same obverse die). 12.14g, 24mm, 1h.
Extremely Fine. Beautifully toned.
Ex Roma Numismatics Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 178;
Ex Peter Guber Collection, Manhattan Sale II, 4 January 2011, lot 50;
Ex Freeman & Sear Fixed Price List 9, Spring 2004, 29;
Ex Viscount Wimbourne Collection, Leu 81, 16 May 2001, lot 198;
Ex Sotheby's, 4 April 1991, lot 52;
Ex Leu 28, 5 May 1981, lot 102.
This exceptional portrait, with its right-facing orientation and elaborate earring, has been proposed to be the inaugural type of the Lokrian series. It is in any case certainly one of the most beautiful, and the reverse too is of an exceptionally fine style.
Ajax of Lokris (or Ajax 'the Lesser'), who is depicted on the reverse of this attractive type, led a fleet of forty ships from Lokris Opuntii against Troy in the Greeks' great war on that city. At Troy's fall, he was alleged by Odysseus to have violated a sanctuary of Athena by ravishing Cassandra, who had sought refuge there. He thus brought down the wrath of Athena upon himself and his countrymen: Ajax himself was wrecked and killed in a storm as he made his way home from the war, and the rest of the Opuntians reached home only with great difficulty. Nevertheless, they annually honoured their former leader by launching a ship fitted with black sails and laden with gifts, which they then set alight, and whenever the Lokrian army drew up for battle, one place was always left open for Ajax, whose spirit they believed would stand and fight with them.
Extremely Fine. Beautifully toned.
Ex Roma Numismatics Auction II, 2 October 2011, lot 178;
Ex Peter Guber Collection, Manhattan Sale II, 4 January 2011, lot 50;
Ex Freeman & Sear Fixed Price List 9, Spring 2004, 29;
Ex Viscount Wimbourne Collection, Leu 81, 16 May 2001, lot 198;
Ex Sotheby's, 4 April 1991, lot 52;
Ex Leu 28, 5 May 1981, lot 102.
This exceptional portrait, with its right-facing orientation and elaborate earring, has been proposed to be the inaugural type of the Lokrian series. It is in any case certainly one of the most beautiful, and the reverse too is of an exceptionally fine style.
Ajax of Lokris (or Ajax 'the Lesser'), who is depicted on the reverse of this attractive type, led a fleet of forty ships from Lokris Opuntii against Troy in the Greeks' great war on that city. At Troy's fall, he was alleged by Odysseus to have violated a sanctuary of Athena by ravishing Cassandra, who had sought refuge there. He thus brought down the wrath of Athena upon himself and his countrymen: Ajax himself was wrecked and killed in a storm as he made his way home from the war, and the rest of the Opuntians reached home only with great difficulty. Nevertheless, they annually honoured their former leader by launching a ship fitted with black sails and laden with gifts, which they then set alight, and whenever the Lokrian army drew up for battle, one place was always left open for Ajax, whose spirit they believed would stand and fight with them.