Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XII 29 September 2016
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Ionia, Klazomenai AR Drachm. Circa 386-301 BC. Mandronax, magistrate. Head of Apollo facing slightly left, wearing laurel wreath / KΛ-A, swan standing left, wings spread; MANΔΡΩNA[Ξ] to left. SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München -; cf. BMC 26 (hemidrachm); SNG Lockett 2792 (same dies); Traité II 1998. 4.04g, 16mm, 7h.
Near Extremely Fine. Exceptional metal for issue. Rare.
Ex David Herman Collection, Triton X, 9 January 2007, lot 295;
Ex Schweizerischer Bankverein 38, 12 September 1995, lot 213.
Settled by colonists from Phlios and Kleonai, Klazomenai was a member of the Ionian League, and originally stood on the isthmus connecting the mainland with the peninsula on which Erythrai stood; but the inhabitants, alarmed by the encroachments of the Persians, removed themselves to one of the small islands of the bay, and there established their city.
In the King's Peace of 386 Klazomenai is explicitly mentioned as belonging to Persia, though the city continued to mint coinage in its own name. There was a Klazomenian treasury at Delphi, and Klazomenai consulted the oracle there in 383 about their dispute with Kyme over the city of Leukai. Both cities wished to gain control of Leukai and its cult centre of Apollo, and thus the oracle responded that the city that first managed to make a sacrifice at Leukai on a specified date should be the winner of the dispute. Since it was stipulated that representatives from the two cities should depart from their territory at dawn on the day specified for the sacrifice, the Klazomenians founded a colony close to Leukai and thus won the contest.
This event was celebrated by a festival called Prophthaseia, and a beautiful series of coinage, to which this type belongs, was caused to be struck in commemoration of the city's victory. Apollo is proudly displayed on the obverse, and the reverse bears a majestic image of a swan, a bird sacred to the god. According to myth, swans would draw the chariot in which Apollo every year flew south from his winter home in the land of the Hyperboreans. The reverse is also a punning allusion to the name of the city itself, as Klazomenai was also home to large numbers of swans, and κλaζειν meant 'to scream', and was used to describe the call of the swan. Leukai's striking of similar coinage in this period attests to Klazomenai's control over that city.
This beautiful coin is believed to be an unsigned work by the famous artist Theodotus of Klazomenai, who was responsible for engraving the dies for the outstanding Klazomenian tetradrachm in the British Museum. That coin, which bears Theodotus' signature, is of a sufficiently proximate style as to make this a very distinct probability.
Near Extremely Fine. Exceptional metal for issue. Rare.
Ex David Herman Collection, Triton X, 9 January 2007, lot 295;
Ex Schweizerischer Bankverein 38, 12 September 1995, lot 213.
Settled by colonists from Phlios and Kleonai, Klazomenai was a member of the Ionian League, and originally stood on the isthmus connecting the mainland with the peninsula on which Erythrai stood; but the inhabitants, alarmed by the encroachments of the Persians, removed themselves to one of the small islands of the bay, and there established their city.
In the King's Peace of 386 Klazomenai is explicitly mentioned as belonging to Persia, though the city continued to mint coinage in its own name. There was a Klazomenian treasury at Delphi, and Klazomenai consulted the oracle there in 383 about their dispute with Kyme over the city of Leukai. Both cities wished to gain control of Leukai and its cult centre of Apollo, and thus the oracle responded that the city that first managed to make a sacrifice at Leukai on a specified date should be the winner of the dispute. Since it was stipulated that representatives from the two cities should depart from their territory at dawn on the day specified for the sacrifice, the Klazomenians founded a colony close to Leukai and thus won the contest.
This event was celebrated by a festival called Prophthaseia, and a beautiful series of coinage, to which this type belongs, was caused to be struck in commemoration of the city's victory. Apollo is proudly displayed on the obverse, and the reverse bears a majestic image of a swan, a bird sacred to the god. According to myth, swans would draw the chariot in which Apollo every year flew south from his winter home in the land of the Hyperboreans. The reverse is also a punning allusion to the name of the city itself, as Klazomenai was also home to large numbers of swans, and κλaζειν meant 'to scream', and was used to describe the call of the swan. Leukai's striking of similar coinage in this period attests to Klazomenai's control over that city.
This beautiful coin is believed to be an unsigned work by the famous artist Theodotus of Klazomenai, who was responsible for engraving the dies for the outstanding Klazomenian tetradrachm in the British Museum. That coin, which bears Theodotus' signature, is of a sufficiently proximate style as to make this a very distinct probability.