Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 42 6 Jan 2018
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Severus Alexander Æ27 of Sestos, Thrace. AD 222-235. AV KMA CE ALEΞANΔPOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / CHCTIΩN, Leander, nude, swimming right across the Hellespont to meet Hero, standing atop tower holding oil lamp in outstretched right hand, which is lit by Eros flying right above Leander. Gorny & Mosch 125, lot 302 (same dies); cf. Mionnet Suppl. II 539, No. 97 (Caracalla); cf. Coins Weekly Article: 'Sestos and Abydos, Hero and Leander: a Love Story in Coinage' by Claire Franklin'. 9.70g, 27mm, 2h.
About Good Very Fine. Depicting one of the most enduring and tragic love stories from ancient mythology. Extremely Rare, perhaps the second known example.
Repeated extensively in literature for hundreds of years, and seen on Roman coinage struck in the city of Abydos for Septimius Severus and Caracalla, the reverse type of this charming bronze of Severus Alexander depicts the story of Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite who lived in the city of Sestos in Thrace, and Leander, a young man from the city of Abydos in Troas. Having fallen in love, but with the Bosporus dividing them, Leander would swim every night across the Hellespont to Hero, guided by a lamp she would light at the top of a tower. Losing his way during a storm, the light having been blown out, Leander is drowned; Hero, on learning of his fate, throws herself from the tower to join him in death.
About Good Very Fine. Depicting one of the most enduring and tragic love stories from ancient mythology. Extremely Rare, perhaps the second known example.
Repeated extensively in literature for hundreds of years, and seen on Roman coinage struck in the city of Abydos for Septimius Severus and Caracalla, the reverse type of this charming bronze of Severus Alexander depicts the story of Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite who lived in the city of Sestos in Thrace, and Leander, a young man from the city of Abydos in Troas. Having fallen in love, but with the Bosporus dividing them, Leander would swim every night across the Hellespont to Hero, guided by a lamp she would light at the top of a tower. Losing his way during a storm, the light having been blown out, Leander is drowned; Hero, on learning of his fate, throws herself from the tower to join him in death.