Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XV 5 Apr 2018
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Lucania, Metapontion AR Stater. Circa 330-290 BC. Atha-, magistrate. Head of Demeter, wearing grain wreath, facing slightly right / Ear of barley ear with leaf to right; bukranion above leaf, AΘA below, META upwards in left field. Johnston Class C, 2.2 (same dies); HN Italy 1584; SNG ANS 463-4; SNG Fitzwilliam 503; SNG München 992; Dewing 388 (all from the same dies). 7.67g, 22mm, 3h.
Good Very Fine. Rare.
From the collection of C.S., Germany; purchased before 1991.
Metapontion was among the first cities of Magna Graecia to issue coinage, and indeed long preceded its later rival Tarentum in this respect. The choice of the barley ear as the civic emblem is unusual in that the other cities all struck coinage displaying types relating to their foundation myths or principal cults. Metapontion's choice may well reflect a significant economic reliance on its major export, a hypothesis supported by the preponderance of Demeter portraits on its later coinage, a convention seemingly broken only in exceptional circumstances, such as the occasional Hygeia issue that was probably elicited by concern over pestilence, flooding or drought.
The city's reliance on its agricultural exports made it particularly vulnerable to the increasing barbarian attacks in the fourth century that eventually caused Tarentum to request the assistance of the Epeirote king Alexander in driving the aggressive Lucani and other tribes back into the interior. It was this period of strife that caused the only significant variation in the coinage of Metapontion - the new demands placed on the city by the war against the Lucani and its support for Alexander of Epeiros' campaign are undoubtedly the cause of the sudden rise in output of the mint, as well as the hasty overstriking of Pegasi. It was at this time that militaristic types were introduced, engraved in double relief, depicting the helmeted portraits of the city's founder Leukippos, along with the deities Zeus, Athena 'Tharragoras', Apollo and Herakles - a fitting series of coinage for a Hellenic city threatened by barbaric aggressors. The present type dates to the period after the defeat and death of Alexander at the Battle of Pandosia, which marked the beginning of the end of Greek colonisation in southern Italy.
Good Very Fine. Rare.
From the collection of C.S., Germany; purchased before 1991.
Metapontion was among the first cities of Magna Graecia to issue coinage, and indeed long preceded its later rival Tarentum in this respect. The choice of the barley ear as the civic emblem is unusual in that the other cities all struck coinage displaying types relating to their foundation myths or principal cults. Metapontion's choice may well reflect a significant economic reliance on its major export, a hypothesis supported by the preponderance of Demeter portraits on its later coinage, a convention seemingly broken only in exceptional circumstances, such as the occasional Hygeia issue that was probably elicited by concern over pestilence, flooding or drought.
The city's reliance on its agricultural exports made it particularly vulnerable to the increasing barbarian attacks in the fourth century that eventually caused Tarentum to request the assistance of the Epeirote king Alexander in driving the aggressive Lucani and other tribes back into the interior. It was this period of strife that caused the only significant variation in the coinage of Metapontion - the new demands placed on the city by the war against the Lucani and its support for Alexander of Epeiros' campaign are undoubtedly the cause of the sudden rise in output of the mint, as well as the hasty overstriking of Pegasi. It was at this time that militaristic types were introduced, engraved in double relief, depicting the helmeted portraits of the city's founder Leukippos, along with the deities Zeus, Athena 'Tharragoras', Apollo and Herakles - a fitting series of coinage for a Hellenic city threatened by barbaric aggressors. The present type dates to the period after the defeat and death of Alexander at the Battle of Pandosia, which marked the beginning of the end of Greek colonisation in southern Italy.