Ira and Larry Goldberg Auctioneers
Auction 104 12-13 Jun 2018
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Lycia, Lycian Dynasts. Mithrapata. Silver Stater (9.87g), c. 390-370 BC. Head and foreleg of roaring lion right. Reverse: MITHRAP-A-T-A in Lycian around, bare head of Mithrapata left, triskeles to lower left, all within incuse square. Mildenberg 6 (O3/R5); Podalia 60 (A3/P5); SNG Copenhagen Suppl. 472. Scarce. Obverse die a little degraded, but possessing a fantastic pre-Hellenistic portrait, crisply struck from a fresh die and possessing none of the defects usually encountered. Nearly Mint State. Estimate Value $4,000 - UP
Ex Dr. Busso Pues Nachfolger 401, 3 November 2010, lot 398.
Lycia, on the southern limb of Asia Minor, was ruled by a series of powerful dynasts whose coinage featured the earliest experiments with true portraiture of living persons, as opposed to the gods, goddesses and stereotyped images found on earlier Greek and Persian coins. Remarkably, the Lycian die engravers under Mithrapata and his successor, Perikles, created portraits as realistic and artistic as anything produced during the heyday of Hellenistic royal portraiture a century later. Mithrapata appears here as a vigorous older man with a full beard, aquiline nose, and hair carefully combed forward over his prominent brow. As with many royal personages of the ancient world, we have a good idea of what Mithrapata looked like, but know very little else about him. Ancient historians note that he either seized power from another dynast named Arttumpara, or was appointed to replace him by the Persian King Artaxerxes II.
Ex Dr. Busso Pues Nachfolger 401, 3 November 2010, lot 398.
Lycia, on the southern limb of Asia Minor, was ruled by a series of powerful dynasts whose coinage featured the earliest experiments with true portraiture of living persons, as opposed to the gods, goddesses and stereotyped images found on earlier Greek and Persian coins. Remarkably, the Lycian die engravers under Mithrapata and his successor, Perikles, created portraits as realistic and artistic as anything produced during the heyday of Hellenistic royal portraiture a century later. Mithrapata appears here as a vigorous older man with a full beard, aquiline nose, and hair carefully combed forward over his prominent brow. As with many royal personages of the ancient world, we have a good idea of what Mithrapata looked like, but know very little else about him. Ancient historians note that he either seized power from another dynast named Arttumpara, or was appointed to replace him by the Persian King Artaxerxes II.