Maison Palombo
Auction 18 17 Nov 2019
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Thessalie - Larissa.
Statère (c.356-342).
D'un style et d'une qualité exceptionnels - Magnifique patine médaillier.
Exemplaire de la collection BCD, vente Triton XV du 3 janvier 2012, N° 306.
12.22g - BMC p. 29, 55, pl. V, 14 (mêmes coins)
FDC - CHOICE AU*
It has been hypothesized by Fritz Hermann in 1925 that these coins were issued to celebrate the victory of Medelos of Larissa at Pharsalos c. 395 BC, as told by Diodorus XIV.82.5-6: "Medius, the lord of Larissa in Thessaly, was at war with Lycophron, the tyrant of Pherae, and when he asked for aid to be sent him, the Council dispatched to him two thousand soldiers. After the troops had arrived Medius seized Pharsalus, in which there was a garrison of Lacedaemonians, and sold the inhabitants as booty". The coin's obverse depicts the nymph that gave its name to the city, said to be the mother (or daughter?) of Palasgus whose name designates the earliest inhabitants of the region, and it is directly copied from the superb facing Arethusa found on the Syracusan tetradrachms engraved by Kimon in the late fifth-century BC. The reverse is significant too: Thessaly being a mostly flat region, vine and olives were little cultivated there – nor were sheep and goats raised, but instead its wealth came from cereals, wheat, cattle (with pasturage), and a special breed of horse.
Estimate: 18000 CHF
Statère (c.356-342).
D'un style et d'une qualité exceptionnels - Magnifique patine médaillier.
Exemplaire de la collection BCD, vente Triton XV du 3 janvier 2012, N° 306.
12.22g - BMC p. 29, 55, pl. V, 14 (mêmes coins)
FDC - CHOICE AU*
It has been hypothesized by Fritz Hermann in 1925 that these coins were issued to celebrate the victory of Medelos of Larissa at Pharsalos c. 395 BC, as told by Diodorus XIV.82.5-6: "Medius, the lord of Larissa in Thessaly, was at war with Lycophron, the tyrant of Pherae, and when he asked for aid to be sent him, the Council dispatched to him two thousand soldiers. After the troops had arrived Medius seized Pharsalus, in which there was a garrison of Lacedaemonians, and sold the inhabitants as booty". The coin's obverse depicts the nymph that gave its name to the city, said to be the mother (or daughter?) of Palasgus whose name designates the earliest inhabitants of the region, and it is directly copied from the superb facing Arethusa found on the Syracusan tetradrachms engraved by Kimon in the late fifth-century BC. The reverse is significant too: Thessaly being a mostly flat region, vine and olives were little cultivated there – nor were sheep and goats raised, but instead its wealth came from cereals, wheat, cattle (with pasturage), and a special breed of horse.
Estimate: 18000 CHF