Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIX 26-27 Mar 2020
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Kyrenaika, Kyrene AR Tetradrachm. Circa 480-435 BC. Silphium plant with two pairs of leaves and five umbels, root below / Head of Zeus Ammon to right; KYPA before; all within circular border formed by two linear circles enclosing a circle of pellets; all within shallow circular incuse. BMC 42-43 (same rev. die); Jameson 1350 (same rev. die); Traité III 1806, pl. 263/5; SNG Copenhagen -; Warren 1342 (same obv. die) = Boston MFA 1310 (same obv. die). 17.23g, 25mm, 6h.
Extremely Fine; beautiful deep old cabinet tone. Extremely Rare.
From a private North American Collection;
Acquired from Freeman & Sear Inc., November 2007;
Ex Dr. Albert M. Potts (1914-2001) Collection;
Acquired in France, c. 1969.
Kyrene was founded in 631 BC by Dorian settlers from Thera and their leader Battos, as instructed by the Delphic oracle. Around a hundred years later as the city grew in prosperity to rival even Carthage, Kyrene began issuing silver coins of archaic style on small, thick modules. Virtually all of the coins of Kyrene display the badge of the city and the principal, indeed critically important, source of its wealth - the silphium plant. The importance of this plant species from an extremely early date is attested by the fact that both the Egyptians and Minoans developed and employed a specific glyph to represent the silphium plant.
The silphium plant was described as having a thick root, a stalk like fennel, large alternating leaves with leaflets like celery, spherical clusters of small yellow flowers at the top and broad leaf-like, heart-shaped fruit called phyllon. The plant was valued in ancient times because of its many uses as a food source, seasoning for food, and, most importantly, as a medication. Perfumes were made from the flowers, the stalk was used for food or fodder while the juice and root were used to make a variety of medical potions. Aside from its uses in Greco-Roman cooking (as in recipes by Apicius), the many medical applications of the plant included use to treat cough, sore throat, fever, indigestion, aches and pains, warts, and it has even been speculated that the plant may also have functioned as a contraceptive, based partly on testimony from Pliny.
The plant only grew along a narrow coastal area, about 125 by 35 miles. Much of the speculation about the cause of its extinction rests on a sudden demand for animals that grazed on the plant, for some supposed effect on the quality of the meat. Overgrazing combined with over harvesting and climate change led to its extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphium found in Kyrenaika was given to the Emperor Nero as a curiosity. The city never recovered from the extinction of its principal export, and economic decline combined with a series of devastating earthquakes led to the abandonment of the city in the 4th Century AD.
The syncretic god Zeus Ammon, depicted on the obverse of this coin, combines the Greek Zeus with the Egyptian king of gods, Amun-Ra, who was often shown in Egyptian art with a ram's head. Zeus Ammon was also especially worshipped in Sparta and Thebes, both of which are recorded by Pausanias as having temples to the god (see his Description of Greece 3.18.3 and 9.16.1). The oracle was famed in later times for being visited by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and later Hannibal.
The present coin is remarkable not only for the quality of the artistry employed on the reverse portrait of Zeus Ammon, which displays a finely groomed beard with curled strands; moreover the artist responsible for the obverse die has engraved a feature of the silphium plant that is omitted from virtually every other known Kyrenaikan coin – the thick root of the silphium plant.
Extremely Fine; beautiful deep old cabinet tone. Extremely Rare.
From a private North American Collection;
Acquired from Freeman & Sear Inc., November 2007;
Ex Dr. Albert M. Potts (1914-2001) Collection;
Acquired in France, c. 1969.
Kyrene was founded in 631 BC by Dorian settlers from Thera and their leader Battos, as instructed by the Delphic oracle. Around a hundred years later as the city grew in prosperity to rival even Carthage, Kyrene began issuing silver coins of archaic style on small, thick modules. Virtually all of the coins of Kyrene display the badge of the city and the principal, indeed critically important, source of its wealth - the silphium plant. The importance of this plant species from an extremely early date is attested by the fact that both the Egyptians and Minoans developed and employed a specific glyph to represent the silphium plant.
The silphium plant was described as having a thick root, a stalk like fennel, large alternating leaves with leaflets like celery, spherical clusters of small yellow flowers at the top and broad leaf-like, heart-shaped fruit called phyllon. The plant was valued in ancient times because of its many uses as a food source, seasoning for food, and, most importantly, as a medication. Perfumes were made from the flowers, the stalk was used for food or fodder while the juice and root were used to make a variety of medical potions. Aside from its uses in Greco-Roman cooking (as in recipes by Apicius), the many medical applications of the plant included use to treat cough, sore throat, fever, indigestion, aches and pains, warts, and it has even been speculated that the plant may also have functioned as a contraceptive, based partly on testimony from Pliny.
The plant only grew along a narrow coastal area, about 125 by 35 miles. Much of the speculation about the cause of its extinction rests on a sudden demand for animals that grazed on the plant, for some supposed effect on the quality of the meat. Overgrazing combined with over harvesting and climate change led to its extinction. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphium found in Kyrenaika was given to the Emperor Nero as a curiosity. The city never recovered from the extinction of its principal export, and economic decline combined with a series of devastating earthquakes led to the abandonment of the city in the 4th Century AD.
The syncretic god Zeus Ammon, depicted on the obverse of this coin, combines the Greek Zeus with the Egyptian king of gods, Amun-Ra, who was often shown in Egyptian art with a ram's head. Zeus Ammon was also especially worshipped in Sparta and Thebes, both of which are recorded by Pausanias as having temples to the god (see his Description of Greece 3.18.3 and 9.16.1). The oracle was famed in later times for being visited by Alexander the Great in 331 BC and later Hannibal.
The present coin is remarkable not only for the quality of the artistry employed on the reverse portrait of Zeus Ammon, which displays a finely groomed beard with curled strands; moreover the artist responsible for the obverse die has engraved a feature of the silphium plant that is omitted from virtually every other known Kyrenaikan coin – the thick root of the silphium plant.