Artemide Aste s.r.l.
Auction LIII 2-3 May 2020
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Greek Italy. Etruria, Populonia. AR 5-Units, 4th-3rd century BC. D/ Amphora; to left, Λ. R/ Blank. Vecchi EC I, 3; HN Italy 106. AR. g. 5.72 mm. 17.00 RRR. Extremely rare and undoubtedly among the finest of five recorded examples. Sharply struck in high relief and attractively toned. Good VF.
This coin was struck in the crucial years of the Punic war, between 217 and 215 BC. On this subject we know that the Etruscans remained loyal to Rome in 217 (the dreadful year of the defeat of consul C. Flaminius Nepos on the shores of lake Trasimeno at the hands of Hannibal), just as the great Carthaginian general was doing his best to convince them to join his side. Only in later years, in 208 as we learn from Titus Livius ( XXVII, 24, 1-9), did an uprising take place in Arezzo, spreading afterwards to the whole Etruria and Umbria. (NAC 13, 1988, lot 6 note).
This coin was struck in the crucial years of the Punic war, between 217 and 215 BC. On this subject we know that the Etruscans remained loyal to Rome in 217 (the dreadful year of the defeat of consul C. Flaminius Nepos on the shores of lake Trasimeno at the hands of Hannibal), just as the great Carthaginian general was doing his best to convince them to join his side. Only in later years, in 208 as we learn from Titus Livius ( XXVII, 24, 1-9), did an uprising take place in Arezzo, spreading afterwards to the whole Etruria and Umbria. (NAC 13, 1988, lot 6 note).