Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 98 16 Jun 2022
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Plautilla (wife of Caracalla) Æ 22mm of Mantineia, Arcadia. AD 202-205. Illegible inscription, draped bust to right / MANTINЄѠN, horse stepping to right, with right forepaw raised. BCD Peloponnesos I -; BCD Peloponnesos II -; BMC -; NCP -; cgb.fr 53, lot 383. 5.87g, 22mm, 11h.
Very Fine. Unpublished and seemingly the second known example.
From a private English collection.
Pausanias, the Greek traveller and geographer of the mid-2nd century AD, author of the 'Description of Greece', has left us an explanation for the horse on the reverse of the coin: 'There are roads leading from Mantineia into the rest of Arcadia, and I will go on to describe the most noteworthy objects on each of them. On the left of the highway leading to Tegea there is, beside the walls of Mantineia, a place where horses race, and not far from it is a racecourse, where they celebrate the games in honour of Antinoüs. Above the racecourse is Mount Alesium, ... By the foot of the mountain is the sanctuary of Horse Poseidon, not more than six stades distant from Mantineia. About this sanctuary I, like everyone else who has mentioned it, can write only what I have heard. The modern sanctuary was built by the Emperor Hadrian, who set overseers over the workmen, so that nobody might look into the old sanctuary, and none of the ruins be removed. He ordered them to build around the new temple. Originally, they say, this sanctuary was built for Poseidon by Agamedes and Trophonius, who worked oak logs and fitted them together', [8.10.1-2].
Very Fine. Unpublished and seemingly the second known example.
From a private English collection.
Pausanias, the Greek traveller and geographer of the mid-2nd century AD, author of the 'Description of Greece', has left us an explanation for the horse on the reverse of the coin: 'There are roads leading from Mantineia into the rest of Arcadia, and I will go on to describe the most noteworthy objects on each of them. On the left of the highway leading to Tegea there is, beside the walls of Mantineia, a place where horses race, and not far from it is a racecourse, where they celebrate the games in honour of Antinoüs. Above the racecourse is Mount Alesium, ... By the foot of the mountain is the sanctuary of Horse Poseidon, not more than six stades distant from Mantineia. About this sanctuary I, like everyone else who has mentioned it, can write only what I have heard. The modern sanctuary was built by the Emperor Hadrian, who set overseers over the workmen, so that nobody might look into the old sanctuary, and none of the ruins be removed. He ordered them to build around the new temple. Originally, they say, this sanctuary was built for Poseidon by Agamedes and Trophonius, who worked oak logs and fitted them together', [8.10.1-2].