Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXV 22-23 Sep 2022
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Cyprus, Salamis AV Stater. Pnytagoras, circa 351-332 BC. Diademed head of Aphrodite(?) to left; BA behind / Turreted head of Aphrodite to left; ΠN behind. Tziambazis 132; BMC 76; Gulbenkian 813; Jameson 1631; Pozzi 2899. 8.34g, 17mm, 12h.
Near Mint State; highly lustrous metal. Extremely Rare; the finest example offered at auction in over twenty years.
From a private collection in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Pnytagoras became king in 351 BC, following the deposition of his uncle Evagoras II from the throne of Salamis as a result of his refusal to join a pan-Cypriot revolt against the Persian king Artaxerxes III. The revolt was unsuccessful however and Pnytagoras submitted to the Persian king, who magnanimously confirmed him in his position. After Alexander III 'the Great' invaded Persia and won the Battle of Issos in 333 BC, Pnytagoras allied himself with the Macedonians and participated in the siege of Tyre in 332 BC with his fleet, receiving the city of Tamassos as a reward. He died the same year, and was succeeded by his son Nikokreon.
This remarkable stater unusually features the goddess Aphrodite on both its obverse and reverse. The Greeks believed she had been born from the sea at Paphos in Cyprus and she, therefore, was considered to be the patron goddess of the island. The sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia was arguably the most sacred of her shrines and attracted worshippers from across Cyprus and the wider ancient Greek world. Homer refers to a holy altar of Aphrodite at Paphos in the Odyssey (8.362), indicating that the sanctuary had existed at least as far back as the eighth century BC. Archaeological finds have corroborated its existence at that time and, furthermore, some of female figures found have been dated to the third millennium BC, suggesting that worship of a female deity of one form or another had centred on that location since the mid-Bronze age.
Beyond the permanent site at Paphos, Aphrodite was honoured with a magnificent annual festival and worshipped in her various different guises across the island, two of these being represented on either side of this stater. On the obverse she appears as an oriental goddess with long hair in tight curls, wearing a diadem and earring, in a style that highlights the pervasive visual influence of the Achaemenid Persian empire on the island of Cyprus. On the reverse, however, her turreted crown assimilates her to the civic goddess Tyche as protectress of Salamis. Nikokreon would go on to reuse the same types for his own staters after Pnytagoras' death.
Near Mint State; highly lustrous metal. Extremely Rare; the finest example offered at auction in over twenty years.
From a private collection in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Pnytagoras became king in 351 BC, following the deposition of his uncle Evagoras II from the throne of Salamis as a result of his refusal to join a pan-Cypriot revolt against the Persian king Artaxerxes III. The revolt was unsuccessful however and Pnytagoras submitted to the Persian king, who magnanimously confirmed him in his position. After Alexander III 'the Great' invaded Persia and won the Battle of Issos in 333 BC, Pnytagoras allied himself with the Macedonians and participated in the siege of Tyre in 332 BC with his fleet, receiving the city of Tamassos as a reward. He died the same year, and was succeeded by his son Nikokreon.
This remarkable stater unusually features the goddess Aphrodite on both its obverse and reverse. The Greeks believed she had been born from the sea at Paphos in Cyprus and she, therefore, was considered to be the patron goddess of the island. The sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia was arguably the most sacred of her shrines and attracted worshippers from across Cyprus and the wider ancient Greek world. Homer refers to a holy altar of Aphrodite at Paphos in the Odyssey (8.362), indicating that the sanctuary had existed at least as far back as the eighth century BC. Archaeological finds have corroborated its existence at that time and, furthermore, some of female figures found have been dated to the third millennium BC, suggesting that worship of a female deity of one form or another had centred on that location since the mid-Bronze age.
Beyond the permanent site at Paphos, Aphrodite was honoured with a magnificent annual festival and worshipped in her various different guises across the island, two of these being represented on either side of this stater. On the obverse she appears as an oriental goddess with long hair in tight curls, wearing a diadem and earring, in a style that highlights the pervasive visual influence of the Achaemenid Persian empire on the island of Cyprus. On the reverse, however, her turreted crown assimilates her to the civic goddess Tyche as protectress of Salamis. Nikokreon would go on to reuse the same types for his own staters after Pnytagoras' death.