Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXVII 22-23 Mar 2023
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Bruttium, Kaulonia AR Stater. Circa 525-500 BC. Nude Apollo walking to right, holding laurel branch, small daimon running to right on extended arm, holding branches; to right, stag standing to right with head reverted, KAVΛ to left; all within dot and cable border / Incuse of obverse, but no ethnic. Noe, Caulonia, Group A, 5 (same dies); SNG ANS 142 (same dies); Gulbenkian 119 (same dies); McClean 1589-90 (same dies); HN Italy 2035; HGC 1, 1416. 8.33g, 31mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone.
Ex Nomos AG, Auction 13, 7 October 2016, lot 116;
Ex SKA-Monetarium, FPL 47, Spring 1987, no. 5.
The design of the incuse staters of Kaulonia has elicited various interpretations over the years; those that were current at the time of writing Historia Numorum in 1911 were reviewed by Barclay Head. Head interpreted the figure as being a representation of the oikist Typhon, who holds in his hand a plant (καυλος) stalk, alike to that of the parsnip plant, which he takes to be a punning allusion to the city. Modern scholarship however tends to identify the figure as Apollo, as the symbolism is more easily associated with this deity - a laurel branch, for instance, being more easily recognisable and sacred to Apollo. The small running figure most likely represents a daimon, a divinity of a lower order, who serves as a messenger of the gods. It may be, given his occasionally winged feet, that this daimon should be seen to be a wind god such as Zephyros. The stag is the only element which has consistently defied explanation (even by Head); its meaning was clearly sufficiently explicit and important for it to have eventually served as a the principle reverse type of Kaulonia. It may be a reference to Artemis, who at Aegium was worshipped jointly with Apollo in a temple the two gods shared.
Extremely Fine; beautiful old cabinet tone.
Ex Nomos AG, Auction 13, 7 October 2016, lot 116;
Ex SKA-Monetarium, FPL 47, Spring 1987, no. 5.
The design of the incuse staters of Kaulonia has elicited various interpretations over the years; those that were current at the time of writing Historia Numorum in 1911 were reviewed by Barclay Head. Head interpreted the figure as being a representation of the oikist Typhon, who holds in his hand a plant (καυλος) stalk, alike to that of the parsnip plant, which he takes to be a punning allusion to the city. Modern scholarship however tends to identify the figure as Apollo, as the symbolism is more easily associated with this deity - a laurel branch, for instance, being more easily recognisable and sacred to Apollo. The small running figure most likely represents a daimon, a divinity of a lower order, who serves as a messenger of the gods. It may be, given his occasionally winged feet, that this daimon should be seen to be a wind god such as Zephyros. The stag is the only element which has consistently defied explanation (even by Head); its meaning was clearly sufficiently explicit and important for it to have eventually served as a the principle reverse type of Kaulonia. It may be a reference to Artemis, who at Aegium was worshipped jointly with Apollo in a temple the two gods shared.