Metapontum.   Nomos circa 340-330, AR 7.37 g. EΛEYΘEPI[OΣ] Head of Zeus r., wearing laurel wreath; behind, Δ. Rev. META Ear of barley with leaf to l. with crouching Silenos above; [A]Δ below. Johnston A 2.1. SNG Lloyd 373 (this obverse die). SNG ANS 451 (these dies). SNG Manchester 202 (these dies). Gillet 193 (this coin). Historia Numorum Italy 1557.
Very rare and in superb condition for the issue. A portrait of Zeus of extraordinary style
struck in high relief. Beautiful dark tone and extremely fine

Ex M&M 54, 1978, 57 and Triton XIV, 2011, 6. From the Gillet collection
Although the city had enjoyed great prosperity in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, due to its fertile agricultural hinterland, in the second half of the fourth century BC, when this nomos was produced, Metapontum was facing increasing difficulties. The city had managed to stave off earlier attacks by the Syracusan tyrants, but now the neighboring Italic peoples, the Lucanians and Bruttians were beginning to pose a serious threat. In an effort to defend against this looming danger, Metapontum allied itself with its longtime rival Tarentum and Alexander the Molossian in 334 BC. Alexander and his mercenary army inflicted several major defeats on the Lucanians and the related Bruttians but was killed by treachery at the Battle of Pandosia in 331 BC. This disaster broke the alliance and left Metapontum and the other Greek cities of southern Italy to face the rising power of the indigenous Italic peoples alone. It is possible that Metapontum was also a member of the Italiote League in 344 BC, when Tarentum invited Archidamus of Sparta to defend the Greek cities against their Italic neighbors, but this is uncertain. This nomos was struck in the period of growing Italic crisis and the campaigns of Archidamus and Alexander the Molossian intended to avert it. It belongs to a much larger series of emissions featuring various deities on the obverse and a grain ear on the reverse and may have been struck in part to finance the struggle against the Lucanians. The grain ear on the reverse was an old badge of the city going back to the sixth century BC, while the obverse depicts and names [Zeus] Eleutherios (”Freedom”). The latter was especially popularized at Syracuse under Timoleon in the same period and this coin may perhaps reflect some degree of Syracusan influence. It is also tempting to suggest that the Metapontine Eleutherios issue might have been intended to be paired with the unique nomos depicting and naming Damokratia, the personification of Democracy (cf. Triton VIII, lot 34). If so, they seem to advertise the cherished institutions of the city threatened by the encroachments of the Lucanians.