Locri.   Didrachm circa 279-274 under Pyrrhus, AR 8.19 g. Head of Achilles l., wearing crested helmet ornamented with griffin; beneath neck truncation, [A]. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ / ΠYPPOY Thetis, veiled, seated l. on a sea-horse swimming to r.; she holds the shield of Achilles, adorned with a Gorgon head. BMC 8. SNG Lloyd 657. Jameson 1128. Kraay-Hirmer pl. 150, 473.
Extremely rare and an issue of great historical importance and fascination. Struck on a
very broad flan and complete, light tone and very fine / good very fine

Ex New York sale XXVII, 2012, Prospero 341. Previously privately purchased from Spink & Son 10 March 1987.
Few Greek coins are as explicitly historical as this nomos of Locri, struck in the wake of Roman dominion over Southern Italy. For centuries Rome had been expanding its influence in Italy and it was only a matter of time before the Greeks of Southern Italy felt the sting of Rome. Perhaps the real turning point was 285 B.C., when Thurium sought Rome’s protection against the Lucanians; next came Rhegium and Croton, and then Locri, which received a garrison of Roman soldiers in 282 as a defence against the Brettii. Tarentum, however, resisted. Ever since 303 it had enjoyed a non-aggression pact with Rome, but the Romans breached that agreement in 282 when their ships appeared off the city’s shore. The Tarentines sank some of the vessels, expelled the Roman garrison from Thurium, and in the following year, 281, appealed to King Pyrrhus of Epirus for aid. Pyrrhus gathered an army to defeat Rome, subdue Southern Italy and, according to Plutarch, conquer Sicily and Carthage. He arrived in Italy early in 280 and Locri immediately switched its loyalty from Rome to Pyrrhus. The Greek king soon defeated the Romans at Heraclea, but his subsequent march on Rome in 279 failed, and when he met the Romans again at Ausculum the engagement was so costly that the king could ill afford another ‘Pyrrhic victory’. Thus, at the end of May, 278, Pyrrhus left Italy for a new adventure: defending Syracuse from the Carthaginians. During Pyrrhus’ three fruitless years in Sicily, Locri fell back into Roman hands, seemingly in 277. Thus it was left to the Locrians to slaughter the Roman garrison in 275 to again welcome Pyrrhus on his less-than-triumphant return to Italy. The Epirote king did not stay long in Locri, but made his way to Tarentum, where he prepared to fight the Romans yet again. This time Pyrrhus met the Romans at Beneventum, where he, again, lost too many soldiers to consider the venture a success. Pyrrhus returned to Tarentum, and after some months abandoned his desire to wage war on Rome. In the Fall of 275 or early in 274, Pyrrhus finally sailed back to Epirus, leaving the whole of Southern Italy at the mercy of Rome.