Lucania, Heraclea
Nomos circa 390-340, AR 7.48 g. Head of Athena facing three-quarters r., wearing triple-crested Attic helmet. Rev. |-HPAKΛ[HIΩN] Heracles standing r., strangling the Nemean lion; in l. field, [bow]. Jameson 238 (these dies). SNG München 813 (these dies). Gillet 122 (this coin). Jameson 238 (this coin). Work 21. Van Keuren 20. SNG ANS 56. Historia Numorum Italy 1375. Very rare. Wonderful iridescent tone and good very fine / very fine Ex Hirsch XIV, 1905, 75 and Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge 26 April 1907, 27 sales. From the Jameson and Charles Gillet collections and an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s. The types of this nomos reflect the cultural and artistic influences on Tarentum in the early fourth century BC. The obverse type is a superbly rendered three-quarter facing head of Athena wearing a triple-crested helmet. It is almost certainly derived from the famous image of the goddess engraved by Euainetos for Syracusan tetradrachms in the period 405-400 BC. This Syracusan type, along with the three-quarter facing head of Arethusa engraved by Kimon, was extremely popular and exerted a great influence on the development of coin types throughout the Mediterranean in the fourth century BC. The reverse depicts Heracles slaying the Nemean lion as the first of his Twelve Labors. It appears here as an indicator of the ethnic origins of the Tarentines. Tarentum was arguably the greatest of the few colonies sent out from the Dorian Greek city of Sparta. Like all Dorians, the Spartans claimed to be the descendants of the sons of Heracles who returned to the Peloponnesus to reclaim their lands after a period of exile. Indeed, the dual kings of Sparta were said to be direct heirs of Heracles through Eurysthenes and Procles. As Tarentum was founded in 708 BC by members of the disenfranchised Parthenian class of Sparta, the Tarentines could also claim Heraclid descent.