Metapontum
Tetrobol circa 290-280, AV 2.61 g. Head of Nike, facing three-quarters r., wearing ampyx and double pearl necklace. Rev. ΜΕΤΑΠΟΝ Ear of barley with leaf to r.; in r. field, crater. Gulbenkian 71 (these dies). SNG Lockett 405 (this coin). SNG ANS 396 (these dies). AMB 152 (these dies). Johnston G4 (this coin illustrated). Historia Numorum Italy 1629. Very rare and in exceptional condition for the issue, undoubtedly the finest specimen known. A portrait of enchanting beauty perfectly struck in high relief. Good extremely fine Ex Glendining’s sale 25 October 1955, Lockett part I, 291. From an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s. After its foundation by Greek colonists from Achaea in 720 BC, Metapontum profited greatly from the fertile lands that surrounded it. Metapontum grew into one of the wealthy Greek cities of southern Italy. However, in the fifth century BC the city began to fall into decline. It managed to weather its ill-advised support for the doomed Athenian Expedition against Syracuse in 414-413 BC and later attacks by Dionysius I of Syracuse, but the city was no longer what it had once been. In the fourth century BC, Metapontum and neighboring cities of Magna Graecia were increasingly threatened by the Italic Lucanians. Indeed, their menace was felt so keenly by Metapontum that in 344 BC the city entered into alliance with its longtime rival, Tarentum, and the Molossian king, Alexander I, in the hope of breaking Lucanian power. Unfortunately, despite several victories, Alexander was betrayed and killed at the Battle of Pandosia (331 BC), thus leaving Metapontum and Magna Graecia at large without a defender. Nevertheless, the Metapontines reacted with dismay when Tarentum hired the grand army of the Spartan mercenary leader Cleonymus to campaign against the Lucanians in 303-302 BC. Cleonymus quickly compelled to make peace and then promptly threatened Metapontum. The Tarentines were spared only after promising to pay the vast sum of 600 talents and providing 200 of their most attractive women as hostages. The present gold tetrobol may have been struck in the early third century as part of the Metapontine effort to pay off the indemnity imposed by Cleonymus. The three-quarter facing head of Nike on the obverse reflects the continued influence of the celebrated facing Arethusa type designed by Kimon for the coinage of Syracuse at the end of the fifth century BC. The ear of barley on the reverse was a recognized badge of the city that extended back to the beginning of Metapontine coinage in the sixth century BC.