★ Athamanes, the tribe of Epeiros ★

Epeiros. Uncertain mint. The Athamanes circa 168-146 BC.
Bronze Æ

18 mm., 4,75 g.

Laureate head of Apollo right / AΘA-MA, head and neck of bull facing slightly left.

nearly very fine

HGC 3.1, 187.

The Athamanes were a rude people. Strabo classes them among the Thessalians, but doubts whether they are to be regarded as Hellenes. (Strab. ix. p.434, x. p. 449.) On the decay of the Molossian kingdom, they appear as an independent people. They were the last of the Epirot tribes, which obtained political power. The Athamanes and the Aetolians destroyed the Aenianes, and the former extended their dominions as far as Mt. Oeta. (Strab. p. 427.) The Athamanes were most powerful under their king Amynander (about 200 BC), who took a prominent part in the wars of the Romans with Philip and Antiochos. (Dict. of Biogr. art. Amynander.) They were subsequently subdued by the Macedonians, and in the time of Strabo had ceased to exist as a separate people (ix. p. 429). Pliny (4.2) erroneously reckons Athamania as part of Aetolia.