The Coinage of Rhegion

Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 38. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Rhegion. Circa 450-445 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.10 g, 2h). Facing lion's head / RECIN-OS (S is retrograde), Iokastos (or Aristaios?) seated left, holding scepter; all within laurel wreath. Herzfelder 11 var. (D-/R10 [unlisted obv. die]); HN Italy 2477; SNG Lloyd 677 (same rev. die); BMC 9 (same rev. die); Boston MFA 202 (same rev. die). VF, three short parallel scraches to right of lion. Well centered and struck on a broad flan.

Rhegion (mod. Reggio Calabria), a Chalkidian colony established in the eighth century BC, was among the earliest Greek settlements in southern Italy. Situated on a harbor at the mouth of the river Apsias at the tip of Italy along the Sicilian Strait opposite Zankle (Messana), the city was perfectly located to facilitate trade with the Greek cities in Sicily. Very little is known of its early history. The poet Ibykos was born there in the sixth century BC, and the city was ruled by an oligarchy until 494 BC, when Anaxilas became tyrant. During his rule, Rhegion seized Zankle from the Samians in 488 BC, renaming it Messana. Rhegion also sided with the Carthaginians in their war against Syracuse circa 480 BC. After the death of Anaxilas, control of Rhegion passed to his sons, until they were ousted from the city in 461 BC. In 433 BC, the city allied with Athens, providing the latter with a base in 427 BC, but it did not assist Athens during the disastrous Sicilian Expedition in 415 BC. Regardless, Rhegion pursued an anti-Syracusan policy thereafter, resulting in the sacking of the city by the Syracusan tyrant Dionysios I in 387 BC. In 358 BC, Rhegion was rebuilt under the name Phoibeia, and later supported Timoleon during his successful bid to wrest control of Syracuse from Dionysios II and Hiketas. Rhegion first came into the Roman sphere of influence in 280 BC, when the Rhegians asked for a Roman garrison to help resist Pyrrhos' attempts to take the city. Rhegion became a civitas foederata of Rome in 270 BC, and was a steadfast ally of Rome during the Second Punic War. In 90/89 BC, the city finally became a Roman municipium.

The coinage of Rhegion began around 510 BC, with an issue of drachms of incuse type. This coinage was apparently quite limited, and regular coinage did not commence until the time of Anaxilas, when a double-relief series was initiated. His first issue, featuring a facing lion's head on the obverse and left facing calf's head on the reverse, began either upon his assumption of the tyranny, or, more likely, upon his capture of Zankle. The later date is supported by three factors: it is thought that the lion head was influenced by Samian types; Anaxilas' was in league with the Samian exiles who captured Zankle; and the first issue of Messana features the same types. Nonetheless, other factors, such as the metrology of the two series, suggest that the issues at Rhegion may have preceded those at Messana. After an Olympic victory circa 480 BC, Anaxilas introduced a new coinage at both cities, with a biga on the obverse and running hare on the reverse. It is speculated that the hare is related to Orion, god of the straits, and therefore symbolizes the unity of Rhegion and Messana. This coinage continued during the reign of Anaxilas' sons, but was abandoned upon their ouster.

In 450 BC, a new coinage was established that revived the facing lion's head obverse, but with a new reverse featuring a figure seated left within a laurel wreath border. The figure, displayed either as a muscular youth or a mature bearded man, holds a staff and either a phiale or kantharos, and often has adjunct symbols: a dog, serpent, duck, crow, or grapes. J.P. Six (in NC 1898, pp. 281-5) identified the figure as Iokastos, the oikistes (founder) of Rhegion, the traditional identification, but others, such as Head (in HN), suggested Aristaios, son of Apollo. Iokastos was one of six sons of Aiolos, ruler of the Aeolian Islands. All of the sons of Aiolos secured their own realms in Italy and Sicily, with Iokastos taking the region around Rhegion. Aristaios, born in Libya, discovered the silphium plant, and was the patron of beekeepers (mentioned by Virgil), shepherds, vintners, and olive growers. He also protected Dionysos as a child, and was the lover of Eurydike. While Iokastos has direct connections with Rhegion, the subsidiary imagery of youth and old age, kantharos, grapes, dog, and