ACHAIA

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 2171. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ACHAIA, Aigai. Circa 500-470 BC. AR Hemidrachm (2.56 g). Forepart of goat right; )ZA (= retrograde archaic AIΓ) / Incuse square with Maltese cross design in relief. BCD Peloponnesos -; Traité I 1188-90; Weber 3944. VF, lightly toned, some granularity to surfaces. Extremely rare, BCD was unable to acquire a single specimen in the years of assembling his Peloponnesos collection.

Located along the northern coast of the Peloponnesos, Achaia was a narrow territory between Sicyon and Elis. One theory suggests that Achaia’s original inhabitants were driven to the area from Achaia Phthoitis, which itself was located across the Gulf of Corinth in southern Thessaly. A number of prehistoric and Mycenaean ruins in the western part of the Achaia indicate that the district was long inhabited, even into remote antiquity. Twelve city-states were located there: Aigai, Aigira, Aigion, Bura, Dyme, Helike, Olenos, Patrai, Pherai, Pelene, Rhypes, and Tritaia. Achaian colonies were established in Magna Graecia at Kroton, Kaulonia, Metapontion, and Sybaris. From the mid-5th century onward, much of the history of Achaia is interconnected with the Achaian League.