LAKONIA

Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 2329. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LAKONIA, Lakedaimon (Sparta). Areus I. 309-265 BC. AR Obol (0.79 g, 2h). Stuck circa 265 BC. Bearded head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Upright club with four knot pairs; flanked by stars of five rays. Grunauer group II, series 1, 3 (V1/R2); BCD Peloponnesos 839. Fine, find patina, ragged edge. Extremely rare.

Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS sale), purchased from F. Kovacs, 3 June 1975.

This coin clarifies a mistake in Grunauer’s description of this series. Although she does not specify the quantity of rays for the stars in her group II series 2 and 3, she does note there are six rays for the stars in series 1. Although the photograph is rather poor, upon close examination of the illustration of her reverse die R2, one can see that her reverse die R2 may only have five rays per star. This coin and BCD Pelop. 839, two other coins from the same reverse die, confirms this correction.

The history of Lakonia and its chief city, Lakedaimon (Sparta), were closely interconnected. Sparta was renowned for its military prowess, as well as its austerity, both in lifestyle and in language, so much so that the “Laconic Phrase” was renowned even in Classical times. Settlement in Sparta stretched back to the Mycenean period and, according to Homer, it was ruled by Menelaus and his wife Helen. Beginning in the early Archaic period, two ruling houses, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, ruled Sparta jointly. Under the reforms of the mytho-historical Lykourgos in the early seventh century BC, the Spartan state underwent a significant restructuring along military lines. This new system, designed to build a strong army, required all men to train and live in common. Boys at the age of seven were sent to the agoge, where they received rigorous education and training. The Spartan citizenry was divided into three groups: the free citizens of Sparta; the perioikoi, those who lived outside of the city, free citizens who lacked civic rights; and the heilotes (helots), or slaves, most of whom were Messenian.

While the Spartans desired to remain apart from the other Greeks, they nevertheless did leave the Peloponnesus to assist them in their wars. The most famous example of this is the role of the 300 Spartans, under their king Leonidas, at Thermopylai. Also, at Plataiai in 479 BC, it was the Spartan hoplites who forever ended the hope of a Persian conquest. During the rest of the 5th century BC, Spartan competition with Athens for supremacy among the Greeks led to the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which Sparta ultimately won. The rise of Macedon during the 4th century BC, and its successor kingdoms, weakened the power of Sparta, compelling it to become part of the Achaen League until 146 BC, when it became an ally of Rome.