The Coinage of Tarentum

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 12. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $2200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CALABRIA, Tarentum. Circa 480-470 BC. AR Nomos (8.09 g). Phalanthos, raising left hand, riding dolphin right; retrograde TARAS behind, cockle shell below / Wheel of four spokes. Fischer-Bossert 81 (V41/R55); Vlasto 74 (same dies); HN Italy 833; SNG Copenhagen 767 (same dies); Boston MFA 47 (same dies); Jameson 82 (same dies). Good VF, toned.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group 72 (14 June 2006), lot 66.

According to tradition the Spartan colony of Taras (mod. Taranto), known as Tarentum by the Romans, was founded in 706 BC under the leadership of Phalanthos. The city derives its name from Taras, the son of Poseidon and a local nymph, Satyra. It adopted a democratic form of government circa 475 BC, and thereafter became the leading Greek city in southern Italy. Its success led to continual difficulties with its neighbor cities, and on four occasions Tarentum required expeditions from Greece to help overcome its aggressors. The last of these expeditions was led by the famed Epeirote, Pyrrhos. Following his withdrawal from the city, Tarentum was occupied by the Romans. Tarentum was among the early cities of Magna Graecia to strike coinage, employing the incuse type that was the hallmark of the first Italian coinages. Taras’ prosperity is exemplified by its vast coinage known today which was continuous from 510 BC until the end of the Second Punic War. The primary type recurring throughout the coinage is a figure astride a dolphin, which depicts either Taras, the city’s namesake, or Phalanthos, who was said to have been saved from drowning by a dolphin.