Further Selection from the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection of Coins of Neapolis

233, Lot: 3. Estimate $100. Sold for $76. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CAMPANIA, Neapolis. 420-400 BC. AR Nomos (20mm, 6.83 g, 11h). Head of Athena left, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with [wreath] / Man-headed bull standing right. Rutter 50 (O29/R46); HN Italy 554. Fine.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex Triton I (2 December 1997), lot 28.

Classical Numismatic Group is pleased to offer another selection of coinage from Magna Graecia from the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. As with his previously offered Tarentum and Metapontion collections, this selection of the coinages of Neapolis contains a variety of issues, some rarely seen at auction.

Neapolis, modern-day Naples, located in Southwestern Italy in the region of Campania on the Bay of Naples, an arm of the Tyrrhenian Sea, was founded from Cumae (Cuma) by the Greeks in 650 BC, along the port area, including the little island of Megaris (the Castel dell’Ovo). Further colonists came from Chalcis in Euboea, from Pithecusae (Ischia) beside the Gulf of Cumae, and from Athens. An extension of the city was laid out in a rectangular grid pattern toward the northeast, which was given the name Neapolis. After the city of Neapolis was created, the oldest part of the city became known as Palaiopolis or Palaipolis (Old City). That city was conquered by the Roman general Quintus Publilius Philo about 327/6 BC, after which Neapolis became an ally of the Romans, issuing bronze coins, with legends in Greek, extending help in their hostilities against Pyrrhos of Epeiros (280-275 BC) and against Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC).

Throughout its history, the water was a source of pride to its local community. It follows naturally, then, that the predominant reverse type of the Nomoi represents a water god as a man-headed bull walking right or left, being crowned with a wreath by Nike flying above. The Neapolitan bull is meant to represent Achelöos, the greatest water god of ancient Greece. Achelöos, referred to by Homer (Iliad XXI.194), was the longest river in mainland Greece. The cult of this powerful water god spread throughout ancient Greece. Achelöos’ battle with Herakles for the hand of Deianeira is a legend that made him particularly popular.

Additional coins from the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection are offered in the Large Lots section of the sale.