Alliance with Temesa

CNG 90, Lot: 325. Estimate $750. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTTIUM, Kroton. Circa 430-420 BC. AR Nomos (17mm, 8.01 g, 11h). Tripod, legs terminating in lion's feet / Corinthian helmet right. HN Italy 2122; SNG ANS 448 (same dies). Near VF, toned, some horn silver. Very rare.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex Hagen Tronnier Collection (Künker 94, 27 September 2004), lot 204; Auctiones 20 (8 November 1990), lot 105.

This coinage parallels a similar issue at Temesa. In 510 BC, Kroton destroyed its rival, Sybaris. Current scholarship indicates that the city of Temesa was associated with Sybaris, and that, following the destruction of the latter, Temesa came under the domination of Kroton. It has been thought that this parallel coin issue represents a military alliance between the cities, apparently based on the military nature of the iconography, but no historical record of such an alliance exists. Both coins exhibit a tripod on the obverse and a helmet on the reverse. Rather than the helmet indicating a military purpose, it is more likely that it is simply the civic badge of Temesa, and therefore each city’s badge appears on the coins. As such, it is more likely that the coinage represents a political/civic alliance between Kroton and Temesa. The Temesan coins also feature a pair of greaves on the obverse, which may be an attribute of that city’s most prominent deity, Polites (see Strabo, VI.1.5).