Artemidorus and the Oneirocritica

363, Lot: 288. Estimate $1000. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYDIA, Daldis. Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ (33mm, 23.34 g, 6h). Artemidorus, archon. AV KAIC CЄΠT CЄOYHPOC Π, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ЄΠI APTЄM-IΔΩPOY-ΛAN APX A[...], Apollo Mystes seated right, playing lyre, and Magna Mater (Cybele) seated left on throne, holding patera over lion to left and resting elbow upon drum; ΔAΛΔIA/NΩN in two lines in exergue. ArtCoins Roma 4, lot 145 = Gorny & Mosch 126, lot 1836; otherwise unpublished. VF, green-brown patina, minor roughness. Extremely rare, and by far the nicer of the two known.

Ex Marcel Burstein Collection; Münzen und Medaillen AG 41 (19 June 1970), lot 415.

This Artemidorus is likely the famous diviner of Daldis, or possibly a similarly-named offspring. Known from an extant five volume work on the interpretations of dreams (the Oneirocritica), he gathered the material for his work during visits with fellow diviners throughout the northern Mediterranean and Asia Minor.