Search


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services



Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

The Founding of Thebes

424, Lot: 294. Estimate $200.
Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Valerian I. AD 253-260. Æ (27mm, 13.98 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Cadmus standing left, holding patera and spear; at feet to left, cow reclining right; in left field, city gate of Thebes above ΘH/BЄ; murex shell to right. Rouvier 2500; BMC –. VF, earthen green surfaces. Rare.


While travelling through Greece in search of his abducted sister Europa, the Phoenician prince Cadmus consulted the Delphic oracle, where he was instructed to follow a sacred cow and found a city on the spot where it should finally take rest. Cadmus followed the instructions, and the spot where the cow stopped became the great city of Thebes in Boeotia.