Larissa

Pedigreed to 1937

CNG 112, Lot: 154. Estimate $1000. Sold for $1900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 450/40-420 BC. AR Drachm (18.5mm, 6.06 g, 6h). Thessalos, nude but for petasos and cloak tied at neck, holding band across horns of bull leaping left / Horse leaping right, trailing rein, within incuse square. Lorber, Thessalian 52; BCD Thessaly II 175 (this coin); HGC 4, 420. Beautiful old collection tone. Good VF.

Ex Roma IV (30 September 2012), lot 126 (hammer £2400); BCD Collection (Triton XV, 3 January 2012), lot 175; G. Hirsch 156 (25 November 1987) lot 115; Robert Ball FPL 39 (April 1937), 339.

Inhabited since Paleolithic times, Larissa was an important agricultural center and in antiquity was particularly renowned for its horses. Like many other towns in the Pelasgiotis region of Thessaly, its name was of Pelasgian origin meaning "citadel". According to the Scholiast on Apollonios (1.1, v.40), Larissa at the time of Homer was called Argissa, and it is thought to be where the famous Greek physician Hippocrates and the famous philosopher Gorgias of Leontini died. The city was home to the most important of Thessaly's aristocratic families – the Aleuadai, who before 369 BC frequently furnished the ταγός.The principal rivals of the Aleuadai were the Scopadai of Krannon. Larissa was the birthplace of Meno, who, along with Xenophon (among others), led the ill-fated expedition of Greek mercenaries in 401 BC to help Cyrus the Younger overthrow his elder brother Artaxerxes II and take the throne of Persia. Meno is also the subject of a Platonic dialogue of the same name.

Larissa was directly annexed by Philip II of Macedon in 344 BC. In 302 BC, Demetrios Poliorketes gained possession of Larissa for a time. It was in Larissa that Philip V of Macedon in 197 BC signed a treaty with the Romans after his defeat at Kynoskephalai. In 192 BC, Antiochos III won a great victory there during the Roman-Syrian War. In 196 BC, Larissa became an ally of Rome and the headquarters of the Thessalian League. Pompey sought refuge at Larissa after his defeat at Pharsalos in 48 BC.

NOTE FOR THIS COIN BELOW

The taurokathapsia was a form of bull fighting that was popular at many games in the ancient Greek world, and particularly in Crete and Thessaly. Scenes of this event are depicted on coins from various cities of Thessaly, but the type is especially prevalent in the 5th century BC coinage at Larissa, which provides much of the current evidence about the taurokathapsia today. In the Thessalian version of the event, a man on horseback was to chase down and subdue a bull. He first rode alongside the running bull, then grabbed the bull by the horns and jumped from his steed onto the back of the bull. Still holding the horns, the rider then dismounted the bull, and attempted to wrestle it to the ground. A detailed account of this type of taurokathapsia scene is described in Heliodoros, Aeth. 10, 28-30. Interestingly, the early phase of the event is not depicted on the coins at Larissa, but can be seen on rare issues of Atrax (BCD Thessaly II 53), where the rider is pursuing the bull, and the Thessalian League (BCD Thessaly II 897), where the rider is shown moving from his horse to the bull.