LUCANIA, Herakleia. Circa 390-340 BC. AR Nomos (20.5mm, 7.87 g, 6h). Head of Athena right, wearing single-pendant earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with Skylla throwing stone held in right hand; EY to right / Herakles standing facing, torso right, strangling the Nemean Lion to right; [|-HPAKΛ]-EIΩN above, [AΠOΛ] and club to left, oinochoe below. Work 47 (same dies); Van Keuren 51 (same obv. die as illustration); HN Italy 1378; Hunterian 7 (same dies); Weber 706 (same dies). Trace deposits, slight die wear on reverse. Good VF. Well centered.
Herakleia was a relatively late foundation along the instep of the Italian “boot,” starting out as a compromise settlement between the warring city-states of Thourioi and Tarentum in circa 432 BC. Although widely regarded as a colony of Tarentum, Heraclea considered itself independent and played host to an annual meeting of envoys from all the Italo-Greek cities. Named after Herakles, the city’s coinage naturally depicted the powerful demigod on the reverse, here in a deadly embrace with the Nemean Lion.
