Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 729. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SYRIA, Decapolis. Gadara. Gordian III. 238-244 AD. Æ 25mm (13.33 gm). Dated year 303 (240/1 AD). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Galley being rowed right; date in exergue. Spijkerman 93/1; Rosenberger 90. Good VF, brown patina. Rare. ($300)

At first the glance, the appearance of a sea-going galley is an oddity on a coin from a land-locked desert city. But the Gadarenes never forgot their origins as a foundation by the great Roman naval commander Pompey. Other coins refer specifically to the naumachia, or naval games sponsored by the city, as a festival located on the nearby Yarmuk river.