Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 780. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $675. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Epiphaneia. Trebonianus Gallus. 251-253 AD. Æ 32mm (27.83 gm, 1h). Dated CY 319 (251/2 AD). [AV]T TPEBWNIOC GALLOC EV EV CEB, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / EPIFANEWN, Dionysus in chariot drawn by two panthers, holding thyrsus in left hand and reins in right, guided by satyr who holds a lagobolon; QIT (date) across field, cista and amphora in exergue. SNG Levante -; SNG France 2404; BMC Lycaonia -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. Good VF, dark green patina with earthen encrustation. ($750)

A wonderful Dionysiac type, much better than the only published specimen in Paris; the cult objects in the exergue are not visible on the Paris piece. The theme of the Dionysiac procession represents the struggle of the young god, son of Zeus and Semele, to gain his place among the gods of the Greek pantheon. In literature his progression, accompanied by satyrs and maenads, is hailed from Greece to the shores of India, i.e. the entire known world, as he brings ectasy and the knowledge of wine to all peoples. The later epic poet Nonnus (5th century AD) wrote a monumental work on the life of Dionysos, as long as the Iliad and Odyessy together, indicating how long the cult of Dionysus remained popular. As a minor epigraphic note, it is unusual to see both forms of omega, the earlier closed W and later open form of W, appear on the same coin.