Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 2003. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ROMAN PROVINCIAL. CORINTHIA, Corinth. A collection of seventy-six Æ, all different. Includes the following (listed by BCD number [Lanz Auction 105, 26 November 2001]): 336 // 338 // 340 // 342 // 345 // 346 // 347 // 359 // 363 // 364 // 366 // 367 // 368 // 369 // 374 // 379 // 381 // 383 // 384 // 385 // 391 // 393 // 396 // 397 // 398 // 399 // 403 // 406 // 408 // 411 // 412 // 417 // 418 // 420 // 422 // 423 // 425 // 429 // 430 // 433 // 437 // 440 // 441 // 442 // 444 // 449 // 454 // 457 // 461 // 463 // 467 // 474 // 475 // 479 // 480 // 486 // 487// 488 // 489 // 490 // 494 // 495 // not listed in BCD, but falls between 498 and 499 // 499 // 500 // 504 // 506 // 508 // a second coin not listed in BCD, but falls between 508 and 509 // Another, but different type // 509 // 510 // 511 // 512 // 515 // 516. Average Fair to VF. LOT SOLD AS IS, NO RETURNS. Seventy-six (76) coins in lot. ($1000)

All coins from the BCD Collection (but not in the Lanz auction).

INTRO

The proud and ancient city of Corinth was sacked by the consul Mummius in 146 BC, in the course of Rome's conquest of Greece. The site lay desolate for 100 years, until Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony in 44 BC and established a civil government on the Roman model, headed by duoviri. This two man magistracy, based on a Roman model, was responsible for civic governance, which included the striking of coins for local use. Twenty-four known duovir pairs ordered coinage struck for the city up to 69 AD. Corinth had become a showpiece for Roman restoration of the glories of ancient Greece, and its coinage reflected its past and present glories, from its connection to the mythical tales of Pegasos and Bellerophon and the youth Melikertes, to the city's proud sponsorship of the Isthmian Games, to the great temples erected in honor of the Olympian gods- Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite and others. Imperial family members also were feted, and when Nero declared the (nominal) independence of Greece (Achaea) at Corinth in 67 AD, also taking part in the Isthmian Games, a number of coin types marked his distinguished presence. Greece and Corinth may have been a bit too enthusiastic about Nero, for with the fall of the despotic emperor and the rise of Vespasian Achaea's grant of freedom was annulled and its coinage right withdrawn. The last duovir issues appeared under Galba in 69 AD.