Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 994. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Smyrna. Antoninus Pius. 138-161 AD. Æ 34mm (24.51 gm, 7h). Theudianus, strategus. Struck circa 147 AD. Laureate head right / [QEV]DIANOC CTPA [A]N-EQHKE CMVPNA-IOI[C], [PEL]OY across upper field, Hippodamia, veiled, standing right, touching finger to mouth and holding hand of Pelops, nude, standing facing, head left, holding sceptre; both in slow biga right. Klose Series A (Sechser), 9 (V8/R9); BMC Ionia 342 var. (reverse legend); SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -. VF, light brown surfaces, minor porosity. ($500)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Purchased from Seaby, June 1978 (includes ticket).

Oenomaus, the king of Elian Pisa and the father of Hippodamia, challenged each of his daughter's suitors to a chariot race for his daughter's hand: the victor would receive Hippodamia in marriage and become heir to the kingdom; the losers forfeited their life to the king. When the turn came to Pelops, the son of Tantalus, he made a bargain with Oenomaus' charioteer, Myrtilus: for throwing the race, Myrtilus could enjoy Hippodamia on her wedding night and receive half of the kingdom. The charioteer's treachery, however, went unrewarded, since the victorious Pelops withheld his bargain and slew him. As he lay dying, Myrtilus cursed Pelops and his descendents, a curse which ended with the murder of Pelops' grandson Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra, the sister of Helen.

Pelops subsequently subdued southern Greece, which became known as the Peloponnesus, and later returned to rule Oenomaus' kingdom in Pisa. During the time of the Trojan War, the Greeks brought his bones to Troy because of a prophecy that only by doing so could they conquer the city.