Advisors have advised, collectors had their day dreams, the hammer fell today and most of the coins went to the 2 persons who pay what is needed to clear the book and the others online. But today I will not comment on this aspect anymore. On this occasion I would like to express my surprise of the name used for this collection: "Graeculus". Starting from Cicero up to modern Greek it always had a bad meaning towards Greeks. In modern Greek it is used to characterise traitors who cooperated with the ottoman Turks, with the Germans and so on. They why someone collecting (and supposedly admiring the Greek civilization) used this name is a great mystery to me. Maybe the advisors or dealers reading this or the Graeculus collector himself may share...
I think the vast majority of bidders lost to the telephone bidder and 1 or 2 online bidder handles. I only bid for 5 coins out of which I was the underbidder for 2. For one of them (which I believe sold low compared to others) I abandoned pointless bidding against the phone, otherwise it could have gone much higher. I sense that there were people bidding against the calling station on the phone in the way they were bidding some years ago against the Sheikh. The Sheikh however was only buying very high grade coins so was not competing with the vast majority of collectors. This one buys everything with a provenance and not only.
I had not heard this meaning but I have not studied modern history to any degree so that is not surprising. When I hear Graeculus, I think of a non-Greek who pretends to be Greek and affects their culture as if it were his own. I had not heard it used for a Greek siding with the enemy. In the Roman period, Greek culture was admired but 'Real Men' were not to act like 'Greeklings' and favor the pursuits of Apollo rather than those of Mars. We have the same thing today with a segment of the population distrusting people who study and show interest in art, cooking and coin collecting rather than beer and football. To me, it is a good name for a collection formed by a non-Greek by ethnicity who wishes he were a descendant of Pericles. It is possible for most of us to collect and study Greek coins without painting our houses in primary colors or adopting Ancient Greek mannerisms. I have known two people whose home interior included rooms in red and black as they believed to have been fashionable back in the day. I would call such a person 'Graeculus'.
Graeculus and Poenulus were used by the Romans to ridicule/mock the 2 nations they enslaved. Greaculus=the little Greek was not used to refer to a cute little Greek but more to the lesser/inferior/lackey Greek. There are many references to support this, just google Γραικύλος. Or ask any Greek you happen to know. I am sure Alan Walker or anyone else who studied Greek literature would be aware.
Are you saying that the proper ancient or modern use of the word is only applied to people who are actually Greek excluding wannabees?
I am saying that the word has a bad meaning and it shouldn't have been used. If the collector wanted to call himself a friend of the Greeks, he could have used "Φιλέλλην". The formal name of the country is Ελλάς or Ελλάδα.
