Calabria, Tarentum: AR Nomos. c. 281-272 BC, Gy-, Sostratos, and Poly-, magistrates; Vlasto 716

Calabria, Tarentum: AR Nomos. c. 281-272 BC, Gy-, Sostratos, and Poly-, magistrates; Vlasto 716, HN Italy 1001, SNG ANS 1037 (6.44 g, 22 mm)

Obverse: Nude, helmeted warrior on horseback right, preparing to cast spear downward with right hand, holding shield and two spears in left hand; ΓΥ behind, ΣΩΣΤΡAΤΟΣ below

Reverse: Taras astride dolphin left, holding Nike and cornucopiae; thunderbolt behind, ΠΟΛΥ before, TAPAΣ below.

 

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Great coin! I hope to get one of those sometime.

 

A nice one with good details and full dolphin, Amit. Thanks for sharing.

I only have a crude example. Looking to upgrade in the future.

 

Nice one, @Amit Vyas - this is a lovely series of coins for sure.

I have two of these, which happened to fit my budget. One of them has a paperwork trail from a 1950s fraternity. One with a boy, one with a warrior:


Calabria, Tarentum
AR Nomos
Hippodanos Magistrate
(c. 280-272 B.C.)
Naked youth on horseback right, crowning self; ΣΩ to left, ZAΛO & Ionic capital below / Phalanthos riding dolphin left, holding distaff & aphlaston; TAΡAΣ below;
ANO to right. Vlasto 803–7.
(6.41 grams / 20 mm)



Calabria, Tarentum AR Nomos
ΛYKΩN Magistrate
(c. 280-272 B.C.)
Helmeted, nude warrior on horse right, spearing, crowned by Nike flying left, ΣI behind, ΛYKΩN under horse / Taras astride dolphin left, holding kantharos and trident, GU in right field.
Vlasto 730; SNG ANS 1096.
(6.18 grams / 19 mm)

Provenance: Presented as gift to (Army) Chaplain Luther W. Evans for naming Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity magazine The Tidewater-Blue Ridge Teke in 1958 (see letter from Harry Donnelly and Sept. 1958 article in The Tidewater-Blue Ridge Teke, page 3)

 

Very nice specimens.
These do show a lot of variety.

 

Congrats Amit, I like

 

Calabria, Tarentum, 344-340 BC. AR Nomos (21mm, 7.82g, 6h). Obv: Nude warrior on horseback galloping left, dismounting, holding spear and shield; below, T (rotated). Rev: Taras on dolphin swimming left, holding crested Corinthian helmet; below, I above waves. Rev: TARA-S; Fischer-Bossert group 47, 658 (V252/R510); Vlasto 438 (same dies); HN Italy 870. Good Very Fine, lightly toned. Scratch in obverse field. Ex Stacks Coin Galleries July 2011 Auction 94 (8 Jul 2011), Lot 924.

 

Taras Ar Nomos 290-281 BC SI and PHI Magistrates. Obv. Naked horseman right holding a shield and two javelins in his left hand and preparing to cast a third. Rv Phalanthos riding dolphin left. Fisher-Bossert Group 78a 1066 Vlasto 599 7.83 grms 21 mm Photo by W. Hansen The fascination of the Tarentines with their horse culture is easily seen on their abundant and long lived coinage. What we see here is most likely a scene from a series of contests where Tarentine horsemen would practice and show of their skills. A light cavalryman is seen in the act of hurling his javelin at a target set on the ground. The primary function of this class of cavalry was to harass the more or less static infantry formations in the hope that they might lose cohesion. They would also be useful in a pursuit of a broken enemy force. In order to achieve this, the men would have to have minimum protection. In this case the horseman has a large round shield which would protect him and his horse from incoming missile fire.

 

Nice Calabria, @Amit Vyas !

I have this version:


Calabria Tarentum AR Drachm 18mm 3.1g 3rd C BCE Athena Corinthian Scylla OWL olive TAP ZOP HN Italy 975 Vlasto 1052

 

@Marsyas Mike, your first didrachm is of a reduced standard. The coin coincides with the arrival of Pyrrhus in Italy c. 280 BC at the request of the Tarentines, who needed to fight against Rome. His battle with the Romans at Asculum occured in 279 BC, from which the term "Pyrrhic victory" emerged. The Ionic column below the horse rider is sometimes viewed as a symbol of Pyrrhus. There are other didrachms with a small elephant in place of the column, which is seen as another Pyrrhic symbol.

 

TARAS, CALABRIA
AR Diobol
OBVERSE: Head of Athena in crested helmet left decorated with Skylla
REVERSE: Herakles kneeling right, strangling lion
Struck at Taras 380-334 BC
1.2g, 11mm
Vlasto 1316

 

Nice one, amit. I always like these when the dolphins are struck fully on the flan.

CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.75g, 22.3mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 332-281 BC. Fischer-Bossert Group 80, 1131 (V417/R873); Vlasto 587; HN Italy 934. O: Warrior, holding shield and two spears, preparing to cast a third, on horseback right; ΣA below. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos, holding distaff, riding dolphin left; pellet to left; below, prow left.
Ex Thomas Bentley Cederlind Collection; Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 84 (20 May 2015), lot 1358


CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.97g, 21.4mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 400-390 BC. Fischer-Bossert Group 26, 361a (V164/R283) = Vlasto 339 (this coin, illustrated in both); HN Italy 850. O: Naked ephebos on horse galloping right; small Λ below. R: Phalanthos, holding torch, riding dolphin left; TAPAΣ below.
Ex William N. Rudman Collection (Triton V, 15 January 2002), lot 1043; ex CNG Auction 53 (15 March 2000), lot 31; ex Vlasto Collection, 339

CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Stater. 7.50g, 20.2mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 325-281 BC. Fischer-Bossert 870c (this coin); Vlasto 607; SNG Copenhagen 849; SNG France 1800 (same obverse die). O: Nude rider on horse galloping to right, stabbing with spear held in his right hand and holding two other spears and shield with his left; below, ΣΑ. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos riding dolphin to left, holding kantharos in his right hand and trident in his left; below, little dolphin leaping left; K in left field.
Ex Schweizerischer Bankverein 29 (28 January 1992), lot 12

 

Nice coins everyone. I have several of these but here's just one...



Calabria, Taras Didrachm
Naked youth galloping right on horseback left, crowning horse with right hand, monogram ΣY in field behind youth and ΛΥK INOΣ below horse

Taras seated on dolphin left, holding chalmys and thrusting trident in right hand, owl behind TAPAS in Exergue

Calabria 272-235 BC

6.62g

Vlasto 836

Tarentum, the only Spartan colony ever to be established, was founded in 706 BC by the Partheniae - Spartan children born to unmarried women as a product of Spartan desperation to ensure the survival and continuation of their demographic during the bloody Messenian wars, who were later disowned and expelled by the state - and Perioeci (subjects, but not citizens of Sparta), under the leadership of the Parthenian Phalanthos. According to legend, Phalanthos consulted the oracle at Delphi, and was told that he should found his new city 'where rain fell from a clear sky'. After much searching, and despairing of finding a suitable location for a city, Phalanthos was consoled by his wife Aethra who laid his head in her lap, and as her tears splashed upon his forehead he understood the oracle's words for his wife's name itself meant 'clear sky', and thus he determined to make the nearby harbour the site of their new home, which they named after Taras, the son of Poseidon and the nymph Satyrion.

 

Very nice specimens. I’ve never been quite sure whether a spear/lance or a javelin/throwing spear was depicted: perhaps both were on different coins, as some have a distinctly longer shaft. Even for a spear, it makes sense to carry extras as it may not always be possible to retrieve the weapon from horseback.

Edit: Perhaps the shorter length and/or different angle was chosen to solve a design problem. The depth of the design meant that rendering a full spear as on the specimen I posted made the shaft look weird. Many of the other specimens avoid this problem by choosing an angle that avoids overlap with the horseman’s body, or a shorter shaft.

 

Thank you for sharing the story. I have never heard it before: only a version in which Taras founds Tarentum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_(mythology)).

 

There are many foundation myths

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taranto

 

I have only one coin from Tarentum. My one condition prerequisite was that the dolphin and its rider had to be completely visible, given that so many specimens have one or the other partly off the flan.

Tarentum, Calabria. AR Nomos (didrachm), ca. 302-280 BCE. Magistrates Sa.., Arethon and Cas-. Obv. Youth on horseback right, crowning horse with wreath; magistrates' names: ΣA to left and AΡE/ΘΩN in two lines below/ Rev. TAΡAΣ, Phalanthos astride dolphin left, holding tripod, CAΣ below. Vlasto 666 [Ravel, O.E., Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Tarentine Coins formed by M.P. Vlasto (London, 1947, reprinted)]; HN Italy 957 [Rutter, N.K., ed., Historia Numorum Italy (London, 2001)]; SNG ANS 1046 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, USA, The Collection of the American Numismatic Society, Part 1: Etruria - Calabria (New York 1969)]. 23 mm., 7.86 g.

 

Thank you for that most interesting information, @romismatist - I'm going to add this to my attribution/files.

 

A question about the coin I posted above. On the reverse, is the dolphin rider holding something between his left arm and his body, or is it just supposed to be the background?


Maybe I'm imagining things, but it looks to me as if he is holding something, the bottom end of which extends over the top of the dolphin's back. It looks like kind of like a caterpillar or cocoon! On the other hand, I picked up a used copy of Vlasto a few months ago, and the description of Vlasto 666 doesn't mention the rider holding anything at all in his left arm. Nor do the descriptions or illustrations of any of the similar coins with succeeding numbers, except for a few holding objects that couldn't possibly look anything like this.

What do people think?

 

Just the background