157. KINGS of PAEONIA. Audoleon. Circa 315/0-286 BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 12.46 g, 5h). Astibos or Damastion mint. Helmeted head of Athena facing slightly right / Horse walking right; star below raised foreleg. AMNG III/2, 4 var. (star above horse); NBRM Paeonia –; SNG ANS 1056. Good VF, flan flaw on mouth, scratch on reverse. Fine style. Very rare issue with star below horse. ($3000)
Dyrrhachion, Colony of Korkyra
158. ILLYRIA, Dyrrhachion. Circa 340-280 BC. AR Stater (19mm, 10.77 g, 9h). Cow standing left, looking back at suckling calf standing right below; d below cow / Double stellate pattern divided by line, all in linear square border; d-U-r and club around; all within linear circle border. Meadows, CH (forthcoming), 135 (this coin); cf. Maier 12 (for obv. control); SNG Copenhagen –; cf. BMC 3 (same). VF. Well centered and struck. Extremely rare. ($500) Korkyra (IACP 123; English name: Corfu) was settled in the early sixth century BC. The settlers have traditionally been viewed as Corinthian, but there is evidence that colonists from Eretreia in Euboia preceded them (cf. IACP and Plutarch, Quaest. Graec. 11). Roughly a century later, a group of Corinthian and Korkyran settlers established a colony on the Illyrian coast named Epidamnos (IACP 79), though it became better known after the name of the headland on which it was founded, Dyrrhachion. Around the same time, another coastal Illyrian city inhabited by the Taulantioi was colonized and renamed Apollonia (IACP 77). The city was founded either by Corinthian colonists alone (according to Thucycides [1.26.2]) or by a combination of Corinthians and Korkyrans (according to Strabo [7.5.8]). The coastal locations of all these sites were carefully selected for the strategic and economic advantages they offered, particularly for access to the North and to Greek colonies in Italy. Corinth and Korkyra eventually fought over Epidamnos in 435-431 BC, each supporting rival factions within the city. This dispute, along with other factors, ignited the Peloponnesian War. Korkyra began minting its own coins in the sixth century BC. The obverse type on its coinage, showing a standing cow suckling a calf, was an overtly bucolic design that represented the fertility of the region. This scene became an archetype that was copied at many other mints in Greece and Magna Graecia, including both Apollonia and Dyrrhachion in the early fourth century BC. Its adoption at Apollonia lends weight to Strabo’s assertion that Korkyra was at least one of the mother cities of Apollonia. In turn, the adoption of the design at Karystos, and the proliferation of the cow motif in general at mints in Euboia, and its total absence on coins of Corinth, lends weight to the evidence that the original colonists of Korkyra came from Euboia. The reverse type adopted by these three cities has been the subject of some scholarly discussion (see CNG 90, lot 492 for the full discussion). All of the early arguments of Eckhel, Müller, Gardner, and other, however, revolved around the classical period issues of these cities, and ignored the archaic issues of Korkyra, from which they evolved. The reverse design of the archaic staters of Korkyra consists of two stars, each within a square incuse placed side-by-side (BMC 1 and pl. XXI, 1). Also, the reverses of Korkyran fractional coinage is composed simply of a star (BMC pl. XXI, 3-8, 10-12, and 16-18). The fact that these were issued even during the classical period, alongside the staters discussed above, makes it virtually certain that the staters’ types are stars, albeit more fluid in their composition. A rare stater issue (BMC 10 and pl. XXI, 2), which appears to be the transitional type between the archaic and classical depictions of the stars, supplies further evidence. The rectangular boxes that enclose the stars on the later staters (BMC 39 and pl. XXI, 9) appear to be little more than an artistic representation of the incuse forms that enclosed the stars on the archaic issues. Thus, the staters of Apollonia, Dyrrhachion, and Korkyra demonstrate a meticulous progressive interpretation of an archaic coin type, and not an allusion to a possible Homeric past.
159. ILLYRIA, Dyrrhachion. Circa 340-280 BC. AR Stater (21mm, 10.90 g, 10h). Cow standing left, looking back at suckling calf standing right below / Double stellate pattern divided by two lines, all in double linear square border; d-U to left and right; above, lizard right; below, club right. Meadows, CH (forthcoming), 185 (this coin); cf. Maier 23 (for rev. controls); cf. SNG Copenhagen 426 (same); cf. BMC 17 (same). Good VF. Extremely rare. ($750) 38