Printed Auction 44

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Closing March 12, 2025
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  1. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    A44, Lot 34:

    SICILY. Messana. The Mamertinoi. 264-241 B.C. Æ quadruple unit. 15.65 gm. 26 mm. Laureate head of Ares right; helmet to left; APEOΣ / Eagle standing left on thunderbolt, wings spread; ΜΑΜΕΡ-ΤΙΝΩΝ. CNS I, 3. HGC 2, 865. Good Very Fine; lovely glossy sea green patina with earthen highlights; handsome style; nicely centered and sharply struck. A large and impressive coin.

    Messana was a city on the northeast tip of Sicily on the site of the ancient city of Zankle, named for its sickle-shaped natural harbor. The tyrants of Sicily had always employed mercenaries, often hired in Campania and Central Italy. In a land famed for its sweeping landscapes, ideal for the breeding of strong horses, the emergent Campanian nobility developed their renowned cavalry. Carrying heavy javelins for skirmishing and swords for melee, they used speed, agility, and flexibility of tactics to inflict damage on more heavily armed and therefore more slowly moving opponents. When King Agathocles of Syracuse died, many of his strong young mercenaries refused to leave Sicily. In about 288 BC, a force of these Oscan merceneries, the Mamertinoi, attacked and captured Messana and massacred the inhabitants. They adopted the name of their war god Mamers, Oscan for Mars, often fighting like pirates and plundering the neighboring districts. Their activities finally engaged the Romans against the Carthaginians and set off the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.). They ruled the city until the Romans won the island.

  2. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    A44, Lot 42:

    KINGS OF MACEDON. Demetrios I Poliorketes. 306-283 B.C. AR tetradrachm. 17.05 gm. 27.5 mm. Pella mint. Struck circa 294-293 B.C. Nike standing left on prow of galley left, blowing trumpet and cradling stylis / Poseidon Pelagaios seen from behind, nude but for wreath of reeds and a chlamys draped over extended left arm, striding left preparing to throw trident held aloft in his right hand, monogram in field to left; in field to right, dolphin swimming downward to left above eight-rayed star; BA-ΣIΛEΩ-Σ ΔHMHTPIOY. HGC 3.1, 1012e. Newell 68, obv. die LVII. Superb Extremely Fine; sharply struck with full luster, and beautifully toned with crimson, orange and magenta iridescence. Obverse well centered and unusually sharply struck (most examples are struck from worn obverse dies); hairline flan crack at 6'. Reverse exceptionally crisply struck, but slightly off-center and with slight doubling from die shift. Wonderful example of this dramatic type.

    This marvelous tetradrachm celebrates the naval victory at Salamis in 306 B.C. of the dashing Demetrios I Poliorketes, son of the Macedonian general Antigonos Monopthalmos ("The One-eyed"), against the Ptolemaic fleet. The obverse depicting Nike alighting on a ship's prow seems to prefigure the famous statue "Victory of Samothrace," now in the Louvre. The latest scholarship suggests the statue was erected by Antigonos Gonatas circa 255 and came later. The reverse shows Poseidon, god of the sea and Demetrios' patron.

  3. Winning Losing Won Lost Watching Available in aftersale  
    Superb portrait
    A44, Lot 60:

    SELEUKID EMPIRE. Antiochos III ‘the Great.’ 222-187 B.C. AR tetradrachm. 17.15 gm. 28 mm. Uncertain "ΔI" mint in southern or eastern Syria (Damaskos?). Struck circa 197-187 B.C., late in his reign. Diademed head of the elderly Antiochos III, distinctive unusual portrait (somewhat idealised, or perhaps realistic) (?) with assertive nose, right (Type E); ΔI below neck / Apollo Delphios seated left on omphalos, holding arrow and resting hand on grounded bow; BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY, ΔI in exergue. SC 1113.3. HGC 9, 447y. Virtually As Struck; fresh and attractive with lightly iridescent tone; superb portrait of fine style sharply struck with a slightly worn die. An interesting example with an unusual idiosyncratie portrait, and with the royal name inscribed over the wrist of Apollo on the reverse. Some references cite Damascus as the mint, but SC does not think the evidence clear cut.

    From a European collection formed before 2005.

    Antiochos III "the Great" ruled over the vast Seleukid Empire for 35 years and was an important figure in the Hellenistic period. Initially determined to restore the waning empire's former glory, he mounted ambitious military campaigns and successfully exercised strategic diplomacy, overseeing a temporary resurgence of power.

    After a long and successful career in which he began to style himself "the Great" and compare his deeds to those of Alexander the Great's, he over-reached, against Egypt in the Fourth Syrian War, and in attempting to expand into Asia Minor in the face of the dominant Roman Republic. In a stunning reversal of fortune he was forced to accept the Peace of Apamea (188 B.C.), surrender territories, curtail his ambitions, and among other humiliations give up his war elephants. He was ultimately assassinated in 187 B.C. during his final eastern campaign.

    Notably, Antiochos was the first Greek ruler to exert much influence on Palestine, interrupting the long period of peace Judea was enjoying at the time. He attracted Jewish historians who wrote extensively about him in the first book of the Maccabees (vii. 6), and Josephus, who unfortunately less reliably tended to represent all great rulers as friendly to the Jews. The Jews were also introduced to Hellenism and the more corrupt sides of Greek culture in his capital at Antioch.

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