Obolos 16

CALABRIA. Tarentum. Circa 240-228 BC. Drachm (Silver, 14.5 mm, 3.19 g, 4 h), struck under the magistrate Olympis. Athena wearing Attic helmet with crest to right, her helmet decorated with a figure of Skylla to right, throwing a boulder with her right hand. Rev. ΟΛΥΜΠΙΣ Owl, with closed wings and with its head facing, standing to right on an olive branch; in field to right, A. HN Italy 1060. Cf. Vlasto 1103 (wreath instead of A). Clear and well-struck. Very fine.

Founded on the harbor of Taranto in southern Italy during the 8th century BC by Dorian colonists from Sparta, Tarentum soon became a the most prosperous center of trade in Magna Graecia. In fact, its wealth was such that it normally did not field its own armies to fight its barbarian neighbors but instead hired mercenaries from either its mother city, Sparta, or from elsewhere. During the early 3rd century Tarentum became involved in conflict with Rome, whose imperial ambitions had brought it to southern Italy. The Tarentines hired the services of King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who inflicted heavy casualties on the Romans, but nevertheless were conquered in 272 BC. The city's artworks were looted and 30,000 of its inhabitants were sold into slavery.

This coin was struck a few decades after the Roman conquest, when Tarentum was rebuilding its prosperity. The devices - the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse paired with the facing owl of the reverse - were borrowed from the coins of Athens, which at this time were still widely recognized for their weight and purity and thus used in trade. It perhaps seems unusual that a city that claimed descent from Sparta would use Athenian types, but by this time the Peloponnesian Wars were long over and Tarentum was striving to reclaim its former glory as a cultural center. What better way to do this than to claim as her own Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and her beloved all-seeing owl?