Nomos 18

ISLANDS OFF IONIA, Samos. Symmachy coinage, circa 405/4 BC. Tridrachm (Silver, 11.29 g, 12 h). Σ - Υ - Ν The infant Herakles (Herakliskos, nude but for a baldric over his left shoulder, kneeling to right on ground line, strangling a serpent with each hand. Rev. Lion's mask facing; below, Σ - Α; all within shallow circular incuse. Barron 1b (this coin). BMC 129. Jameson 1528 (this coin). Kraay & Hirmer 616. Extremely rare. Attractively toned and well-centered. Extremely fine.

From an American collection, from the Outstanding Collection, Leu 81, 16 May 2001, 283, and from the collections of C. Gillet, 1138, R. Jameson, and the Reverend H. V. Elliott, SWH 4 February 1908, purchased in Asia Minor in 1818-1819.

This rare coin was struck to celebrate an alliance (ΣΥΝ/syn = synmachikon = a coin of the allies) between a number of cities in western Asia Minor (Byzantion, Ephesos, Iasos, Knidos, Kyzikos, Lampsakos, Rhodes and Samos) which all used the common type of the infant Herakles and the snakes on the obverse coupled with a reverse bearing the normal city badge. It was long thought that this alliance came about in 394 after the defeat of the Spartan fleet, but S. Karweise, Lysander as Herakliskos Drakonopnigon ('Herakles the snake-strangler'), NC 1980, has made a good case for it having taken place 10 years earlier, when the cities involved threw off Athenian domination with the help of the Spartan Lysander. In many ways this seems a better choice, but hoard evidence is inconclusive (and see J. Barron, Two Goddesses in Samos, Studies Price, pp. 23-27). Nevertheless, the historical importance of this coinage is immense.

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