Nomos 37

ISLANDS OFF IONIA, Samos. Symmachy coinage, circa 405/4 BC. Tridrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 11.10 g, 6 h). Σ - Υ / Ν The infant Herakles Herakliskos, nude but for a baldric running over his left shoulder, kneeling to right on theground line, strangling, with his hands, two serpents, each coiled around one of his arms. Rev. Lion's mask facing; below, [Σ] - Α; all within shallow circular incuse. Barron 1. BMC 129. Jameson 1528. Kraay & Hirmer 616 (all from the same dies). Extremely rare and historically important. Pitting and minor marks, otherwise, good very fine.

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 their obverses 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.