Le più belle rappresentazioni di guerrieri

[King John]

THESSALY, Larissa. Second quarter of the 5th century BC. AR fourrée Hemidrachm (12mm, 2.18 g, 9h). Head of Jason, wearing petasos, to r. / ΛΑRΙ, Jason’s sandal l., above, double axe r., all in shallow incuse square. Traité I, 1414, pl. XLIII, 5. Good VF, lightly toned; striking edge cracks and a diagonal (testing?) scratch on the reverse.
A very convincing copy that, if weighing scales are not available, can only be spotted by carefully examining the edge cracks under magnification. The rev. scratch is interesting; it looks more like a very shallow chop mark than a scratch. Perhaps the owner, in order to make the coin more credible, made this very shallow cut so that the recipient would think that the coin had already been tested.

[King John]

Vespasianus AE Sestertius
Vespasianus (69-79 AD). AE Sestertius (34 mm, 25.73 g), Roma (Rome), 71.
Obv. IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III, laureate head to right.
Rev. ROMA / S - C, Roma, helmeted, standing left, holding Victory facing right in her right hand and spear in her left.
Cohen 419. RIC 443.
Bold strike on full flan. Some smoothing, otherwise, good very fine.

[King John]

Maurétanie, Juba II, denier, 20
A/REX IVBA, Tête diadémée à droite
R/Anépigraphe, Éléphant à droite
SUP, R
Argent, 17,0 mm, 3,08 g, 1 h
GIC.5972 v
Ce denier est superbe avec une beau buste au droit et un éléphant très détaillé au revers

ILLUSTRAZIONE: GLI ELEFANTI DI ANNIBALE ATTRAVERSANO UN FIUME IN GALLIA

[King John]

THESSALY, Thessalian League. Circa 170 BC. Æ (15mm, 3.07 g). Macedonian shield with star in center / Dart sling ( κεστροσφενδόνη ) with dart inside. Warren, “Two Notes on Thessalian Coins”, NC 1961, pl. I, 11; Rogers 4 var. (arrangement of ethnic); BCD Thessaly II 24.2. VF, attractive green patina.
From the BCD Collection.
While Rogers thought that the object on the reverse of this coin was a lyre, Jennifer Warren has argued that it represents a powerful new weapon - the dart sling, or κεστροσφενδόνη - first introduced during the Third Macedonian War between Rome and Perseus of Macedon. The weapon is described by the Achaean Polybius (xxvii, 9), who was taken to Rome as a prisoner following the war: “The form of the dart was as follows. It was two palms long, the tube being of the same length as the point. Into the former was fitted a wooden shaft a span in length a finger’s breadth in thickness. Into the middle of this were wedged three quite short wooden wings. The two thongs of the sling were unequal in length, and the missile was so fitted into the center of the sling that it was easily freed. While the thongs were whirled round and taut, it remained fixed there, but when at the moment of the discharge one of the thongs was released, it left the loop and was shot like a leaden bullet from the sling.” Livy (xlii, 65, 9-10) adds that: “They (the Roman army) suffered particularly from the dart-slings.”
The Macedonian shield supports a connection to Perseus, and Warren offers a compelling insight on the reverse design: “On this Thessalian issue the kestrosphendone would be as apposite as the harpa, the special weapon of his hero namesake, on the reverse of Perseus’ similar Macedonian copper coins.” This type (cf. SNG Alpha Bank 1147-8) also carries a Macedonian shield on the obverse.

Al rovescio della moneta: fionda. 

[King John]

Proiettile greco per fionda.

Greek Lead sling bullet, c. 4th–3rd centuries BC (28mm, 27.86g). Elliptical sling bullet with triskeles r. on one side.

[King John]

Proiettile romano per fionda.

Octavian, 1st century BC. Lead Sling Bullet (43mm, 53.30g). Elliptical sling bullet with OCTAVI. Green patina

[King John]

MACEDONIA, Koinon. Severus Alexander
Estimate $1500
MACEDONIA, Koinon. Severus Alexander. 222-235 AD. Æ 25mm (13.14 gm). ALEXANDROV, head of Alexander the Great right, gazing upward, wearing crested Athenian helmet decorated with griffin / KOINON MAKEONWN, NE[W] in exergue, Alexander standing right, nude but for cloak flowing out behind him, plaing harness on Bucephalas rearing left. SNG Copenhagen 1357; McClean 139; Gaebler, AMNG 442a var. (reverse legend breaks); Cornell 87 (this coin). EF, brown patina. Superb artistic rendition of Alexander. ($1500) From the David Simpson Collection. Ex Tkalec Auktion (27 March 1991), lot 356.
Bucephalas was a magnificent black stallion with a white blaze on his forehead, and was the pride and joy of Alexander. Originally, Phillip II was going to purchase the horse for himself, but finding it too unmanageable, he made a wager with his son that if he could tame and ride the horse he could keep it. Alexander, noticing that Bucephalas was afraid of his own shadow, turned the steed into the sun. As his shadow now fell behind him, Bucephalas was quickly calmed and Alexander was able to ride him. From that day, Bucephalas carried Alexander into most of his victorious battles. When the horse finally died in 326, Alexander had a state funeral for him and built a city in India where he died, naming it Bukephala.

[King John]

GRIECHISCHE MÜNZEN (GREEK COINS) 
-Sizilien 
-Himera
183.
Obol 465/415 v. Chr. Männlicher Kopf mit attischem Helm / Helm. SNG Lloyd 1029 var. 0.50 g. Sehr selten Sehr schön
Schätzung (estimation): 200,-- EUR

[King John]

THRACO-MACEDONIAN REGION, Uncertain. 5th century BC. AR Hemiobol (9mm, 0.36 g). Spearhead / Quadripartite incuse square. Tzamalis 37; SNG ANS 1000-4. VF, toned, light graze on reverse. From the Daniel Koppersmith Collection.

[Eolo]

@King John,

l'immagine del generale nel tuo ultimo post è spettacolare anche se credo che lo l'elmo con cresta trasversale fosse utilizzato dagli ufficiali spartani.

A.

P.S. Guardate cosa c'è in asta con scadenza domani?

Modificato 8 Aprile, 2017 da Eolo

[King John]

1 ora fa, Eolo dice:

@King John,

l'immagine del generale nel tuo ultimo post è spettacolare anche se credo che lo l'elmo con cresta trasversale fosse utilizzato dagli ufficiali spartani.

Verissimo. A conferma di quanto dici allego questa immagine di opliti spartani con il relativo comandante.

[King John]

Thraco-Macedonian Region, Uncertain AR Hemiobol. 5th-4th centuries BC. Crested Corinthian helmet left / Amphora and ivy-leaf within linear square. Tzamalis -; HPM -; Traité -; AMNG -; Unpublished in standard references; Cf. CNG E-sale 246, lot 26 (Kerykeion in field). 0.18g, 7mm, 10h.
Near Extremely Fine.
From the N. Andersen Collection.

[Eolo]

Allora la magnifica rappresentazione del generale è di fantasia in quanto gli spartani credo avessero un'iconografia sugli scudi omogenea, ovvero la lettera Lamda. Gli scudi con rappresentazioni di animali o personaggi mitologici dovrebbero essere tipici delle altre polis dove esisteva un senso di appartenenza militare molto più debole.

Le panoplie venivano acquistate anche nel corso di generazioni (il costo era paragonabile a quello di un'utilitaria moderna) e non venivano fornite dallo Stato. Le rappresentazioni sugli scudi erano più legate al proprietario (porta fortuna, devozioni particolari) che non all'armata di cui faceva parte.

Anche i fregi sull'armatura non sono in linea con la pratica semplicità di Sparta.

Oppure potrebbe trattarsi di un mercenario spartano che ha abbandonato la panoplia canonica e riveste, grazie al suo addestramento, un ruolo più prestigioso.

Poco importa, è pur sempre una foto strafiga che ho già copiato!

Grazie

A.

Modificato 8 Aprile, 2017 da Eolo

[King John]

mariuolo....

[Eolo]

Museo archeologico di Lipari, dettagli di vaso..........

[Eolo]

Stesso vaso, in poco più a destra..........

[Eolo]

Dettaglio della biga..........

[King John]

A proposito della cresta trasversale sugli elmi greci:

 (informazioni attinte dal sito https://studiahumanitatispaideia.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/difendere-la-citta/

L’interno degli elmi era rivestito di stoffa, ma qualcuno usava indossare sotto l’elmo un copricapo di tessuto, per attutire l’impatto dei colpi ricevuti. La cresta di cavallo che troneggiava sulla sommità svolgeva la precisa funzione di far apparire più alto e imponente l’oplita anche se, nel corso del tempo, con una maggiore definizione dei gradi e delle rispettive uniformi, divenne piuttosto un segno del rango. Il guerriero la conservava separata dall’elmo, in una scatola, perché i colori non si sciupassero, e l’attaccava al copricapo mediante due distinti sistemi, ovvero una o più forcelle disposte lungo la sommità, oppure un perno leggermente incurvato alla sommità, che staccava notevolmente la cresta dall’elmo.

Come i centurioni romani, gli ufficiali spartani solevano portare la cresta trasversale, mentre si ha notizia di creste multiple o di elmi piumati con piume di ostrica per ταξίαρχοι e στρατηγοί. Un altre segno distintivo era il βακτήριον, il «bastone», che poteva essere completamente dritto o ricurvo a un’estremità, che si usava porre sotto l’ascella sinistra per appoggiarvi il peso del corpo.

[King John]

@Eolo Rubo anche io un'immagine dal vaso che hai postato tu, così siamo pari....

Crete, Phaistos AR Stater. Mid-Late 4th century BC. Herakles standing in fighting attitude to right, wearing Nemean lion skin, seizing with his left hand one of the heads of the Lernean Hydra, and with his right hand preparing to strike with club; by right foot, crab on exergual line / ΦΑΙΣΤΙΩ, Bull butting to right on wavy exergual line. Cf. Svoronos 66, pl. 24, 22. 11.47g, 28mm, 7h.
Good Very Fine - Near Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare.
The obverse of this coin depicts the second of Herakles' Twelve Labours set by Eurystheos, the agent of Hera. He was tasked with slaying the ancient serpent-like monster that resided in the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which guarded an underwater entrance to the underworld.
Upon cutting off each of the Hydra's heads however, Herakles found that two more would grow back in its place, an expression of the hopelessness of such a struggle for any but the hero. Realizing that he could not defeat the Hydra in this way, Herakles called on his nephew Iolaos for help. Iolaos then came upon the idea (possibly inspired by Athena) of using a firebrand to cauterize the stumps after each decapitation. When Hera saw that Herakles was gaining the upper hand she sent a large crab to distract the hero, but Herakles crushed it underfoot. He cut off the last and strongest of the Hydra's heads with a golden sword given to him by Athena, and so completed his task. Hera, upset that Herakles had slain the beast she raised to kill him, placed it in the vault of the heavens as the constellation Hydra, and she turned the crab into the constellation Cancer.
The encounter with the Lernean Hydra is not only well attested in epic, but is also the subject of some of the earliest securely identifiable Herakles scenes in Greek art. On two Boiotian fibulae of c. 750-700 BC (BM 3025, Philadelphia 75-35-1), the hydra is attacked by Herakles, at whose feet is the crab sent by Hera. This particular form of the scene would later be replicated on the coins of Phaistos (cf. Svoronos 60, pl. XXIV, 20), even including the crab. 

[King John]

Thraco-Macedonian Tribes, The Orreskioi AR Stater. Circa 500-480 BC. Centaur right, carrying off protesting nymph / Crested Corinthian helmet right within shallow incuse square. Topalov 14; HPM pl. V, 22 and 24; AMNG III/2, 18; SNG ANS -; Traité I 1474; Asyut 93. 8.71g, 19mm, 2h.
Fine. Rough and corroded obverse. Very Rare.
From the Mark Christenson Collection; 

 

[King John]

Greek Coins 
Pamphylia, Aspendos 
 Siglos circa 410-375, AR 5.08 g. Mopsus riding r. on horseback, spear held in his upraised r. hand. Rev. Boar l. von Aulock 4494 (these dies). Olçay-Mørkholm, “The Coin Hoard from Podalia”, in NC 1971, pl. 9, 506 (these dies). 
Rare. Old cabinet tone and extremely fine
Ex Sotheby’s sale 20 April 1993, 322.

immagine: una parte del fregio del Partenone.

 

[King John]

 KINGS of ELIMIOTIS. Derdas II. Circa 380 BC. Æ Dichalkon (15mm, 5.50 g, 7h). Horseman, wearing petasos and chlamys, right hand on neck of horse prancing right / ΔEP-AΔ, club and spearhead right. Liampi, Derdas 2b (O1/R2 – this coin). Near VF, green patina. Extremely rare.
(998.2) KINGS of ELIMIOTIS. Derdas II. Circa 380 BC. Æ Dichalkon (18mm, 4.55 g, 10h). Horseman, wearing petasos and chlamys, right hand on neck of horse prancing right / ΔEPΔA, spearhead and club left. Liampi, Derdas 5a (O1/R5 – this coin). Near Fine, green patina. Extremely rare.

ILLUSTRAZIONE: AUSILIARI DELL'ESERCITO ROMANO (I-II SECOLO D.C.)

[Eolo]

On 4/10/2017 at 10:09 AM, King John said:

Thraco-Macedonian Tribes, The Orreskioi AR Stater. Circa 500-480 BC. Centaur right, carrying off protesting nymph / Crested Corinthian helmet right within shallow incuse square. Topalov 14; HPM pl. V, 22 and 24; AMNG III/2, 18; SNG ANS -; Traité I 1474; Asyut 93. 8.71g, 19mm, 2h.
Fine. Rough and corroded obverse. Very Rare.
From the Mark Christenson Collection; 

 

Ciao,

bellissimo questo post. Non credo ci sia analogia tra la moneta ed il dipinto sottostante (sebbene potrebbe notarsi una certa somiglianza nella linea del corpo) non ho mai visto una moneta con un centauro, approfondirò!

Grazie @King John

[King John]

17 minuti fa, Eolo dice:

Ciao,

bellissimo questo post. Non credo ci sia analogia tra la moneta ed il dipinto sottostante (sebbene potrebbe notarsi una certa somiglianza nella linea del corpo) non ho mai visto una moneta con un centauro, approfondirò!

Grazie @King John

@Eolo

La somiglianza riguarda solo l'elmo corinzio...

Ecco un esemplare migliore della moneta in questione che raffigura il centauro. (Grazie a te).

 

Thraco-Macedonian Tribes, The Orreskioi, Stater, c. 480 BC, AR (g 9,03"; mm 21; h 6), Centaur carrying nymph with his arms r., Rv. Crested Corinthian helmet within incuse square. AMNG III, 19, tav. 19, n. 20;" Asyut 93.Very rare, old cabinet tone. About extremely fine.People relatively unknown of the Northern Greece. They were, perhaps, connected with the Bessi, priests of the temple of Dionysos on Mt. Pangaeum.

[King John]

Coins of Thessaly, the BCD Collection
Mopsion
Circa 350 BC. Tetrachalkon (Bronze, 22mm, 7.86 g 9). Laureate head of bearded Zeus facing, turned slightly to right; to right, thunderbolt. Rev. MOYEI - WN Mopsos, nude, standing facing, his head turned to right, raising club in his right hand and extending his left to fight a centaur, rearing to left, raising boulder over his head with both hands and preparing to throw it. Moustaka 19. Rogers 412. Very rare. Lovely dark, red-brown patina and well centered. Nearly extremely fine. A note from BCD : The bronzes of Mopsion are practically impossible to find in nice condition and without flaws or corrosion. They are also very rare and desirable because of their spectacularly eloquent reverse. The nicest one to come up for auction realized $18,000 (Triton X, 9 January 2007, 182) but this writer has some reservations concerning its authenticity.