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Greek AITOLIA, Aitolian League
Bronze 18mm (4.24 grams) Struck circa 205-150 B.C.
Reference: Sear 2323; B.M.C. 7.70,71; BCD Akarnania 574-580; cf. SNG Copenhagen
37-40
Head of Athena right, in crested Corinthian helmet.
AITΩ / ΛΩN either side of Hercules standing facing,
holding club and lion’s skin; Φ in upper field to left.
The warlike people of this district produced no coinage until the 3rd Century
B.C., when the Gallic invasion of Greece occasioned the inauguration of a
Federal currency.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured,
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Authenticity.
Athena
or Athene
(Latin:
Minerva
), also referred to as
Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength,
strategy, crafts, justice and skill in
Greek mythology
.
Minerva
,
Athena’s Roman
incarnation,
embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of
heroes and the
goddess
of
heroic endeavour. She is the
virgin
patron of
Athens
. The Athenians built the
Parthenon
on the Acropolis of her namesake
city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena’s cult as the patron of
Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that
archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as
a protector of the city (polis),
many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias
(“Athena of the city”).
Athens
and Athena bear etymologically connected
names.
HERCULES – This celebrated
of mythological romance was at first called Alcides, but received the name of
Hercules, or Heracles, from the Pythia of Delphos. Feigned by the poets of
antiquity to have been a son of “the Thunderer,” but born of an earthly mother,
he was exposed, through Juno’s implacable hatred to him as the offspring of
Alemena, to a course of perils, which commenced whilst he was yet in his cradle,
and under each of which he seemed to perish, but as constantly proved
victorious.
At
length finishing his allotted career with native valor and generosity, though
too frequently the submissive agent of the meanness and injustice of others, he
perished self-devotedly on the funeral pile, which was lighted on Mount Oeta.
Jupiter raised his heroic progeny to the skies; and Hercules was honored by the
pagan world, as the most illustrious of deified mortals. The extraordinary
enterprises cruelly imposed upon, but gloriously achieved, by this famous
demigod, are to be found depicted, not only on Greek coins, but also on the
Roman series both consular and imperial. The first, and one of the most
dangerous, of undertakings, well-known under the name of the twelve labors of
Hercules, was that of killing the huge lion of Nemea; on which account the
intrepid warrior is represented, clothes in the skin of that forest monarch; he
also bears uniformly a massive club, sometimes without any other arms, but at
others with a bow and quiver of arrows. On a denarius of the Antia gens he is
represented walking with trophy and club.
When his head alone is typified, as in Mucia gens, it is covered with the lion’s
spoils, in which distinctive decoration he was imitated by many princes, and
especially by those who claimed descent from him – as for example, the kings of
Macedonia, and the successors of Alexander the Great. Among the Roman emperors
Trajan is the first whose coins exhibit the figure and attributes of Hercules.
The Aetolian League (also transliterated as Aitolian
League) was a confederation of tribal communities and cities in
ancient Greece
centered on
Aetolia
in central Greece. It was established,
probably during the early Hellenistic era, in opposition to
Macedon
and the
Achaean League
. Two annual meetings were held
in
Thermika
and Panaetolika. It occupied
Delphi
from
290 BC
and gained territory steadily until, by
the end of the 3rd century BC, it controlled the whole of central Greece outside
Attica
. At its height, the league’s territory
included Locris
,
Malis
, Dolopes, part of
Thessaly
,
Phocis
, and
Acarnania
. In the latter part of its power,
certain
Mediterranean
city-states joined the Aitolian
League such as Kydonia
on
Crete
.
The Aetolians were not highly regarded by other Greeks, who considered them
to be semi-barbaric and reckless. However, their league had a complex political
and administrative structure, and their armies were easily a match for the other
Greek powers. According to Scholten, the Aetolian League consisted of elites at
the top, but was fundamentally a society of farmers and herders. The league had
a federal structure consisting of a federal council in which the level of
representation was proportional to the size of a community’s contribution to the
league’s army, a popular assembly of all citizens which met twice a year, and an
inner council equivalent to a federal government. It could raise armies and
conduct foreign policy on a common basis. It also implemented economic
standardization, levying taxes, using a common currency and adopting a uniform
system of weights and measures.
Origins of the
League
It is uncertain when the League was founded. It has been suggested that it
may have been founded by
Epaminondas
. Grainger believes it was founded
much later – around the time of the rise of
Philip II of Macedon
. After Philip’s victory of
Chaeronea
Aetolia was granted
Naupaktos
which the Aetolians garrisoned – a
level of organization that suggests some formal government rather than the loose
alliance of earlier times.
Alliance with Rome
The league was the first Greek ally of the
Roman Republic
, siding with the Romans during
the
First Macedonian War
, and helping to defeat
Philip V of Macedon
at the
Battle of Cynoscephalae
in
197 BC
, during the
Second Macedonian War
. However, it grew
increasingly hostile to Roman involvement in Greek affairs and only a few years
later sided with
Antiochus III
, the anti-Roman king of the
Seleucid Empire
, during the
Roman-Syrian War
. The defeat of Antiochus in
189 BC
robbed the league of its principal
foreign ally and made it impossible to stand alone in continued opposition to
Rome. The league was forced to sign a peace treaty with Rome that made it a
subject ally of the republic. Although it continued to exist in name, the power
of the league was broken by the treaty and it never again constituted a
significant political or military force.
A Pirate State?
The Aetolian League acquired a reputation for piracy and brigandage. Though
there is some recognition that Polybius was to an extent following an Achaean
bias in his portrayal of the League thus, many modern historians have accepted
this portrayal as in the main justified. For example, Walbank is explicit in
seeing the Aetolians as systematically using piracy to supplement their income
because of the meager resources of their region
while Will simply assumes the truth of the charge. Grainger devotes a whole
chapter to examining Aetolian involvement in piracy along with the charges that
the Aetolians were temple robbers. He finds it hard to credit that Aetolia was
involved in piracy given that Aetolia lacked a fleet of even the basic sort.
Further by contrast with more general historians, those that have made specific
studies of piracy and brigandage barely mention Aetolia. He lists the times that
the Aetolians were accused of temple robbery and argues that the weight of these
accusations should take into account that these are usually made by political
opponents of the League and refer to occasions that were already some way in the
past when the accusations were made.
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