PHILIPPI in MACEDONIA 357BC Hercules Tripod Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i54758

$650.00 $585.00

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SKU: i54758 Category:

Item: i54758

 

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Greek city of
Philippi
in

Macedonia

Bronze 16mm (4.99 grams) Struck 357-330 B.C.

Reference: Sear 1452 var.; B.M.C. 5.8 var.

Head of young 

Hercules
right
in lion’s skin.
Tripod
; ΦIΛIΠΠΩΝ to right.

Following Philip II’s capture of Amphipolis in 357 B.C. and 
his acquisition of the mining area of Mt. Pangaion, the mining center of 
Krenides was given the name of Philippi in the king’s honor.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 

provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of 

Authenticity.


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.


A sacrificial tripod was a type of

altar
used by the 

ancient Greeks. The most famous was the

Delphic

tripod
, on 

which the Pythian 

priestess
took her seat to deliver the

oracles
of the 

deity. The seat was formed by a circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which 

a branch of

laurel

was deposited when it was unoccupied by the priestess. In this sense, 

by Classical times the tripod was sacred to

Apollo
. The

mytheme
of

Heracles
 

contesting with Apollo for the tripod appears in vase-paintings older than the 

oldest written literature. The oracle originally may have been related to the 

primal deity, the Earth.

Another well-known tripod was the

Plataean Tripod

, made from a tenth part of the spoils taken from the

Persian

army after the

Battle of Plataea

. This consisted of a golden basin, supported by a

bronze

serpent

with three heads (or three serpents intertwined), with a list of the 

states that had taken part in the war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The 

golden bowl was carried off by the

Phocians
during 

the

Third Sacred War

; the stand was removed by the emperor

Constantine

to

Constantinople

(modern

Istanbul
), 

where it still can be seen in the

hippodrome

, the Atmeydanı, although in damaged condition, the heads 

of the serpents disappeared however one is now on display at the nearby Istanbul 

Archaeology Museums. The inscription, however, has been restored almost 

entirely. Such tripods usually had three ears (rings which served as 

handles) and frequently had a central upright as support in addition to the 

three legs.

Tripods frequently are mentioned by

Homer
as prizes 

in

athletic games

and as complimentary gifts; in later times, highly decorated 

and bearing inscriptions, they served the same purpose. They also were used as 

dedicatory offerings

to the deities, and in the dramatic contests at the

Dionysia
 

the victorious

choregus

(a wealthy citizen who bore the expense of equipping and training 

the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He would either dedicate the tripod 

to some deity or set it upon the top of a marble structure erected in the form 

of a small circular temple in a street in

Athens
, called 

the street of tripods, from the large number of memorials of this kind. 

One of these, the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates

, erected by him to commemorate his victory 

in a dramatic contest in

335 BC
, still 

stands. The form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the 

Lysicrates monument, has been rendered variously by scholars since the 

eighteenth century.

The scholar

Martin L. West

writes that the sibyl at Delphi shows many traits of

shamanistic

practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian 

practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a tripod, while making her 

prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, similar to shamans, and her 

utterings, unintelligible.

According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not 

to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there for dedication.




Philippi 
was established by the
king of Macedon
, Philip II, on the site of the
Thasian
colony 
of Krinides or
Crenides
(“Fountains”), near the head of the
Aegean Sea
 
at the foot of
Mt. Orbelos
about 8 miles north-west of
Kavalla
, on the northern border of the marsh that in Antiquity covered the 
entire plain separating it from the
Pangaion hills
to the south of Greece.

The objective of founding the town was to take control of the neighbouring
gold mines and to 
establish a garrison at a strategic passage: the site controlled the route 
between Amphipolis
and Neapolis
, part of the great royal route which crosses Macedonia from the 
east to the west and which was reconstructed later by the
Roman 
Empire

as the
Via 
Egnatia

. Philip II endowed the new city with important fortifications, 
which partially blocked the passage between the swamp and Mt. Orbelos, and sent 
colonists to occupy it. Philip also had the marsh partially drained, as is 
attested by the writer
Theophrastus
. Philippi preserved its autonomy within the kingdom of Macedon 
and had its own political institutions (the
Assembly
of the
demos
). The 
discovery of new gold mines near the city, at Asyla, contributed to the wealth 
of the kingdom and Philip established a mint there. The city was finally fully 
integrated into the kingdom under
Philip V
.

The city remained despite its modest size of perhaps 2000 people. When the 
Romans destroyed the
Antigonid dynasty
 
of Macedon in 167 
BC

and divided it into four separate states (merides), it was 
Amphipolis and not Philippi that became the capital of the eastern Macedonian 
state.

Almost nothing is known about the city in this period, aside from the walls, 
the
Greek theatre
, the foundations of a house under the
Roman forum
and a little temple dedicated to a
hero cult
. This monument covers the tomb of a certain Exekestos, is possibly 
situated on the agora
 
and is dedicated to the κτίστης (ktistès), the foundation hero of the 
city.


   

    

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