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Greek city of Castulo in the Ulterior Province of Spain
Bronze Unit 27mm (14.59 grams) Struck circ late 2nd Century B.C. (circa 125-100 B.C.)
Reference: CNH 38; SNG BM Spain 1323-37
Diademed male head right; to right, facing hand.
Sphinx advancing right; star to right.
Phoenician and Greek contact with Spain stretched back to the Seventh Century B.C. at least; possibly several centuries earlier in the case of the Phoenicians. A lively trade was carried on with the rich mining culture based on the city of Tartessos, but about 500 B.C. the Carthaginians destroyed Tartessos having already taken control of the Phoenician settlements in Spain. Carthaginian pre-eminence in southern and eastern Spain lasted until the time of the Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome. It was from Spain that Hannibal launched his famous invasion of Italy which came so close to destroying the Roman Republic in the infancy of its power. But Hannibal was defeated and Spain became a Roman province (206 B.C.). During the Second Century B.C. Rome gradually extended her influence into the interior of the country and permitted the Iberian tribes to issue a native currency bearing Iberian legends. This coinage ceased with the provincial reforms carried out in 133 B.C. The various civil was in Spain in the First Century B.C. saw the temporary revival of bronze issues from certain mints. It was not until 19 B.C., in the reign of Augustus, that the whole of the peninsula came under Roman control with the conquest of northwestern Spain.
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 A sphinx is a mythical creature with, at a minimum, the head of a human and the body of a lion.
In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird. It is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such mythological stories, as they are killed and eaten by this ravenous monster. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus. Unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man (an androsphinx). In addition, the Egyptian sphinx was viewed as benevolent, but having a ferocious strength similar to the malevolent Greek version and both were thought of as guardians often flanking the entrances to temples.
In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a major revival during the Renaissance. Later, the sphinx image, something very similar to the original Ancient Egyptian concept, was exported into many other cultures, albeit often interpreted quite differently due to translations of descriptions of the originals and the evolution of the concept in relation to other cultural traditions.
Sphinxes are generally associated with architectural structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The oldest known sphinx was found near Gobekli Tepe at another site, Nevali Çori, or possibly 120 miles to the east at Kortik Tepe, Turkey, and was dated to 9,500 BCE.
Castulo was an Iberian town located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, in south-central Spain. Evidence of human presence of since the Neolithic period has been found there. Oretans was the name of the Iberian tribe which settled in the vicinity in the north of the Guadalquivir River beginning in the 6th century BCE. Of tradition, a local princess named Himilce married Hannibal and gained the alliliance of the city with the Carthaginian Empire.
In 213 BCE, Castulo was the site of a Hasdrubal Barca’s crushing victory over the Roman army with a force of roughly 40,000 Carthaginian troops plus local Iberian mercenaries. Thereafter the Romans made a pact with the residents of city -who then betrayed the Carthaginians- and the city became an foederati (ally) of Rome.
Castulo began to lose importance while Andalusia fell under Islamic rule in the Middle Ages. In contrast, the nearby village Linares grew in reputation due to its strong castle – first built as an Arab fortress, then rebuilt by the Chrisitians after the Reconquesta – overlooking the city.
In 1227 its walls were destroyed, and the town was depopulated shortly afterwards.
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