Greek city of Maroneia in Thrace
Bronze 19mm (8.20 grams) Struck circa 189-45 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1640; Schönert-Geiss 1684-90 var. (monogram on rev.); SNG Copenhagen 634 var. (same)
Laureate and bearded head of Hercules right; club behind.
ΜΑΡΩΝΙΤΩΝ, Horse prancing right, with reins trailing behind.

Very rare.

Maroneia, a town on the south coast of Thrace, situated on the north bank of the lake Ismaris and on the river Sthenas, more anciently called Ortagurea. It belonged originally to the Cicones, but afterwards received colonists from Chios. It was celebrated for its excellent wine, which even Homer mentions. The city boasted a sanctuary of Dionysus, the Roman equivalent of Bacchus, the god of wine. Dionysus was represented, along with his symbol of bunches of grapes on the city’s coins.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.  

Heracles, born Alcaeus (Alkaios) or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.

Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have “made the world safe for mankind” and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and Laomedon all found out to their cost.

Maroneia, a town on the south coast of Thrace, situated on the north bank of the lake Ismaris and on the river Sthenas, more anciently called Ortagurea. It belonged originally to the Cicones, but afterwards received colonists from Chios. It was celebrated for its excellent wine, which even Homer mentions. The city boasted a sanctuary of Dionysus, the Roman equivalent of Bacchus, the god of wine. Dionysus was represented, along with his symbol of bunches of grapes on the city’s coins.

In legend, it was said to have been founded by Maron, a son of Dionysus, or even a companion of Osiris. According to Pseudo-Scymnus it was founded by Chios in the first half of the 6th century BC. According to Pliny, its ancient name was Ortagures. It was located on the hill of Aghios Gheorgis, and archaeological findings date it as a much older and as a pure Thracian city.

Maroneia was close to the Ismaros mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey. Some scholars identify Maroneia with his Ismaros. Homer has Odysseus plundering the city but sparing Maron, whom he identifies as a priest of Apollo. Maron presents Odysseus with a gift of wine, as well as with gold and silver.

In the era of Ancient Greece and Rome, Maroneia was famous for its wine production. The wine was esteemed everywhere; it was said to possess the odor of nectar, and to be capable of mixture with twenty or more times its quantity with water. That the people of Maroneia venerated Dionysus, we learn not just from its famous Dionysian Sanctuary, the foundations of which can still be seen today, but also from the city’s coins.

In 200 BC it was taken by Philip V of Macedon, who vented his rage by slaughtering a great number of the city’s inhabitants. The Roman Republic subsequently granted Maroneia to Attalus, King of Pergamon, but almost immediately revoked their gift and declared it a free city.

Maroneia was the largest and most important of all ancient Greek colonies of Western Thrace. The city owed its prosperity to the extensive and rich territory and also to the port which favored the development of intense commercial activity. Furthermore, Romans had granted many privileges to the city, such as the proclamation its freedom and the increase of its territory, where a dense network of rural settlements was developed.