1/8 Stater Athena Alkidemos Type

The Boii, a Celtic people who dominated much of central Europe through the middle Iron Age, were pushed progressively westward and northward by Roman military pressure following their catastrophic defeat at Telamon in 225 BC. This small fractional gold piece belongs to the later phase of Boian coinage, struck as the tribe's territory and autonomy were both contracting. By 58 BC, Caesar would describe the Boii as a people essentially broken, resettled as dependents of the Aedui after a final devastating defeat at the hands of the Helvetii.

The Alkidemos type takes its name from a Macedonian prototype — Philip V's coinage — absorbed and abstracted through successive generations of Celtic die-cutting.