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Didrachm
| Issuer | Velia |
|---|---|
| Year | 334 BC - 300 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | HN Italy#1292, Williams#314-317, 2#1320, Ashmolean#1250, Basel#119 |
| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing left, her Phrygian helmet elaborately decorated with a centauress in relief on the bowl and a scroll motif on the neck guard. The engraver's signature monogram of ΚΛΕΥ (Kleudoros) appears behind the neck guard, attesting to the hand of one of Velia's most accomplished die-cutters. The portrait is rendered in the refined, high-relief style characteristic of the Velia mint during its late fourth-century artistic peak, with finely detailed facial features and carefully articulated helmet crest. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Velia — the Latin name for Elea — was a Phocaean Greek colony on the Tyrrhenian coast of Lucania, founded around 540 BC by refugees fleeing the Persian conquest of Ionia. By the late fourth century, the city faced mounting pressure from Lucanian tribal confederacies pushing coastward, a threat that forced periodic alliances with Rome and reshaped its coinage output. The didrachms of this period represent the city's most ambitious silver production, struck at a weight standard consistent with the Campano-Tarentine system rather than the Attic, reflecting Velia's commercial orientation toward western rather than eastern Mediterranean trade networks.
Williams' die study identified a tightly clustered sequence for this group, suggesting concentrated production rather than continuous issue — possibly linked to a specific military or political episode requiring rapid liquidity.