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Nomos
| Issuer | Tarentum |
|---|---|
| Year | 440 BC - 425 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | HN Italy#844, BMC Gr/It#81, GCV#330 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The oecist — the mythological founding hero — is seated to the left on a low seat or rock, rendered in a relaxed but dignified posture. With his outstretched right hand he proffers a bird toward a panther cub, which leaps or rears up before him in a lively and naturalistic manner. The scene is executed in an early classical style, with careful attention to the musculature of both the human figure and the animal. The composition conveys a sense of narrative intimacy between the hero and the wild creature. No inscription or legend accompanies the design. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Tarentum's silver nomoi from this period belong to the city's early coinage, produced roughly a generation after the colony had established its mint. Founded by Spartan settlers — specifically, according to tradition, by the Partheniai, a group of disputed status expelled from Sparta around 706 BC — Tarentum carried Laconian cultural and religious ties that shaped its iconographic choices for centuries. The dolphin rider type is directly connected to the Tarentine legend of Phalanthos, the colony's founder, said to have been saved from shipwreck by a dolphin.
The incuse reverse technique visible on earlier South Italian issues had largely given way by this period to full relief on both faces — a shift that places this piece within the transitional generation of Tarentine coinage.