Catalog
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| Issuer | Tarentum |
|---|---|
| Year | 280 BC - 272 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Drachm |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | The eponymous hero Phalanthos, rendered as a nude infant with a topknot of hair on his forehead, rides a dolphin to the left in the traditional Tarentine reverse type. He holds a bunch of grapes in his extended right hand and a distaff in his left. A rooster stands to the right facing left, and the secondary magistrate's abbreviation ΑΓΑ appears in the lower field. The ethnic legend ΤΑΡΑΣ is inscribed to the right, identifying the issuing city of Taras. |
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| Additional information |
Struck during the most politically charged decade in Tarentum's history, this nomos belongs to the period when the city had invited Pyrrhus of Epirus to defend it against Roman encroachment — a gamble that ultimately failed when Pyrrhus withdrew in 275 BC and Rome tightened its grip on the region. The magistrates' names partially preserved in the type designation, Nikodamos and the abbreviated Eu— and Aga—, reflect Tarentum's civic minting tradition of naming the officials responsible for each issue, a practice that allows modern die studies to sequence production across what was an increasingly desperate final generation of the city's independence.