Catalog
Trichalkon Messene
| Issuer | Messene |
|---|---|
| Year | 50 BC - 1 BC |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Reverse description | A tall, upright torch or thyrsus is depicted centrally, flanked on the left by the Greek letters ME and on the right by the letters SS, together forming the civic abbreviation MESS for Messene. The torch is rendered with a knotted or wreathed shaft, tapering toward the flame at the top, and is flanked by what appear to be additional cult or civic symbols in the lower field. The composition is characteristic of late Hellenistic civic bronze issues from the Peloponnese, with the city's abbreviated ethnic serving as the primary epigraphic element. |
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| Reverse lettering | ΜΕ (Translation: Messene) |
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| Additional information |
Messene, refounded on the slopes of Mount Ithome by Epaminondas in 369 BC after centuries of Spartan suppression, retained a fiercely independent civic identity well into the Roman period. This issue falls within the era of Roman provincial administration of Achaea, when local bronzes of this module circulated alongside Roman currency without formal imperial sanction — a practical accommodation Rome extended to many Greek cities with functioning civic mints.
The BCD Peloponnesos reference places this among a tightly documented series from one of the great 20th-century thematic collections, assembled by a single collector over decades and sold at Leu in 2010.