TARENTUM Taras in CALABRIA 302BC Authentic Ancient Silver Greek Coin OWL i63940

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TARENTUM Taras in CALABRIA 302BC Authentic Ancient Silver Greek Coin OWL i63940:
$838.80

Item: i63940

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek city of Tarentum (Taras) in Calabria
Silver Drachm 14mm (3.25 grams) Struck circa 302-281 B.C.
Reference: Vlasto 1075ff
Head of Athena left, wearing crested Attic helmet ornamented with Skylla.
ΤΑΡΑΝΤΙΝΩΝ, owl standing facing, with wings open.

Tarentum, called Taras by the Greeks, an important Greek city in Italy, situated on the west coast of the peninsula of Calabria, on a bay of the sea, about 100 stadia in circuit, forming an excellent harbor, and being a portion of the great Gulf of Tarentum. The city stood in the midst of a beautiful and fertile country, south of Mt. Aulon and west of the mouth of the Galaesus. It was originally built by the Iapygians, who are said to have been joined by some Cretan colonists from the neighboring town of Uria, and it derived its name from the mythical Taras, a son of Poseidon. The greatness of Tarentum, however, dates from B.C. 708, when the original inhabitants were expelled, and the town was taken possession of by a strong body of Lacedaemonian (Spartan) Partheniae under the guidance of Phalanthus. It soon became the most powerful and flourishing city in the whole of Magna Graecia, and exercised a kind of supremacy over the other Greek cities in Italy. It carried an extensive commerce, possessed a considerable fleet of ships of war, and was able to bring into field, with the assistance of its allies, an army of 30,000 foot and 3,000 horses. The city itself in its most flourishing period contained 22,000 men capable of bearing arms. The government of Tarentum was different at various periods. It first was forced to surrender to the Romans in B.C. 272 and then again retaken by them in 207 B.C. after siding with the Carthaginians and their general Hannibal during the second punic war and was thus punished.

You are offerding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Athena or Athene (Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in Greek mythology. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena's cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias ("Athena of the city"). Athens and Athena bear etymologically connected names.

In Greek mythology, a Little Owl baby (Athene noctua) traditionally represents or accompanies Athena, the virgin goddess of wisdom, or Minerva, her syncretic incarnation in Roman mythology. Because of such association, the bird - often referred to as the "owl of Athena" or the "owl of Minerva" - has been used as a symbol of knowledge, wisdom, perspicacity and erudition throughout the Western world.

Some authors believe that, in early times, Athena was either an owl herself or a bird goddess in general: In the third Book of the Odyssey, she takes the form of a sea-eagle. These authors argue that she dropped her prophylactic owl-mask before she lost her wings. "Athena, by the time she appears in art," Jane Ellen Harrison had remarked, "has completely shed her animal form, has reduced the shapes she once wore of snake and bird to attributes, but occasionally in black-figure vase-paintings she still appears with wings.

The modern West generally associates owls with wisdom. This link goes back at least as far as Ancient Greece, where Athens, noted for art and scholarship, and Athena, Athens' patron goddess and the goddess of wisdom, had the owl as a symbol. Marija Gimbutas traces veneration of the owl as a goddess, among other birds, to the culture of Old Europe, long pre-dating Indo-European cultures.

Owls, birds of the order Strigiformes, include about 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision and binaural hearing, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl. Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica and some remote islands. Owls are divided into two families: the true owls, Strigidae; and the barn-owls, Tytonidae.

Taranto was founded in 706 BC by Dorian Greek immigrants as the only Spartan colony, and its origin is peculiar: the founders were Partheniae, sons of unmarried Spartan women and Perioeci (free men, but not citizens of Sparta); these unions were permitted by the Spartans to increase the number of soldiers (only the citizens of Sparta could become soldiers) during the bloody Messenian wars, but later they were nullified, and the sons were forced to leave. Phalanthus, the parthenian leader, went to Delphi to consult the oracle: the puzzling answer designated the harbour of Taranto as the new home of the exiles. The Partheniae arrived in Apulia, and founded the city, naming it Taras after the son of the Greek sea god, Poseidon, and of a local nymph, Satyrion. According to other sources, Heracles founded the city. Another tradition indicates Taras as the founder of the city; the symbol of the Greek city (as well as of the modern city) depicts the legend of Taras being saved from a shipwreck by riding a dolphin that was sent to him by Poseidon. Taranto increased its power, becoming a commercial power and a sovereign city of Magna Graecia, ruling over the Greek colonies in southern Italy. Its independece and power came to an end as the Romans expanded throughout Italy. Taranto won the first of two wars against Rome for the control of Southern Italy: it was helped by Pyrrhus, king of Greek Epirus, who surprised Rome with the use of elephants in battle, a thing never seen before by the Romans. The second war was conversely won by Rome, that afterwards cut off Taranto from the centre of Mediterrean trade, by connecting the Via Appia directly to the port of Brundisium.

Calabria (Greek: Καλαβρία), in Antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea. The region covers 15,080km² and has a population of 2 million. The regional capital is the city of Catanzaro. The other two main cities are Reggio Calabria and Cosenza. The demonym of Calabria is Calabrian (Italian: calabrese).

Calabria was first settled by Italic Oscan-speaking tribes. Two of these tribes included the Oenotri (roughly translated into the "vine-cultivators") and the Itali. Greek contact with the latter resulted in the entire pela (modern Italy) taking the name of the tribe.

Greeks settled heavily along the coast at an early date and several of their settlements, including the first Italian city called Rhegion (Reggio Calabria), and the next ones Sybaris, Kroton (Crotone), and Locri, were numbered among the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the 6th and 5th centuries BC.

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