Tauromenion Sicily 275BC Apollo & Tripod Genuine Ancient Greek Coin i24847

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Tauromenion Sicily 275BC Apollo & Tripod Genuine Ancient Greek Coin i24847:
$136.40

Item: i24847

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek city of Tauromenion in Sicily
Bronze 23mm (7.26 grams) Struck 275-212 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1243; B.M.C. 2.46
Laureate head of Apollo left; behind bee.
TAYPOMENITAN, Tripod-lebes.

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

second Consulship, retiring to private life.

InGreek andRoman mythology, Apollo, is one of the most important and diverse of theOlympian deities. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy;archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus andLeto, and has atwin sister, the chaste huntressArtemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influencedEtruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in bothancient Greek andRoman religion, as well as in the modernGreco-RomanNeopaganism.

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was anoracular god — the prophetic deity of theDelphic Oracle. Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his sonAsclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadlyplague as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god\'s custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion overcolonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry.Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a commonattribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were calledpaeans.

In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks withHelios,god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated withSelene,goddess of the moon. In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo withSol among theAugustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations ofAeneas andLatinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third century CE.

A sacrificial tripod was a type ofaltar used by the ancient Greeks. The most famous was the Delphictripod, on which thePythian priestess took her seat to deliver theoracles of the deity. The seat was formed by a circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which a branch oflaurel was deposited when it was unoccupied by the priestess. In this sense, by Classical times the tripod was sacred toApollo. Themytheme ofHeracles contesting with Apollo for the tripod appears in vase-paintings older than the oldest written literature. The oracle originally may have been related to the primal deity, the Earth.

Another well-known tripod was thePlataean Tripod, made from a tenth part of the spoils taken from thePersian army after theBattle of Plataea. This consisted of a golden basin, supported by abronzeserpent with three heads (or three serpents intertwined), with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by thePhocians during theThird Sacred War; the stand was removed by the emperorConstantine toConstantinople (modernIstanbul), where it still can be seen in thehippodrome, the Atmeydanı, although in damaged condition, the heads of the serpents disappeared however one is now on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The inscription, however, has been restored almost entirely. Such tripods usually had three ears (rings which served as handles) and frequently had a central upright as support in addition to the three legs.

Tripods frequently are mentioned byHomer as prizes inathletic games and as complimentary gifts; in later times, highly decorated and bearing inscriptions, they served the same purpose. They also were used as dedicatoryofferings to the deities, and in the dramatic contests at the Dionysia the victoriouschoregus (a wealthy citizen who bore the expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He would either dedicate the tripod to some deity or set it upon the top of a marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street inAthens, called the street of tripods, from the large number of memorials of this kind. One of these, theChoragic Monument of Lysicrates, erected by him to commemorate his victory in a dramatic contest in335 BC, still stands. The form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the Lysicrates monument, has been rendered variously by scholars since the eighteenth century.

The scholarMartin L. West writes that the sibyl at Delphi shows many traits ofshamanistic practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a tripod, while making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, similar to shamans, and her utterings, unintelligible.

According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there for dedication.

Taormina\'s area was inhabited by theSiculi even before the Greeks arrived on the Sicilian coast in 832 BC to found a town called Naxos. The theory that Tauromenion was founded by colonists from Naxos is confirmed byStrabo and other ancient writers.

The new settlement seems to have risen rapidly to prosperity, and was apparently already a considerable town at the time of the expedition ofTimoleon in 345 BC. It was the first place in Sicily where that leader landed, having eluded the vigilance of theCarthaginians, who were guarding theStraits of Messina, and crossed direct from Rhegium (modernReggio di Calabria) to Tauromenium[1]. The city was at that time still under the government of Andromachus, whose mild and equitable administration is said to have presented a strong contrast with that of the despots and tyrants of the other Sicilian cities. He welcomed Timoleon with open arms, and afforded him a secure resting place until he was enabled to carry out his plans in other parts of Sicily[2]. Andromachus was not deprived of his position of power when all the other tyrants were expelled by Timoleon, but was permitted to retain it undisturbed till his death. (Marcellin. Vit. Thucyd. § 27.)

Little is known about Tauromenium for some time after this. It is probable that it passed under the authority ofAgathocles, who drove the historianTimaeus into exile; and some time after this it was subject to a domestic despot of the name ofTyndarion, who was contemporary withHicetas of Syracuse andPhintias of Agrigentum[3]. Tyndarion was one of those who concurred in invitingPyrrhus into Sicily (278 BC), and when that monarch landed with his army at Tauromenium, joined him with all his forces, and supported him in his march uponSyracuse.[4] A few years later we find that Tauromenium had fallen into the power ofHieron of Syracuse, and was employed by him as a stronghold in the war against the Mamertines. (Id. p.497.) It was also one of the cities which was left under his dominion by the treaty concluded with him by theRomans in 263 BC[5].

There is no doubt that Tauromenium continued to form a part of the kingdom of Syracuse until the death of Hieron, and that it only passed under the government of Rome when the whole island of Sicily was reduced to a Roman province; but we have scarcely any account of the part it took during theSecond Punic War, though it would appear, from a hint in Appian[6], that it submitted toMarcellus on favorable terms; and it is probable that it was on that occasion it obtained the peculiarly favored position it enjoyed under the Roman dominion. For we learn fromCicero that Tauromenium was one of the three cities in Sicily which enjoyed the privileges of a civitas foederata or allied city, thus retaining a nominal independence, and was not even subject, like Messana, to the obligation of furnishing ships of war when called upon[7]. The city, however, suffered severe calamities during theServile War in Sicily (134-132 BC), having fallen into the hands of the insurgent slaves, who, on account of the great strength of its position, made it one of their chief posts, and were able for a long time to defy the arms of the consulPublius Rupilius. They held out until they were reduced to the most fearful extremities by famine, when the citadel was at length betrayed into the hands of the consul by one of their leaders namedSarapion, and the whole of the survivors put to the sword[8].

Tauromenium again bore a conspicuous part during the wars ofSextus Pompeius in Sicily, and, from its strength as a fortress, was one of the principal points of the position which he took up in 36 BC, for defence againstOctavian. It became the scene also of a sea-fight between a part of the fleet of Octavian, commanded by the triumvir in person, and that of Pompeius, which terminated in the defeat and almost total destruction of the former[9]. In the settlement of Sicily after the defeat ofPompey, Tauromenium was one of the places selected by Augustus to receive aRoman colony, probably as a measure of precaution, on account of the strength of its situation, as we are told that he expelled the former inhabitants to make room for his new colonists[10].Strabo speaks of it as one of the cities on the east coast of Sicily that was still subsisting in his time, though inferior in population both to Messana and Catana.[11] Both Pliny and Ptolemy assign it the rank of a colonia[12], and it seems to have been one of the few cities of Sicily that continued under the Roman Empire to be a place of some consideration. Its territory was noted for the excellence of its wine[13], and produced also a kind of marble which seems to have been highly valued.[14]Juvenal also speaks of the sea off its rocky coast as producing the choicest mullets. (Juv. v. 93.) The Itineraries place Tauromenium 32miles from Messana, and the same distance from Catana. (Itin. Ant. p.90;Tab. Peut.)

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