AITOLIA bronze circa 205-150 BC
$20.00
AITOLIA, minor, no date (circa 205-150 BC), Obverse: helmeted head of Athena R, Reverse: Herakles stg R with club, ΑΙΤΩΛΩΝ, bronze, 18mm, 3.6g, SG2323, G
1 in stock
Description
Aitolia is in Central Greece on the northern side of the Gulf of Corinth. It is mountainous, covered in forests in ancient times. The people were considered wild, and didn’t take up coinage until an invasion by Gallic tribes forced them into a confederacy. For a short time in the 4th century BC they were a leading military power in the region.
We think that our culture grew out of the culture of Greece because it was in Greece (and in China) that people started thinking about how things could be different than they were in a world where everything was dangerous and might made right. They also established principles of artistic expression that we still use today. We see this approach to art in their coins.
Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.