A City of Law. A Coin of Lokris Epizephroi

Bruttium. Lokroi Epizephyrioi. AR Stater, (8.31 g), ca. 350-275 BC. Obv: Pegasos flying left; Rev: Helmeted head of Athena right.

Lokroi Epizephyrioi (“the Lokrians beyond the west wind”) was founded by colonists from Lokris in northern Greece and we know it rose to be a substantial city because in the mid-sixth century BC, in alliance with Rhegion, it was able to defeat a powerful Crotonate army at the battle of the river Sagras. Subsequently Rhegion came to be viewed as a became a major threat to Locris Epizephyrioi. Geographically Lokroi was close to Sicily and fell within its sphere of influence from its foundation, supporting Syracuse when the Athenians invaded in 415 BC. It became more closely aligned with Syracuse when the tyrant Dionysius I married a Locrian called Doris, daughter of Xenetus. It certainly did not feel any strong affinity for the other Greek cities in Southern Italy, supporting Syracuse in its conquests in the region from 390 BC. Dionysius I captured Rhegion in 386 BC, which lost its independence, falling directly under the control of Syracuse and ceasing to be a threat to Locri Epizephyrioi.

Lokroi was famed for being well run as noted by Plato in his Timaeus where he describes a friend as a native of a most well-governed State, Italian Locris. Locroi may indeed have been the birthplace of written law as described by Strabo

The Locri Epizephyrii are believed to have been the first people to use written laws…. Zaleucus was among the first to make the following innovation—that whereas before his time it had been left to the judges to determine the penalties for the several crimes, he defined them in the laws, because he held that the opinions of the judges about the same crimes would not be the same, although they ought to be the same.

When Locrian coinage did appear, it seems to have been on dual standard. Fourth century staters and fractions were minted on the the Achaian standard (c 7.9g to the tridrachm stater) with the type of the head of Zeus and an eagle or an eagle with a thunderbolt. In parallel with this are staters and drachms minted on the Corinthian standard (c. 8.6g to the tridrachm stater), which also mirrored the Corinthian types of Pegasus and the head of Athena. The coin in the banner is an example of this. One explanation for this is that the Corinthian standard coinage was used to pay mercenaries from the Peloponnese during the incursions of Syracuse in Southern Italy, which were supported by Lokris Epizephyrioi. An alternative is that Locroi was part of the trading network established during the reign of Timoleon of Syracuse which facilitated agricultural trade with Corinth. In exchange Locroi received payment in Corinthian Staters. This type was then adopted by Locroi (and indeed there are many examples of Locrian overstrikes of Corinthian staters).