A Limited Period Coin. A Coin of Sybaris

Southern Lucania, Sybaris. AR Triobol, c. 446-440 BC. Obv. Head of Athena right, wearing wreathed Attic helmet. Rev. Bull right, head turned back; in exergue, ΣΥΒΑ. ΑR. 1.16 g. 13.00 mm

The Achaian city of Sybaris, founded in around 720 BC, was completely destroyed by Croton in 510, it's citizens fleeing to neighbouring cities including Laus and Poseidonia. An attempt to resettle at Sybaris in 453 BC was thwarted by Croton and the citizens appealed first to Sparta and then to Athens to send more settlers. Athens answered the call and ships containing peoples from across Greece sailed for Sybaris in 446 BC. For six years Sybaris was renewed (often referred to as Sybaris IV) , however Aristotle tells that the “Sybarites quarrelled with those who had settled there with them, for they claimed to have the larger share in the country as being their own, and were ejected.” [Politics 1303a]. Strabo confirms this “Later on, the survivors, only a few, came together and were making it their home again, but in time these too were destroyed by Athenians and other Greeks, who, although they came there to live with them, conceived such a contempt for them that they not only slew them but removed the city to another place nearby and named it Thurii.” [Geography 6.1]

This coin was minted in Sybaris during those six years. On the reverse is the reverse-facing bull, which is the type found on the earliest incuse coinage of Sybaris through to its destruction by Croton. The legend ΣΥΒΑ is clearly that of the city although, in common with other Greek coinage of the period, the character San found on the earlier coinage has given way to Sigma and the name is no longer retrograde. If the reverse is a clear reminder of the original Sybaris, the obverse type is that expected of Athens, with the head of Athena in an Attic helmet looking right. At the new city of Thurium Athena remained on the obverse and the Sybarite bull was transformed into one which paws the ground, its head no longer reversed.

It is unusual to be able to date an early Greek coin from Southern Italy so precisely, as kings and dynasts are never portrayed to allow a fixed historical context. The coin remains on the Achaian standard common to Southern Italy (3 drachms to the 7.8g nomos).