Tetradrachm from Rhegion, Bruttium, c. 435 BC
A facing lion’s...
Tetradrachm from Rhegion, Bruttium, c. 435 BC
A facing lion’s head. On the reverse, Iocastus seated on a diphros, holding a staff and leaning back, RECINON (retrograde) around, all within an olive wreath border. A very rare coin.
The lion on the obverse of Rhegion’s coinage is the sacred animal of Apollo, patron god of colonisation. The seated figure on the reverse has no distinctive attributes that aid identification, however current interpretations attribute him as being Iocastos, who was the son of Aiolos and the king over much of the toe of Italy.
That he died from the effects of a snake-bite we learn from Heraclides, a pupil of Plato: “Rhegion was founded by Chalcidians who had left Euripas on account of a pestilence; they were aided by Messenians, who settled down first near the grave of Iocastos, one of the sons of Aiolus, whom they say died from the bite of a snake.” The fact that his brothers Pheraimon and Agathurnos were commemorated on coins of Messana and Tyndaris renders it likely that Iocastos should likewise be made the subject of a type of coinage as well.
