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GREEK COLONY - GALLIA, MASSALIA - AR Obol, circa 250-200 BC
weight 0,54gr. ; silver Ø 11mm.
obv. Youthful head of Apollo left rev. Wheel with four spokes, M - A in two of the quarters
Massalia coins are often classified as Celtic coins. This is nonsense. Massalia was a Greek settlement, with Greek coinage;
Massalia (modern Marseille in France) was originally founded circa 600 BC as a Greek colony by settlers from Phocaea (modern Foça, Turkey). It became the preeminent Greek polis in the Hellenized region of southern Gaul. The city-state allied with the Roman Republic against Carthage during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), retaining its independence and commercial empire throughout the western Mediterranean even as Rome expanded into Western Europe and North Africa. However, the city lost its independence following the Roman Siege of Massilia in 49 BC, during Caesar′s Civil War, in which Massalia sided with the exiled faction at war with Julius Caesar. Marseille′s Greek coins have been frequently imitated by Celtic tribes in Gallia.
cf. de La Tour 580 ; cf. Forrer 156 ; cf. Brenot-Scheers 126 ; cf. SNG.Copenhagen 723 ; cf. SNG.München 355 ; cf. SNG.Tübingen 128 ; cf. Delestrée/Tache pl. II, 580 ; Depeyrot 18 ; Maurel 390 ; cf. Slg. Klein 2 Very attractive exemple with fine details.. vf/xf à xf- |
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