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  [Image]                             Item Sold At Auction #1
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                  Web Product ID: 250
                  Estimate: $100.00
                  Final Sale Price: $243.10
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                  Denomination: Diobol
                  Grade: VF toned
                  Reference: Noe 275ff




  Lucania, Metapontion. Circa 500-465 BC. AR Diobol (1.19 gm). Ear of barley / Incuse
  bucranium. Noe 275ff. Toned, VF. Estimate $100.



  Metapontion, called Metapontum by the Romans, was an Achaean colony of very early
  foundation, though the precise details of its origin are shrouded in uncertainty.
  Following its destruction by the Samnites it was refounded from Sybaris early in the
  7th century BC by settlers under the leadership of Leukippos who was, thereafter,
  revered as the city founder. The great prosperity of the place — attested by the
  extent of its archaic silver coinage commencing in the mid-6th century BC — was based
  on agriculture. Situated on the Gulf of Tarentum Metapontion occupied a plain of
  extraordinary fertility watered by the rivers Bradanos and Kasuentos. Its constant
  coin type is an ear of barley, a tribute to the source of Metapontine wealth, and the
  deity who is most revered is the grain goddess Demeter, sister of Zeus. One of the
  city's main claims to fame was that it was the burial-place of Pythagoras who had
  retired there and perished in a sedition.