BITHYNIA, Heracleia Pontica. Caracalla. 198-217 AD. Æ 35mm (46.36 gm). AVT 
      K M AVPH ANTWNINOC AVG, laureate head right / Herakles and Antaeus: 
      HPAKLHAC EN PONTA, Herakles standing facing, head left, leaning right and 
      wrestling Antaeus; he lifts Antaeus up into the air by the waist while 
      Antaeus tries to break his grip; in lower left field, club (barely 
      visible). SNG von Aulock -; Waddington -; BMC -; Mionnet -; cf. Voegtli 
      14p; Cornell 97 (this coin). VF, thick green patina. Some silver showing 
      in the hair, so apparently plated at one time. Very rare. ($3000) From the 
      David Simpson Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Auctions Sale V (9 
      December 1988), lot 426. Antaeus, the son of Poseidon and Mother Earth, 
      was in the habit of forcing strangers to wrestle with him until they were 
      exhausted, whereupon he killed them. Not only was he a strong and skillful 
      athlete, but whenever he touched his mother, the earth, his strength 
      revived. Herakles, determined to end this barbarous practice, wrestled 
      Antaeus and realizing that Antaeus was a son of Mother Earth, he lifted 
      Antaeus in the air until he crushed him to death.


Triton V Sale, 16 Jan 2002, lot 1709.

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