Nomos AG, 29
AITOLIA, Aitolian League. Circa 250-245 BC. AV Stater (19mm, 8.51 g, 12h). Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with a serpent / AITΩΛΩN, Aitolos, wearing kausia and sheathed sword, seated right on pile of Gallic shields, holding spear upright in right hand, left hand holding small Nike standing right, holding wreath; monogram to right, ANA in exergue. Tsangari 573a = BCD Akarnania 426 (this coin); Gulbenkian 915; J. Reinach, “Un monument delphien: L'Étolie sur les trophées gaulois de Kallion” in:
JIAN XIII (1911), p.197, 29 (same obv. die). Good VF, toned. An exceptional example of this extremely rare Aitolian gold issue.
Ex BCD Collection; Hess-Leu 45 (12 May 1970), lot 167; Hess-Leu 31 (6 December 1966), lot 295; Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge (28 May 1900), lot 270.
While the Macedonian Kingdom flourished, it was by no means master of the whole of Greece. In Aitolia a group of tribes developed into a powerful league that triumphantly defended the land from the Gallic invasions, which at one point had reached Delphi. The repulsion of the Gallic invaders in 279/8 BC was commemorated by a monument erected in the temple of Apollo at Delphi which represented the personification of Aitolia. The coins accurately display this monument (see Reinach, supra). A redoubtable female warrior, Aitolos is depicted holding a sheathed sword and seated in a defiant posture upon a heap of shields left behind by the enemy. Some of the shields look Macedonian, others Gallic. On the silver coins, a Gallic karnyx lies at her feet. A further assertive gesture, seen on lot 29 and 31, is the use of the heads of Athena and Herakles which were borrowed from the gold and silver coinage of Alexander.
