Nomos AG, 32
BOEOTIA, Haliartos. Circa 475-450 BC. AR Stater (18mm, 12.18 g). Boeotian shield, rim divided into eight sections / Square incuse with counterclockwise mill-sail pattern; refined
H in center. BCD Boiotia 156a (this coin); Weber 3204 (same dies); SNG Lockett 1720 (same rev. die). VF, even gray toning, small die break on reverse.
Ex BCD Collection (Triton IX, 10 January 2006), lot 156a; Hess-Leu 31 (6 December 1966), lot 301; A. Rhousopoulos Collection (J. Hirsch XIII, 15 May 1905), lot 1709.
In Homer’s day Haliartos was renowned for its meadows (Iliad 2. 503). Shortly after an alliance under Thebes was established in the late sixth century BC, it was one of three mints (the others being Thespiai and Thebes) to issue a series of drachms and fractions with the Boiotian shield on the obverse with the additional mint sign H in the apertures of the shield; the reverse was a mill-sail pattern punch. Such a close association between Haliartos and Thebes is otherwise unattested until the battle of Delion in 424 BC (Thuc. 4.934).
In 480 BC, Xerxes I destroyed Haliartos for its support of the Greek cause, though it was later rebuilt. When Athens invaded the region in 456 BC, Haliartos was among the cities that were forced to establish pro-Athenian democracies. In 395 BC Haliartos joined with Lebadeia and Koroneia to form one unit of the Boiotian League, and the Spartan commander Lysander lost the first major battle of the Corinthian War there. Supporting Thebes during its hegemony, Haliartos was again destroyed in 171 BC during the Third Macedonian War.
To own any coin from a great collection, such as Rhousopoulos, is one of the many joys in numismatics.
