Exceptional Bacchanalian Scene

323, Lot: 448. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Contorniates. Late 4th century AD. Æ Contorniate (37mm, 22.61 g, 6h). AETRNAE R OMAE, draped bust of Roma facing slightly right, wearing triple-crested helmet, holding Victory set on globe and scepter / Bacchus reclining in biga drawn by panthers left; to right, cupid flying left, holding grape bunch; to left, satyr standing right, holding a pedum; two maenads in background; in exergue, rhyton, pedum, satyr mask, grape bunch, Selinos mask, and amphora. Alföldi, Kontorniat 71; Sachero -; Tocci -. VF, attractive brown patina, some bumps and dings. Extremely rare.

We hardly know what contorniates were for. One possibility is that they were employed as some kind of gaming counter connected, literally, with fun and games, heroes and superstitions, and presumably sold publicly on occasions of popular festivity in the later part of the fourth century in Rome. Many of their obverse types show portraits of Roman emperors and empresses from Caligula to Anthemius, it being significant that Nero, Trajan, and Caracalla are the ones who appear most frequently and were the most enthusiastic patrons of the circus.

Bacchus was, according to his mythology, the son of Zeus and Semele, reared by the nymphs on Mt. Nysa, and god of fertility and wine. Numerous and somewhat contradictory myths regarding his life and acts exist. Having grown to manhood, Dionysus wandered through many lands, teaching men the culture of the vine and the mysteries of his cult. He was followed by an entourage which included satyrs, maenads, nymphs, and the drunken Silenus. Many festivals were held in his honor; most famous were the Lesser or Rural Dionysia (in late December), the Greater or City Dionysia (in late spring), the Anthesteria (in early spring), and the Lenaea (in winter). Characteristically, the worship of Dionysus was ecstatic. Devotees mystically joined with the god through hypnotic music, dancing, consumption of wine and the raw flesh of sacrificial animals. Various representations show Dionysus as a full-grown bearded man, as a beast, and – as on this contorniate – a delicate, effeminate youth. The Romans identified him with the Italic god Liber and with Bacchus, who was more properly the god of wine. From the music, singing, and dancing at the festivals of Dionysus developed the dithyrambos and ultimately Greek drama. As knowledge of the world to the east expanded with Alexander’s campaigns as far as India, so did the regions from which Dionysus was thought to arrive. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, he was often depicted as arriving in triumph from India in a car drawn by panthers, as on our piece.