Cadmus and Foundation of Thebes

424, Lot: 296. Estimate $200. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Salonina. Augusta, AD 254-268. Æ (29mm, 14.55 g, 12h). Draped bust right, wearing stephane / Cadmus standing left, holding patera and spear; at feet to left, cow reclining right; in left field, murex shell and city gate of Thebes above ΘH/BЄ. Rouvier 2565; BMC –. Near VF, earthen green surfaces. Very rare, none in CoinArchives for Salonina.

While travelling through Greece in search of his abducted sister Europa, the Phoenician prince Cadmus consulted the Delphic oracle, where he was instructed to follow a sacred cow and found a city on the spot where it should finally take rest. Cadmus followed the instructions, and the spot where the cow stopped became the great city of Thebes in Boeotia.