LUCANIA, Metapontion. Circa 340-330 BC. AR Nomos (22mm, 7.83 g, 10h). Helmeted head of Leukippos right; lion's head right behind, AG monogram below chin / META upwards on right, barley ear with seven grains; leaf to left, club on leaf, AMI below leaf. Johnston Class B2; SNG ANS 434; HN Italy 1575; SNG Copenhagen 1208; SNG Lloyd 378. Good VF, toned, minor die break and nick on obverse.
Metapontion, called Metapontum by the Romans, was an Achaean colony of very early foundation, though the precise details of its origin are shrouded in uncertainty. Following its destruction by the Samnites, it was refounded from Sybaris early in the 7th century BC by settlers under the leadership of Leukippos who was, thereafter, revered as the city founder. The great prosperity of the place — attested by the extent of its archaic silver coinage commencing in the mid-6th century BC — was based on agriculture. Situated on the Gulf of Tarentum, Metapontion occupied a plain of extraordinary fertility watered by the rivers Bradanos and Kasuentos. Its constant coin type is an ear of barley, a tribute to the source of Metapontine wealth, and the deity who is most revered is the grain goddess Demeter, sister of Zeus. One of the city's main claims to fame was that it was the burial-place of Pythagoras who had retired there and perished in a sedition.
