194, Lot: 208. Estimate $100. Sold for $578. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

PHOENICIA, Tyre. Julia Maesa. Augusta, AD 218-224/5. Æ 27mm (11.76 g, 12h). Diademed and draped bust right / The building of Carthage: Dido standing left holding a ruler and scepter, surveying construction; mason above gate, worker with pick-axe digging before gate; murex shell in upper central field, palm tree to right of Dido. Cf. Rouvier 2406; BMC Phoenicia -; SNG Copenhagen -; AUB -, but cf. 245 for a similar reverse type of Elagabalus. Fine, dark green patina, some roughness.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

Dido was the daughter of King Mutgo of Tyre and sister of Pygmalion, who upon succeeding his father as king had Dido’s husband Sichaeus killed in an attempt to gain possession of his immense wealth. Dido, with a numerous body of friends and followers, succeeded in escaping from Tyre, carrying with them all of Sichaeus’ treasures. On arriving at the spot which they had selected as the seat of their new home, they asked the natives for only so much land as they could enclose with a bull's hide. When this was readily granted, she had the hide cut into strips and with them enclosed a spot on which she built a citadel called Byrsa (“hide”). Around this citadel grew the city of Carthage.
In addition to referencing the legend of the Dido, this reverse also celebrates Tyrian builders, who were renowned in antiquity and, according to the biblical text, assisted in the construction of Solomon’s Temple.