Capaneus at the Walls of Thebes

300, Lot: 132. Estimate $100. Sold for $525. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Bizya. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (30mm, 18.57 g, 7h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Capaneus advancing right, holding spear and shield, with left foot on low wall, about to scale ladder. Yurukova, Bizye –; Varbanov –. Fine, brown surfaces. Unpublished?

One of the famous “seven against Thebes”, the Argive Capaneus boasted that even Zeus could not stop him from taking the city. Such hubris led Zeus to strike Capaneus with a thunderbolt as he attempted to scale the walls of Thebes on a ladder. It is unknown why the scene of the myth, which is known on coins of other emperors from Bizya, was struck at this particular mint.