106, Lot: 205. Estimate $100. Sold for $380. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Colybrassus. Valerian II. 255-260 AD. Æ 11 Assaria - 30mm (12.24 gm). Bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind; eagle below with open wings, IA before / Hades in galloping quadriga right, abducting Persephone; torch and overturned Kantharos below. SNG Levante 346 = SNG von Aulock 5663 (this coin); SNG France -. VF, patina partially removed, leaving some spotty original patina and some bare metal which has started to tone, surfaces a little rough.

Hades fell in love with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, and asked Zeus for permission to marry her. Zeus feared to offend his eldest brother by a downright refusal, but knew also that Demeter would not forgive him if Persephone were committed to the underworld. Zeus "therefore answered politically that he could neither give nor withhold his consent." This emboldened Hades to abduct Persephone, as she was picking flowers in a meadow, and carry her away in his horse-drawn chariot to the underworld.