151, Lot: 36. Estimate $150. Sold for $145. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 460-440 BC. AR Drachm (18mm, 5.96 g). Youth, with petasos tied at neck, wrestling bull right / Bridled horse galloping right. F. Herrmann, "Die Silbermünzen von Larissa in Thessalien," ZfN XXXV (1925), group III, pl. IV, 2; cf. SNG Copenhagen 113 var. (obverse to left). VF, areas of flat strike.

From the Richard Winokur Collection.

Larissa, located on a rise above the Peneios river, was the most important town in Thessaly, a region dominated by vast plains surrounded by mountains. It took its name from the nymph Larissa, daughter of Pelasgos, and produced some of the earliest coinage in Thessaly. Images of horses and horsemen appear on the city's coins and stand as a testament to the Larissians reliance on and skill with horses. Among the historical personages of note who passed through Larissa are the rhetorician Gorgias and the physician Hippokrates, who died there in 399 BC.