Ares, Mamertinoi NO RESERVE

SICILY, Messana, The Mamertinoi AE Pentonkion

Quadruple Unit

Ares, whom the Oscans called Mamers, is the war god the Mamertini named themselves for; the horseman leading his mount on the reverse is one of the Dioskouroi, the divine cavalrymen. Together they present a community that lived by soldiering.

This is the large early denomination of the Mamertine bronze (more scarce), distinct from the later warrior-reverse pentonkion. The head of Ares announces the identity of the Mamertini, Oscan mercenaries who named themselves for Mamers, their war god equated with Mars, after seizing Messana around 288 BC. The eagle on the thunderbolt borrows the imagery of Zeus and of the Hellenistic kings as a claim to power by a band that held its city by the sword.

Check out my other auctions. I'll be running a good number of $1 starts with no reserve. In particular I will be running other Greek bronzes of the Mamertinoi set.