Oktassarion - Trebonianus Gallus ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΚΛ ΚΑΛΛΙϹΤΟΥ ΙΕΡΕΩϹ ΙΩΝΩΝ, ΚΟΛΟΦΩΝΙΩ, ΤΟ ΚΟΙΝΟΝ ΙΩΝΩΝ

Reverse

Temple with four columns enclosing Apollo (Klarios) seated left; below, humped bull in front of lighted altar; in the foreground, figures of thirteen Ionian League cities standing in semi-circle, right hands raised and holding wreaths.

Script: Greek

Lettering: ΕΠΙ ϹΤΡ ΚΛ ΚΑΛΛΙϹΤΟΥ ΙΕΡΕΩϹ ΙΩΝΩΝ, ΚΟΛΟΦΩΝΙΩ, ΤΟ ΚΟΙΝΟΝ ΙΩΝΩΝ

Comment

Magistrate of Claudius Kallistos (strategos and priest of the Ionians)

The artist who crafted the dies for this important festival issue faced a great challenge: tasked by the city of Colophon, or perhaps more specifically, by the strategos and high priest of the Ionian League, Klaudios Kallistos, to depict the gathering of the Ionian League, how should he turn such a complex theme into a circular numismatic image? Here we see the accomplished result of his considerations, which shows the Temple of Apollo Klarios atop with a bull below, surrounded, in a semi-circle, by the personifications of the thirteen members of the League. Obviously, the city of Kolophon took great pride in presiding over the Ionian League, whose thirteen members - Chios, Ephesos, Erythrai, Klazomenai, Kolophon, Lebedos, Milet, Myus, Phokaia, Priene, Samos, Smyrna and Teos - held their meetings at the sanctuary of Klaros, an ancient oracle some thirteen kilometers away from the city. The artist deliberately placed a humped bull in front of an altar in the center of the die, as the ritual sacrifice of the impressive animals was an integral part of the worship of many Greek gods. In fact, modern archaeology has revealed at Klaros the only surviving structures in the Greek world built specifically to perform the hecatomb, the simultaneous sacrifice of one hundred bulls to a god.

Interesting fact