CORINTHIA. Corinth. Julia Domna, Augusta, 193-217. Diassarion (Bronze, 23 mm, 5.23 g, 9 h), 202-205. IVLIΔ (sic!) DO[MNA ...O]ЄNNTC (?) Draped bust of Julia Domna to left, with cornucopiae at her left shoulder. Rev. C L I COR The tomb of Lais of Corinth: Capital of a Doric column; atop, a lioness standing to right on a prostrate ram. NCP 19/14. RPC V.1 (forthcoming) ID 94389 (this coin). Of the highest rarity and great historical interest. Lovely earthen deposits. Nearly very fine.


The reverse of this coin shows the tomb of Lais of Corinth (late 5th–early 4th century BC), one of antiquity’s most celebrated hetairai – elite courtesans famed for wit, education, and social influence as much as for beauty. Ancient tradition made her a Corinthian icon, though Pausanias also records a rival claim to her burial in Thessaly, a sign of how widely her legend traveled. One story places her origins in Hykkara in Sicily: captured during the Athenian expedition and sold into slavery, she later rose to extraordinary prominence in Corinth. Later anecdotes link her with Aristippus of Cyrene (and Eubotas), and sometimes even Diogenes the Cynic, as a foil in debates about pleasure and self-mastery. Pausanias notes that in the 2nd century AD the monument still stood at Corinth, crowned by a lioness holding a ram, and that the Corinthians remained proud of her enduring fame and 'legendary beauty' – which helps explain its emergence as a coin type.

The reading – and therefore the meaning – of the unusual obverse legend remains unclear. On our specimen, NNTC is clearly visible, probably preceded by a lunate Є (on other examples recognizable as an angular epsilon). The sequence is not readily intelligible, yet the legend occurs in varying forms on several dies, making a mere engraver’s blunder (such as a misspelling of CEBACTH) unlikely. It may instead represent abbreviations whose significance is no longer understood today.