EPEIROS. Ambrakia. Circa 480-456 BC. Stater (Silver, 22 mm, 8.47 g, 6 h). Bridled Pegasos with curved wing flying right; below, A. Rev. Head of Athena to right, wearing Corinthian helmet and pearl necklace; all within incuse square. Calciati 3. HGC 3.1, 195. Pozzi 1740 = Ravel, Ambracia, Group A, 4.a (this coin, A3/P4). Very rare, and very likely the finest known example. Beautifully toned, with an enchanting head of Athena of extraordinary beauty, a masterpiece of Early Classical die engraving. The obverse struck somewhat off center from a slightly worn die, otherwise, good extremely fine.



Ambrakia was one of the many Corinthian colonies that lined the coasts of northwestern Greece along the trade routes to the Adriatic and Magna Graecia. The city occupied a strategic position on the gulf that would later bear its name, the Ambrakian Gulf, at whose entrance, centuries later, in 31 BC, the vast fleets of Octavian and Mark Antony would confront one another in the decisive Battle of Actium. Although, from a Greek point of view, the Ambrakiots lived on the distant frontier of the Epirote barbaricum, they nevertheless took part in the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC with seven triremes, and in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC with 500 hoplites, in the decisive Greek resistance to the Persian invasion.

Around this time, or shortly thereafter, our magnificent stater of Corinthian type was also minted in the city. On the obverse, Pegasos still appears with the curved wings of the Late Archaic style, while the reverse is adorned with a magnificent head of Athena, rendered with an almost sculptural sense of relief: an absolute masterpiece of the Early Classical period, and unquestionably one of the most impressive achievements of Greek die engraving in the 5th century BC.