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Drachm with cubist head
| Issuer | Volcæ Tectosages |
|---|---|
| Year | 100 BC - 50 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Highly stylized Celtic effigy facing left, rendered in a characteristic La Tène cubist idiom, with the hair depicted as a series of raised ovoid pellet-form locks arranged around the skull. Two dolphins are positioned in the field before the face, a decorative motif common to the coinage of the Volcæ Tectosages. The overall treatment of the head reflects the abstract, geometric artistic tradition of southern Gaulish silver coinage of the late second to early first century BC. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A central cross divides the reverse field into four quadrants, each quadrant adorned at its angle with a lunula or crescent-shaped ornament. The first and second angles contain a sling bullet (globular projectile), the third angle features an axe, and the fourth displays an elliptical pendant or ring-form decoration. This highly schematic geometric composition is characteristic of the later Volcæ Tectosages drachm series and reflects the progressive abstraction of earlier Greek-derived reverse designs. |
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| Additional information |
The Volcae Tectosages occupied a stretch of southern Gaul centered on Tolosa — modern Toulouse — and achieved notoriety in antiquity primarily through a single incident: the sack of Delphi around 279 BC and the alleged transport of its sacred treasury back to their territory. Strabo records that the "gold of Tolosa" was later seized by the Roman consul Caepio in 106 BC, an act of sacrilege that Romans blamed for his catastrophic defeat at Arausio shortly after, where perhaps 80,000 soldiers were lost.
These drachms were struck in the shadow of that disruption, as Roman administrative pressure on the region intensified through the late second and early first century BC.