Product Details

The product is a 2nd-1st centuries BC silver drachm from the ancient Greek city of Apollonia in Illyria. It features stellate patterns on the reverse and a cow suckling a calf on the obverse. Certified by NGC with certification number 8231493-013, the coin is a valuable piece of historical significance from the ancient era. Made in Albania during the Greek historical period, this drachm is a rare find for collectors interested in ancient coins. Aristotle describes Apollonia's oligarchy as a small Greek elite class, largely descended from the original colonists, ruling over a largely local Illyrian population. From the second century BC Apollonia allied itself with the Roman Republic, which maintained a military base there for a time. APOLLONIA ap-o-lo'-ni-a (Apollonia): A town in Mygdonia, a district in Macedonia. It was situated a little to the south of Lake Bolbe, on the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road leading from the coast of the Adriatic to the river Hebrus (Maritza), one of the main military and commercial highways of the empire: it lay between Amphipolis and Thessalonica, a day's journey (Livy xlv.28) or about 30 Roman miles from the former and 38 from the latter. The foundation of the town may perhaps be attributed to about 432 BC; in any case, coins are extant which attest its existence in the 4th century BC (Head, Historia Numorum, 181). Paul and Silas passed through the town on their journey from Philippi to Thessalonica, but do not appear to have stayed there (Acts 17:1). The name seems to have survived in the modern Pollina (Leake, Northern Greece, III, 458; Cousinery, Voyage dans la Macedoine, I, 115).