THESSALIAN LEAGUE. DOUBLE VICTORIATUS. KING of OLIMPUS Start Price USD 0.99 Current Price USD 219.59 Time Left - Bid Count 17 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, October 04, 2008 End Time Saturday, October 11, 2008 Location Vienna See more about 'THESSALIAN LEAGUE. DOUBLE VICTORIATUS. KING of OLIMPUS' Description                                   Thessaly, Thessalian League, 196-146 BC. AR Double Victoriatus ( 5.85 gm.; 23 mm.).                                                  Very attractively toned .EXTREMELY FINE !!!                                                                                                  Obv.:  Laureate head of Zeus right.              Rev.: QESSA left and LWN right, Athena Itonia standing right, brandishing spear in right hand, holding shield on left arm; magistrate, IPPOLOXOS in ex.                                                                                                                                                      BMC Thessaly -; SNG Fitzwilliam 2471 (var.).                                                                                                                  The Thessalian League/confederacy was made up of several cities in the Thessalian valley in Northern Greece. This area was completely surrounded by mountains and isolated except for a few passes. It was one of the few areas of Greece self-sufficient in grain and produced livestock and horses. Thessaly had the best calvary in Greece. The league was frequently weakened by intercity rivalries and lost its strength in the 5th century BC. The league was re-established in 374 BC by the tyrant Jason. He was assassinated in 370 BC, when it became evident that he had plans of conquest against the rest of Greece. After the death of Jason, there was infighting in the league and some of the cities requested help from Philip II of Macedon to settle the rivalries, which he accomplished in 353 BC. A few years later (344 BC), Philip II simply took control of the entire area. Thessaly remained under Macedonian control until Macedonia was defeated by the Romans in 197 BC. A new league was established in 196 BC. The league continued until 146 BC, then became part of the Roman province of Macedonia.                                                                                                                                                                                                Itonia, Itonias or Itonis  was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena worshiped widely in Thessaly and elsewhere. The name was derived from the town of Iton in the south of Phithiotis. The cult for Athena Itonia associated Athena in some mystical manner with the god of the lower world who is called  Hades by Strabo, but in Pausanias, who must be speaking of the same cult, is called Zeus. It may be that Athena Itonia had something of the character which in her primitive worship she had at Athens, and that she was a goddess who fostered the growths of the earth and who therefore had some affinity to the Chthonic deities. In Iton there was a celebrated sanctuary and fes­tivals for this cult, and is hence also called incola Itoni ("resident of Iton"). From Iton her worship spread into Boetia, where she was the chief deity of war, and the country about Lake Copais. In her temple between Pherae and Larissa were hung the shields won from the Gaulsin the last victory of Greece over barbarism, although a fragment from Bacchylides indicates that Athena Itonia was not only a war goddess, but a goddess of the arts of peace, especially poetry. The temple of Athena Itonia in Coronea was the meeting-place of the Panboeotia Confederacy, and where the Pamboeotia was celebrated, in the neighborhood of a grove of Athena. Other writers report the cult of Athena Itonia was also found at Athens and Amorgos, and a cult festival in Crannon. According to another tradition, Athena received the epithet of Itonia from Itonus, a king or priest.                                                                   Every item offered by VIVITE LAETI is unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine & authentic. Place a Bid!