That the Celts served as mercenaries for the Greeks is well known, but
until now we had no likely specific identity of any tribe so employed.
The earliest coins that have been attributed to the Ambiani are gold
hemistaters: Scheers, 1. La série à la tète d'Héra (Simone Scheers
_Traité de Numismatique Celtique -- La Gaule Belgique_, Paris 1977. I
have had difficulty accepting this attribution for two reasons: the
style is far too good for a Celtic copy, and the purity of the gold of
the three known specimens is estimated to be 95-98%, in keeping with
refined gold coinage of the Mediterranean, rather than with other
Celtic gold coins. All three specimens were found in Ambiani
territory.
The type is that of Taras in Calabria, a fact well known, minted after
the Italian campaign of the Epeirote king Alexander the Molossian (334
- 330 B.C.). How this type travelled to Belgic Gaul has been a
mystery. Hera wears a stephane and a light veil, the latter clearly
indicated by a diagonal line. This diagonal line is copied on later
coins of the Ambiani, and is seen on British uninscribed coins derived
from these. These later Ambiani coins are more direct copies of the
gold stater of Philip II of Macedon, a coin that saw circulation long
after Philip's death. The fusion of these two designs is significant,
but to my knowledge, has never been explained, perhaps not even
noticed.
The Celts in the 3rd century B.C. shifted from their habit of raiding
for cattle or gold (David Rankin _Celts and the Classical World_,
London, 1987) to one of mercenary duties. In 280 B.C., another
Epeirote King, Pyrros the Molossian, entered Taras, this time to
protect the city from the Romans. In 278, he left for Syracuse; in
276, he returned once more to Taras. In another two years, he left for
Macedon, attacked their king Antigonos Gonatas, and replaced him. Yet
another two years passed, and Pyrros took on Sparta. He died that year
(272), as the story goes, as the result of a roof tile thrown by a
mother protecting her son. Antigonos regained his throne.
The opportunity thus existed for these coins of Taras to come into the
hands of the Ambiani mercenaries. Caesar says they were a fierce,
warlike people who never allowed traders into their country (II.15).
These coins were trophies of war, not currency for buying luxuries,
and this was the nature of the earliest Celtic coins.
Antigonas Gonatas used Celtic mercenaries. Although they were thus his
enemy, Pyrros had much respect for their bravery. Pausanias (13.2 --
trans: Peter Levi) says:
"He rested his forces after this Italian disaster and then declared
war on Antigonos, on the ground among others of Antigonos's offence
over help in Italy. Pyrros beat Antigonos's own army and the hired
Gauls as well, and herded them down into the coastal cities, while he
himself took possession of Thessaly and upper Macedonia. You can see
the gigantic size of that battle and of Pyrros's victory from the
Celtic arms dedicated to Athene Itonia between Pherai and Larisa, with
the inscription on them:
"_Pyrros the Molossian hangs long shields
to Athene Itonis from the Gauls:
and the hosts of Antigonos defeated
say the Aiakidae are soldiers._
"He dedicated the long shields there, but to Zeus at Dodona he
dedicated the round ones of the Macedonians themselves, and they also
have an inscription:
"_This metal destroyed Asia rich in gold,
this metal made slaves out of the Greeks,
this metal is lying fatherless
by the pillars of Zeus of water-streams,
the spoil of proud-voiced Macedonia._"
Pyrros' choice of dedications was not haphazard. He could not have
dedicated the long Celtic shields to Zeus at Dodona. The coins of
Pyrros in Dodona, Epeiros, show Zeus Dodonaios, his head wreathed with
oak. Later coins of the Epierote Republic show his consort Dione
(associated with Hera). They are the Oak King and Queen. The Iron Age
oracle of Zeus at Dodona was the oak grove, and there the wind in the
trees and the sounds of the doves gave prophecies to the Greeks. The
word for oak was the source of the word "Druid" and Zeus was Jupiter,
Dis pater, God the father.
But did Hera, the mother of the gods, guide the hand of that mother
that killed Pyrros, anyway?
John Hooker
--
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