Ilion (AD 198-217) AE 25 - Caracalla

Caracalla,198-217 AD. AE25 (10.65g, 12h). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / IΛIΩN, on l. Herakles standing r. resting on club with r., lion's skin on shoulder, wreath in l.; on r. Hesione standing l., holding dress with l. hand and raising r.; sea-monster between them. gVF.

This is a new theme for the coins and not a tactful one. Laomedon had cheated Poseidon of his promised hire for building the walls of Troy and Poseidon sent a sea-monster to ravage the land. In response to an oracle Laomedon sought to avert disaster by chaining his daughter Hesione on the sea shore to be the monster's victim. Heracles, arriving in the Troad in connection with the Argonautic expedition or in pursuit of the girdle of the queen of the Amazons, killed the monster and rescued the maiden. Laomedon promised him, as a reward, the horses which Zeus had given him, but when he went back on his promise, Heracles later assaulted and captured the city. The Trojan part in this affair is far from edifying and it is not surprising that the story was dropped from the repertory of the die-sinkers (A.R. Bellinger, Troy, The Coins. Supplementary Monograph 2, University of Cincinnati, 1961, p.64).