370-240 BCE
15.80mm 3.45g
Obverse: Head of Athena right, wearing Corinthian helmet
Reverse: MAN, Poseidon seated left on rock, holding trident and dolphin
MC Peloponnesos 1489.2
Ex BCD Collection (not in LHS sale)Purchased December 1976
Ex CNG
Ex Marc Breitsprecher
Mantineia is probably best known for the Second Battle of Mantineia, when an army of Athens and Sparta was defeated by Thebes. It turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory, however, because their leader Epaminondas died. With his passing, the hegemony of Thebes ended and within a short time they would be defeated by Philip II of Macedon and then annihilated by Alexander the Great.
The city was founded in roughly 500 BCE from several surrounding cities, and Poseidon was their designated patron-god. This can be seen from the obverse of this coin. North of the city was a temple of Artemis Hymnia, which was run by a celibate priestess. She was not even allowed to enter a private residence.
One such priestess of the temple near Mantineia was Diotima, who in Plato’s Symposium is attributed by Socrates to teaching him the philosophy of love.
The city also boasted of one of the most technologically advanced dams for the time.
During the Peloponnesian War, like pretty much every city of the time, it changed sides. Mantineia started on the side of Sparta, but later switched to Athens. At the time Pausanias visited it, most of the city was in ruins.