6¹¹⁄₁₆ in. (17 cm.) diam.

Private Collection, UK; acquired 1970s.
Antiquities, Christie's, London, 25 April 2007, lot 236.
Antiquities, Christie's, London, 13 October 2008, lot 37.

M. Burns, "Graeco-Italic Militaria," in M. Merrony, ed., Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, 2011, p. 234, fig. 139.
C. Dauphin, Animals in the Ancient World: The Levett Bestiary, Mougins, 2014, p. 95.
C. Dauphin, Les Animaux dans le Monde Antique: Le Bestiaire Levett, Mougins, 2016, p. 73, fig. 79.
M. Livingston and M. Cole, "Finding Pydna," Ancient Warfare, June-July 2020, p. 47.

Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA30).

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Lot Essay

The phalera, or horse-trapping, is decorated with a central gilt relief head of a Gorgoneion turned slightly to the right. There are small wings on either side of her head with snakes above and two snakes knotted under her chin. The phalera would have likely been worn with a pair, on each shoulder of the animal, by threading them through the attachment loops on the reverse, which also keep the six conical bosses on the front in place. For a discussion on phalerae in the Hellenized East, cf. M. Pfrommer, Metalwork from the Hellenized East, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, pp. 5-13 and pp. 155-164. The reverse has a punched inscription along the outer edge, ...MN ZWZN 100 / "...[made] from 100 drachms."