Catalog
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| Issuer | Kition |
|---|---|
| Year | 425 BC - 400 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Bearded effigy of Heracles advancing to the right, clad in a lion's hide draped over his shoulder. His outstretched left hand grasps a bow, while his raised right hand holds a club aloft. An ankh symbol appears to his right in the field. The design is enclosed by a beaded border along the rim. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A lunging lion attacking a kneeling stag that collapses toward the right, rendered in the Cypro-Phoenician artistic tradition. The royal name of Baalmelek II appears as a Phoenician inscription above the figural group. The entire composition is contained within a beaded square border in incuse. |
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| Additional information |
Kition, on the southeastern coast of Cyprus, operated as a Phoenician city-state under a dynasty of priest-kings whose authority derived as much from the temple of Astarte as from any political office. Baalmelek II ruled during a period when Cyprus was nominally under Persian suzerainty, and the city's coinage circulated in a commercial environment that mixed Greek, Phoenician, and Achaemenid economic networks simultaneously.
The siglos denomination itself was Persian in origin, and Kition's fractional issues in this weight standard reflect deliberate alignment with imperial trade conventions rather than local tradition.