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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Marathos |
|---|---|
| Year | 223 BC - 222 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm = 4 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The eponymous hero Marathos seated to the left on a pile of shields, his chlamys draped over his left arm. In his outstretched right hand he holds an asphlaston (a stern ornament), and in his left hand a palm frond or reed. The Greek ethnic legend ΜΑΡΑΘΗΝΩΝ arcs around the field, identifying the issuing community. In the exergue, the Aramaic numeral for year 37 (corresponding to 223/222 BC in the Marathene civic era) appears alongside the abbreviation ST, providing a precise civic date rare among Phoenician city coinages. |
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| Mint | Marathos (Phoenicia) |
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| Additional information |
Marathos was a Phoenician island city — connected to the mainland by a causeway — that enjoyed unusual autonomy under Seleucid rule and maintained its own civic coinage into the late 3rd century BC. This tetradrachm dates to a narrow two-year window, and the city's independent minting activity was effectively extinguished not long after when Aradus, its powerful neighbor and longtime rival, finally razed Marathos around 148 BC and absorbed its territory entirely. The enmity between the two cities is explicitly documented by Strabo.