MILETOS IONIA SILVER 1/64 STATER_________Archaic________Panther & Floral Design

Description

21F262
FRASCATIUS ANCIENTS
A BEAUTIFUL SILVER 1/64 STATER (OR TETARTEMORION) OF MILETOS IONIA FROM 600 - 550 BC.
A nice early archaic silver coin.
This coin is considered one of the first to have a reverse design rather than a simple incuse punch.
THE SIZE IS 4.9 MM AND 0.16 GRAMS.
SNG Kayhan 461v, Klein 423
OBVERSE – Panther (or lion) head facing; all within dotted square border
REVERSE – Stellate floral pattern within incuse square
MILETOS
Miletos was prosperous and prominent, and it established numerous colonies throughout the Greek world, reportedly more than 90 in all. In the sixth century BC it was one of the first Greek cities to mint coinage before coming under Persian domination.
The prosperity of Miletos came by virtue of its location: a port city at the mouth of a major river—the Greater Meander on the eastern edge of the Greek world. Miletos established commercial ties with the non-Greek Lydians to the east, and the Lydians themselves prospered through trade with the Persians and with other cultures in Asia. But the geographical location of Miletos also made it vulnerable from both land and sea. After the Persians under Cyrus the Great conquered Lydia in 546 BC, Miletos was able to remain neutral through diplomacy and bribery for a time. In 499 BC, the tyrant of Miletos, Aristagoras, united the cities of Ionia in a revolt against the Persians. They failed to muster sufficient support from the free Greek city-states, and Miletos fell to the forces of Darius I following a seige in 494 BC. To punish the city for their role in the rebellion, all males in the city were massacred, and the women and children sent into slavery, ensuring that the people of that city would be no more.
The destruction of Miletos in 494 BC was one of the great catastrophes of early Greek civilization. A play by Phrynichus called The Capture of Miletos, written soon after the city was destroyed, caused so much emotional turmoil in Athens that the playwright was fined and future performances were banned. And it was Athens’ support of Miletos against Persia that touched off the century-long series of Persian wars that engaged the whole Hellenic world and that led to the eventual rise of Athens as the great naval power of the Mediterranean.
Darius’ invasion of mainland Greece was beaten back at Marathon in 490 BC, and a second invasion led by Darius’ son Xerxes was beaten back at Salamis in 480 BC. The Ionian coastline was eventually reconquered by the Greeks, but it was then ceded back to Persia, only to be conquered again by Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Though in all these later periods Miletos continued to be an important port, it never regained the greatness it had had during the seventh and sixth centuries.
But by the time the early city was destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC, the cultural and intellectual accomplishments of the Milesians had already spread through the Greek world.
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NOTE: Frascatius is a life member (LM #6864) of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). Frascatius fully complies with the ANA Member Code of Ethics.
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