Miletos stater circa end 6th c. early 5th B.C. Obv: Floral motif. 1/8 de statère, Milet. Fin VIe - début Ve siècle avant notre ère, Tête de lion de face. Revers : Motif floral dans un double carré.
by permission of F. Weber http://www.fredericweber.com/

Cilicia. Kelenderis, c. 350-333 BC. AR Stater (10.27 g). Naked rider sitting sideways on horse; above, rectangular countermark with heifer walking right. Reverse: Goat kneeling right, head reverted; Counterstamp for Pharnabazos of Tarsus, 479-474 BC. With thanks to Ira & Larry Goldberg for this permission. www.goldbergcoins.com

Obv:exergue dot sequence, rider holding whip. ΚΕΛΕ[Ν] written above goat. Some descriptoins state rider is sitting sideways and some that he is dismounting. Either seem difficult to the author as the horse is rearing.

Photocourtesy D. Osseman © Dick Osseman http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/miletus
PAMPHYLIA; Aspendus. circa 400-370 BC. AR Stater (10.99 gm; 23 mm). Two wrestlers grappling, pellet below, with owl and lotus counterstamps in field / Slinger to right; triskeles in field, and barley grain(?) below. cf. SNG von Aulock 4515 & 4518, for owl counterstamp. By permission of Pars coins.

Myriandros 361-334 B.C. AR Obol of Mazaios, Cilicia Satrap. Obv: Seated Baaltars holding lotus tipped sceptre

CILICIA, Tarsos.Tiribazos, Satrap of Lydia. 10.42 gm; 20 x 18 mm). Struck 386-380 B.C. Ahura-Mazda, body terminating in solar disk, holding wreath and lotus blossom / Baal standing half-left, holding eagle and sceptre; T before. SNG Levante 62; SNG France 233; SNG von Aulock - By permission of Pars Coins http://www.parscoins.com
Ahura-Mazda crowned.
Cilicia, Tarsos. Satraps of Cilicia. Pharnabazos. 379-374 B.C. AR Stater. 10.79 g. 24 mm. Ob: Baal std. L. Leaning on lotus tipped scepter. Rx: Helmeted head of Ares l. SNG Levante 71. Persic Standard.Vlahovici-Jones Collection
By permission of Pars Coins http://www.parscoins.com
Hekatomnos 395-377 B.C. AR Stater
 
   
 
 

It was towards the end of the 5th century when the satraps commenced striking coinage. Thereupon lotus’s appeared in subtle ways such as counterstamps indenting coin fields such as Pamphylian staters from Aspendos as this example Pars coins displays: . Another example, this time from Myriandros Cilicia, satrap Mazaios issued obols revealing a seated dignitary whose crown leads one to presume this image might represent Persia’s king holding a lotus-tipped sceptre as well as a lotus flower. Satrap Tiribazos of Lydia issued staters from the Tarsos mint having Ahura-Mazda emerging from a solar disk, holding a lotus blossom. Ahura-Mazda was the Creator divinity for Zoroaster, thus God himself, crowned in fact on these coins . (In Old Persian Auramazda). Also from Tarsos he issued staters where a women kneels upon reverses with a lotus plant to the right. Obverses honour Greek goddess Athena. One particular Lycian specie shows twin triskeles encircling two dolphins, one symbol above and one below, reverses carrying what possibly was the national symbol, a triskelis. An added lotus symbol fits into the field across from the Lycian monogram “K-O”.

Above satrap Mazaios of Cilicia issued from Myriandros a lion beneath a winged solar disk. Recent archaeological data suggests Myriandros near today’s Iskenderun in Turkey, was a Phoenician colony. With pro-Phoenician Tarsos these cities exemplify religious as well as cultural freedom Persians granted. Eastern gods, Ahura-Mazda, Baal and Melkart coexisted alongside western deities : Ares, Athena, Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite and other worthies. Another Cilician issue, a Mallos obol circa 425-385 B.C. figured with a personage or god having curved wings who presents a solar disk with both hands. Upon the reverse stands a graceful swan, wings uplifted; possibly a reference to Aphrodite.

After the latter coin issues another Egyptian campaign set an imaging and pace change in Cilicia. Payments to Greek mercenaries encharged upon a joint military command under satraps Pharnabazos and Datames (the latter was satrap of Cilicia and Cappadocia) brought about accelerated minting to which was added a Hellenic touch: a helmeted and bearded Greek god of war, Ares.(wage rates:*7)

 
 
   
 
  We know of Ionian Miletus via Hittite annals of Mursili II, circa 1320 B.C. Miletus squabbled with Lydia during the seventh century B.C. avoiding annexation but worse followed when after much resistance she was overrun by Persia in the sixth century along with Greek Anatolia. Circa 499 B.C. Milesians led the Ionian revolt spurring ahead the Greco-Persian Wars but during the process and to the horror of Greece, after the battle of Lade, Persia gutted the city in 494 passing on the carcass to an ever-ambitious Carian satrapy . Early Milesian coins depict snarling lions (the lion was sacred to Sumerian goddess Inanna) with reverses outlining an enigmatic symbol variously described in numismatics as: a star or stellate pattern, a floral star, a floral design, a rosette, a spoked wheel, a sun, and others. A sun could be appropriate considering Apollo was the favoured deity of Miletus. Another Lydian variation on this theme: Numerous reverses of this coin-type are identical to the Phrygian motif below. (Phrygians and Lydians once spoke an Indo-European language). Sumerian seals also signal an eight-rayed sun or star symbol.  
 
  Phrygia : circa 750 –600 B.C.
Lydia : circa. 900–547 B. C
 
 
Phrygia : 6th century B.C. Gordion, lent by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for presentation by the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Ancient Near Eastern Art collection. Gift of the Turkish Government, 1954 Reverse. Miletos silver stater, circa 525.B.C.
 
 
  Such a pattern or symbol could also be interpreted as four rays united by a central core, or a quincunx — four planets distanced apart by 150 degrees. This is the Pythagorean tetraktys. (Pythagoras born in 570 on the Ionian coast on Samos Island close to Miletos). Electrum Miletos reverses also carried this pattern, circa 650-600. Innumerable roots and interpretations remain an open study regarding this symbol so frequently used in the ancient world. Satrap Hekatomnos empowered over Caria and Ionia issued a very similar coin as did his satrap son Mausolos minting in Miletos. Pixodarou, satrap son of Mausolos maintained the obverse “star”. Homer’s Iliad records Miletos as Carian. If this be fact, the lion and symbol coins struck centuries later by Caria’s satraps convey an understandable and applaudable continuity of spirit for the region they ruled. Since coin effigies conveyed socio-political significance, satraps not exclusively but foremostly placed themselves upon coin obverses were they present upon the face of a coin.*7B

Achaemenid and satrapial control did not impose the Zoroastrian faith. Patronymic religions and customs were not only accepted, they were encouraged and in well-known cases, adopted by the satraps themselves. For this reason one often finds satrapial coins portraying gods and patriotic symbols of the lands they ruled rather than their own. Another example of this is satrap Mazaios in Cilicia whose coins portray local god Baal, (as mentioned page 4),Tarsian beliefs being more pro-Phoenician than Hellenic. To note the Greek god Apollo may have been honoured by Persians as Ahura-Mazda, facilitating satrapial coinage such as Pixodarou’s coin above showing a laurel-wreathed Apollo.

Certain information places Hekatomnos (above) following Tissaphernes as satrap, others, Hyssaldomos of Mylasa as first satrap of Caria followed by his son Hekatomnos in authority over both Lycia and Caria from 395 till his demise 377 B.C. Combined with further reigns of direct descendants a period referenced as “Hecatomid” encompasses Caria under the Achaemenids. This is exceptional within the administration system wherein satrapal posts were not hereditary. Also exceptional was the feat of Hekatomnos maintaining his satrapy semi-independent of Achaemenidian authority represented in his time by Artaxerxes II. Hecatomid descendants surprisingly managed in like. Caria formed a territory within the first satrapy along with: the Aeolians, Ionians, Lycians, Magnesians, Milesians and Pamphylians. Their yearly dues summed four hundred silver Babylonian talents.
 
 
 
Satrapies paying in gold followed the Euboic standard measure. Quoting researcher Martin Doutré: “A number like 933.12 is simply indicating 1/10000th, a foundation value of 933120 (the number of seeds of grain in a Sumerian/ Babylonian talent weight)”. The Sumerian-Babylonian talent contained 60 mina, however, according to ancient Sumerian texts there was also a talent of 61.666666 mina (61 & 2/3rds). Researcher Donald Lee Lenzen estimated a Babylonian Mina weight as based upon a count of 15102.72 grains *8. He proceeds to explain the heavier standard would have been used for state treasury payments and that certain museum weights are so identified by the inscription “of the King”, such as a black basalt weight in the British Museum, an instrument in the times of Nebuchadrezzar II (circa 630-562 B.C.) incised with an inscription certifying it was a weight duplicate of Sumerian King Shulgi (2095-2048 B.C.) representing “one mina true weight” of 15100 grains. Donald Lenzen explains further “this is the usual heavy royal double mina. The single or light mina would weigh 7550 grains.” and Martin Doutré adds that in 606 B.C. Nebuchadrezzar II “restored the ancient Sumerian weight system organized 1500 years prior to his reign.” For further information *9:
 
 
  There is much to learn through symbols used by the satraps including their counterstamps such as a heifer chosen for satrap Pharnabazos of Tarsus, 479-474 B.C. which would have been familiar to him since Ahura-Mazda once created the primordial cow symbolising both plant and animal kingdoms . Coinage bespeaks the interaction between Greek and Persian cultures. In final, such symbols from Sumerians to Sassanides and beyond, imbricated in commonality whatever name changes occurred throughout the Mesopotamian spectrum. Unavoidably the satraps played a pivotal part extending Eastern culture beyond the Tigris and Euphrates be it East or West, North or South. In a fashion they were the treasurers of a rich and unique Achaemenidian legacy itself grafted upon centuries of Mesopotamian culture.  
 
 
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