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1⁄16 Shekel - Mazaios Sidon
| Issuer | Sidon (Phoenician cities) |
|---|---|
| Year | 353 BC - 333 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.60 g |
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| Reverse description | Persian king or hero depicted standing to the right in the Achaemenid tradition, clad in a long crenelated royal robe. The figure grasps a rearing lion by its mane with the extended left hand, while the right hand is raised and poised to strike with a dagger, in the classic Persian royal combat motif. The Phoenician letters 'MZ' (מז), the monogram of the satrap Mazaios, appear in the field as an issuing authority mark. The scene is rendered in a highly abbreviated but iconographically consistent manner appropriate to the tiny flan of this fractional denomination. |
| Reverse script | Phoenician |
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| Additional information |
Mazaios governed Sidon as a Persian-appointed satrap during one of the most turbulent stretches in Levantine history — his tenure spanning the brutal suppression of the Phoenician revolt against Artaxerxes III around 345 BC, when Sidon was reportedly burned and tens of thousands sold into slavery. That he continued striking coin through this period, in fractional denominations small enough to suggest active retail commerce, points to a remarkably rapid urban recovery. He later surrendered Babylon to Alexander without a fight in 331 BC, a political calculation that earned him the satrapy of Babylonia under Macedonian rule.