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Melos occupies an awkward place in Greek history — the island was annihilated by Athens in 416 BC, its men killed and women and children enslaved, an event recorded with chilling clarity in Thucydides' Melian Dialogue. Bronze coinage attributed to Melos post-dates that destruction, implying the island was resettled, most likely under Athenian colonists, before regaining enough autonomy to strike its own issues. The archaeological and numismatic record of the resettlement period remains thin.