Elateia was the principal city of Phocis and a strategic strongpoint controlling the main pass through which any army moving from northern Greece into Attica had to travel — a fact Demosthenes famously dramatized in his speech when news of Philip II's capture of the city sent Athens into panic in 339 BC. By the time these bronzes were struck, Elateia had passed through Macedonian, Aetolian, and finally Roman hands, with Flamininus defeating Philip V at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC reshaping the entire political structure of central Greece. HGC 4#1143 is among the terminal issues of an independent civic coinage that would effectively cease as Roman administrative dominance rendered local bronze increasingly redundant.
Elateia was the principal city of Phocis and a strategic strongpoint controlling the main pass through which any army moving from northern Greece into Attica had to travel — a fact Demosthenes famously dramatized in his speech when news of Philip II's capture of the city sent Athens into panic in 339 BC. By the time these bronzes were struck, Elateia had passed through Macedonian, Aetolian, and finally Roman hands, with Flamininus defeating Philip V at Cynoscephalae in 197 BC reshaping the entire political structure of central Greece. HGC 4#1143 is among the terminal issues of an independent civic coinage that would effectively cease as Roman administrative dominance rendered local bronze increasingly redundant.