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Chalkon
| Issuer | Pherai |
|---|---|
| Year | 350 BC - 300 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A lion's head fountain spout shown in profile to right, with streams of water issuing from its open jaws, a motif commonly associated with public water sources in the ancient Greek world. In the lower field, a fish swims to the right, referencing the aquatic associations of the goddess Ennodia and the local geography of Pherai. The ethnic inscription ΦΕΡΑΙΟΝ appears in the field, identifying the issuing city-state. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Pherai sat at the center of Thessalian power struggles throughout the fourth century, most notoriously under the tyrant Jason, who briefly made the city the dominant force in Greece before his assassination in 370 BC. His successors — Alexander of Pherai chief among them — ruled with considerably more brutality and considerably less political skill, drawing repeated Theban military intervention and ultimately leaving the city diminished. This bronze issue falls somewhere in the aftermath of that collapse, struck by a polis reasserting civic identity after decades of tyrannical rule had blurred the line between city coinage and dynastic propaganda.