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Chalkon - Moschos
| Issuer | Smyrna |
|---|---|
| Year | 95 BC - 85 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Athena facing right, wearing a crested Attic helmet adorned with decorative relief; the goddess's facial features are rendered in the Hellenistic style with smooth, naturalistic modeling. The neck and cheek guards of the helmet are clearly delineated, and the crest rises prominently above the head. The field is plain, with no surrounding legend on the obverse. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Standing figure of Cybele or Aphrodite Stratonikis, the city goddess of Smyrna, depicted in full frontal view between two tall palm branches or columns, rendered in a rigid, hieratic style typical of civic bronze coinage of Ionia in the late Hellenistic period. The figure is draped and appears to hold attributes in each hand. The reverse legend is disposed vertically or around the field, identifying the issuing city and the magistrate responsible for the coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Smyrna in the late second century BC was one of the most prosperous cities on the Aegean coast, and its civic bronze coinage of this period reflects the administrative confidence of a city that had cultivated close ties with Rome since at least 195 BC, when Smyrna became one of the first eastern cities to build a temple to the goddess Roma. The magistrate name Moschos appearing on this issue places it within a documented sequence of eponymous officials responsible for authorizing local bronze production during a decade increasingly shadowed by the westward ambitions of Mithridates VI of Pontus.
The First Mithridatic War broke out in 88 BC, and Smyrna fell under Pontic pressure during the early 80s. Chalka of precisely this type effectively ceased production when the city's civic autonomy was disrupted.