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Dichalkon
| Issuer | Methydrion |
|---|---|
| Year | 370 BC - 340 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | Kallisto depicted in dramatic three-quarter pose, seated and falling backwards to the left with both arms outstretched, an arrow piercing her breast — referencing the mythological episode of her transformation. Below her recumbent figure, the infant Arkas lies on his back, arms raised upward toward his mother. The composition is confined to the central field of the flan without encircling legend, rendered in the compact, expressive style typical of Arcadian civic bronzes. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Methydrion was a small Arkadian hill town whose independent coinage is remarkable chiefly because it existed at all. The city was absorbed into the newly founded Megalopolis around 371–368 BC as part of the Theban-backed synoikism that forcibly amalgamated dozens of Arkadian settlements — a process so disruptive that several communities simply ceased to function as independent poleis. That this issue dates to the same general window suggests it was struck either in the final years before absorption or during a brief period of resumed autonomy afterward.
The BCD collection reference places it among the rarest Peloponnesian bronzes in that landmark 2009 Lanz sale.