Didrachm - Aristoboulos

Issued during a period when Rhodes had emerged as the preeminent naval power in the eastern Aegean, this magistrate issue bearing the name Aristoboulos dates to the years surrounding the Rhodian alliance with Rome against Philip V of Macedon and, later, Antiochus III of Syria. Rhodes leveraged these alliances to extract substantial territorial concessions in 188 BC under the Peace of Apamea — though Roman goodwill toward the island would sour within a generation. Magistrate-signed Rhodian silver of this period circulated widely across the eastern Mediterranean trade network, turning up in hoards from Egypt to the Black Sea coast.