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Drachm - Archimedes and Parmeniskos
| Issuer | Dyrrachion (Illyria) |
|---|---|
| Year | 229 BC - 100 BC |
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| Value | 1 Drachm |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A cow stands to right in high relief, her head turned back to observe a suckling calf positioned beneath her, facing left. The animals are rendered in a naturalistic style characteristic of Illyrian coinage, with careful attention to musculature and posture. The Greek legend ΑΡΧΙΜΗΔΗΣ, identifying the magistrate Archimedes, appears in the upper field above the group, distributed across two lines within the coin's circular border. The flan is slightly irregular, as is typical of hammered coinage of this period and region. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | ΑΡΧΙΜΗΔΗΣ |
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| Additional information |
Dyrrachion — modern Durrës on the Albanian coast — was one of the primary western terminals of the Via Egnatia and handled enormous volumes of Roman and Greek commercial traffic. The city's drachms circulated far beyond Illyria itself; hoards containing them have been found deep into the Balkans and as far east as the Black Sea littoral, carried by merchants and soldiers alike.
The magistrate names struck on these coins — here Archimedes and Parmeniskos — served an accountability function, binding specific officials to a given issue. Whether these were annually rotating magistracies or appointments of longer tenure remains debated.