Hekte

Mytilene and Phocaea operated a formal agreement — attested in ancient sources — to alternate the production of electrum hektai on a shared standard, with each city issuing distinct types while maintaining weight compatibility. This arrangement, unusual in the Greek world, likely reflects the commercial logic of the eastern Aegean trade routes where both cities were deeply embedded. The specific Bodenstedt 68 type falls within the period of Athenian defeat in Sicily and the subsequent collapse of Delian League cohesion, when independent Lesbian monetary production carried renewed political weight.