Orchomenos was the principal rival to Thebes within the Boeotian League, and the two cities' relationship swung between uneasy federation and outright hostility throughout the fifth and fourth centuries. This small fractional silver was likely produced to meet local market demands during a period when Orchomenos maintained enough political autonomy to strike its own coinage — an independence that ended definitively in 364 BC when Thebes razed the city and sold its population into slavery.
Orchomenos was the principal rival to Thebes within the Boeotian League, and the two cities' relationship swung between uneasy federation and outright hostility throughout the fifth and fourth centuries. This small fractional silver was likely produced to meet local market demands during a period when Orchomenos maintained enough political autonomy to strike its own coinage — an independence that ended definitively in 364 BC when Thebes razed the city and sold its population into slavery.