Stater

Pheneos was a minor Arkadian polis whose coinage output was limited almost entirely to a brief window in the mid-fourth century, likely connected to the political turbulence following the Battle of Leuktra in 371 BC and the subsequent Arkadian League experiments in regional autonomy. The city sat at the northern edge of Arkadia, geographically isolated in a basin prone to flooding — ancient sources including Pausanias note that the plain periodically submerged entirely, disrupting agriculture and, presumably, whatever economic stability underpinned coin production.

The number of major collection references this piece carries — Lockett, Weber, Gillet, Fitzwilliam, and others — signals it passed through the great early twentieth-century European cabinets in succession.