Naxos dominated the Cyclades through the archaic period on the strength of its marble quarries and merchant fleet, until the Persians razed the island in 490 BC during Datis's Aegean campaign — the same expedition that ended at Marathon. Coins struck before that destruction represent the island's last generation of independent production.
The Weber specimen is one of a small group of archaic Naxian staters documented before large-scale dispersal through European collections in the nineteenth century.
Naxos dominated the Cyclades through the archaic period on the strength of its marble quarries and merchant fleet, until the Persians razed the island in 490 BC during Datis's Aegean campaign — the same expedition that ended at Marathon. Coins struck before that destruction represent the island's last generation of independent production.
The Weber specimen is one of a small group of archaic Naxian staters documented before large-scale dispersal through European collections in the nineteenth century.