The Arcadian League minted these staters in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, when Theban power had shattered Spartan hegemony and briefly opened political space for a federated Arcadian state. Megalopolis itself was a newly founded city — established around 370 BC as a synoikism of over forty Arcadian villages — conceived deliberately as a federal capital to anchor resistance against Sparta. The coin's production window of 363–362 BC coincides almost exactly with the collapse of that Theban-backed order following Epaminondas's death at Mantinea in 362 BC, after which the League fragmented rapidly.
Issues from this narrow window are consequently rare. Kraay dated the series tightly, and the handful of references — BCD, Jameson, BMC — largely draw on the same small pool of known specimens.
The Arcadian League minted these staters in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, when Theban power had shattered Spartan hegemony and briefly opened political space for a federated Arcadian state. Megalopolis itself was a newly founded city — established around 370 BC as a synoikism of over forty Arcadian villages — conceived deliberately as a federal capital to anchor resistance against Sparta. The coin's production window of 363–362 BC coincides almost exactly with the collapse of that Theban-backed order following Epaminondas's death at Mantinea in 362 BC, after which the League fragmented rapidly.
Issues from this narrow window are consequently rare. Kraay dated the series tightly, and the handful of references — BCD, Jameson, BMC — largely draw on the same small pool of known specimens.