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Tetrachalkon
| Issuer | Thebai |
|---|---|
| Year | 302 BC - 286 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Reverse description | Full figure of the hero Protesilaos advancing to right, clad in crested Corinthian helmet and body armor. In his extended left hand he bears a large round shield, while his right hand wields a sword at the ready. Behind him to the left, the prow of a warship (galley) is depicted, alluding to the hero's legendary embarkation at the head of the Greek fleet for Troy. To the right of the figure, the ethnic legend ΘΗΒΑΙΩΝ appears, accompanied by the monogram ΑΧ identifying a magistrate or mint official. |
| Reverse script | Greek |
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| Additional information |
Thebes had been razed by Alexander the Great in 335 BC as a brutal warning to any Greek city considering resistance, the population killed or enslaved and the buildings leveled — the poet Pindar's house reportedly spared as the sole exception. The city was refounded around 316 BC under Cassander, partly as a political gesture and partly to consolidate Macedonian influence in Boeotia. This issue falls within the early decades of that refounded city, a community rebuilding its civic infrastructure, including its coinage, from near nothing.