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Tetradrachm
| Issuer | Knossos |
|---|---|
| Year | 110 BC - 67 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | BMC Greek#41, SvoronosCr#96, SNG Lockett#2542 |
| Obverse description | Laureate head of Apollo facing left, rendered in fine Hellenistic style with long flowing locks swept back behind the neck. The hair is elaborately detailed with individual strands and a full laurel wreath crown. The magistrate's name appears in the left field as ΠΟΛ and in the right field as ΧΟΣ, identifying the issuing magistrate Polchos. The portrait exhibits a youthful, idealised effigy with smooth facial features characteristic of late Cretan coinage. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A large, bold circular labyrinth filling nearly the entire field of the coin, rendered in concentric meander-pattern bands in the distinctive Knossian square-spiral type. The design is deeply struck and highly stylised, evoking the mythological Labyrinth of Daedalus at Knossos, home of the Minotaur. The legend KNΩ is inscribed above the labyrinth at the top of the coin, with ΣIΩN split to the sides, reading ΚΝΩΣΙΩΝ, meaning 'of the Knossians'. The reverse is a celebrated and iconic type unique to Cretan coinage of this city. |
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| Additional information |
Knossos struck tetradrachms of this type during the final, turbulent decades of Cretan independence, a period defined by chronic inter-city warfare and the island's notorious reputation as a haven for pirates — a reputation that drew Rome's eventual attention. The Cretan cities had long resisted Macedonian-style coinage but eventually adopted the Attic weight standard, partly to facilitate the mercenary trade in which Cretan archers were the most commercially valuable export in the Mediterranean world.
Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus ended Cretan autonomy entirely in 67 BC, earning the cognomen Creticus in the process. Coins of this type ceased with that conquest.