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Tetradrachm - Sochares and Papias
| Issuer | Antioch ad Meandrum |
|---|---|
| Year | 90 BC - 60 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 16.26 g |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A zebu bull stands to the left with its head turned to face the viewer, rendered in naturalistic Hellenistic style with the characteristic hump clearly visible. The ethnic legend ΑΝΤΙΟΧΕΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΩΙ is disposed in two lines above the bull. The magistrate name ΠΑΠΙΑΣ appears upward to the left of the bull, while ΣΩΧΑΡΗΣ runs downward to the right. In the exergue, a maeander (meander) ornamental pattern is flanked by or accompanies the inscription ΜΑΙΑΝΔΡΩ, referencing the Maeander River and identifying the civic mint of Antioch ad Maeandrum. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Antioch ad Meandrum was a small Carian city whose civic coinage is notable for naming its issuing magistrates — Sochares and Papias appear as the responsible officials on this issue, a practice that allows modern scholars to sequence the city's tetradrachm production into rough chronological groups, though absolute dating within the 90–60 BC window remains contested. The city sat on a trade route through the Maeander valley, which explains why it bothered striking silver at this weight standard at all; most towns of comparable size in the region had long abandoned autonomous silver in favor of bronze.