Tetradrachm - Teleas

Knidos sat at the tip of a long, narrow peninsula in Caria — strategically awkward to besiege, which allowed the city unusual autonomy even as Persian and Macedonian power reshaped the eastern Aegean. The magistrate name Teleas, inscribed on this issue, reflects the Knidian practice of naming a responsible official on the coinage, a form of monetary accountability rare among contemporaries. The dating bracket spans the transition from Achaemenid to Macedonian hegemony, and it remains an open question whether this particular issue predates or postdates Alexander's sweep through the region in 334 BC.