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Tetradrachm - Theophra..., Sotas... and Phala...
| Issuer | Athens |
|---|---|
| Year | 130 BC - 129 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Tetradrachm (4) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Greek |
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| Reverse description | A standing owl, the emblem of Athens, is depicted in three-quarter facing view with head turned to face the viewer, perched atop a panathenaic amphora. A winged thunderbolt appears to the left of the owl in the field, while the letter N is inscribed on the amphora and the ethnic ΣΦ appears below. The names of the three magistrates responsible for the issue are distributed in the fields surrounding the central device. The entire composition is enclosed within a broad olive wreath, in keeping with the standard reverse design of New Style Athenian tetradrachms. |
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| Additional information |
This tetradrachm belongs to the New Style coinage introduced at Athens around 196 BC, issued under annually rotating magistrates whose abbreviated names appear on the coin — the truncated names in this entry reflect precisely that convention. The series was Athens' attempt to reassert commercial relevance in the eastern Mediterranean after decades of Macedonian dominance had disrupted Athenian monetary prestige. Thompson's exhaustive 1961 die study catalogued over 1,600 obverse dies across the series, making it one of the most rigorously documented Greek coinages in scholarship.
The 130–129 BC issues fall within a period of mounting anxiety in the Aegean following Rome's destruction of Corinth in 146 BC.