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Tetrobol - Uncertain Dynast
| Issuer | Dynasts of Lycia (Achaemenid Satrapies) |
|---|---|
| Year | 480 BC |
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| Currency | Lycian drachm |
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| Obverse description | Forepart of a wild boar advancing to the left, rendered in bold archaic relief with pronounced bristled mane along the dorsal ridge and a large, deeply cut circular eye. The snout is lowered and the forelegs are tucked beneath the powerful chest, conveying a sense of aggressive forward motion. The musculature of the shoulders and haunches is rendered with characteristic early Lycian plasticity. No legend or inscription appears in the field. The flan is irregular and slightly ovoid, consistent with hand-struck coinage of the Achaemenid period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Within a dotted square border, a round hoplite shield decorated with a triskeles motif at its center, the three running legs radiating symmetrically. The shield is set upon a tetraskeles, a four-armed swastika-like symbol of motion or solar significance, itself rendered with equal angular arms. The entire composition is contained within a shallow incuse square, a hallmark of early Lycian hammered coinage. The dotted border separates the central device from the incuse recess with precision. No inscription or dynastic legend is present. |
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| Additional information |
Lycia operated as a semi-autonomous region under Achaemenid Persian authority from the mid-sixth century onward, yet its dynasts retained the remarkable privilege of striking their own silver coinage — a concession the Persians extended selectively and rarely. The attribution "uncertain dynast" reflects a genuine gap in the epigraphic record: Lycian dynastic names from this early period survive inconsistently, and many issues cannot be tied to a specific ruler without corroborating inscription or findspot data.
480 BC places this piece in the year of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, when Lycia was nominally part of the Persian imperial apparatus.