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Triobol - Lydiadas
| Issuer | Argos |
|---|---|
| Year | 90 BC - 40 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Triobol (1/2) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A large Greek letter Alpha (A) dominates the central field, serving as the initial of Argos. Below the Alpha, a boar's head is depicted facing right in profile, a recurring civic symbol on Argive coinage. The magistrate's name ΛYΔIAΔA (Lydiadas) is inscribed across the field, identifying the issuing authority. The entire design is set within a square incuse punch, a hallmark of early and mid-Hellenistic Peloponnesian silver coinage. The lettering is rendered in the Greek alphabet in a clear, well-spaced arrangement. |
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| Mintage | ND (90 BC - 40 BC) |
| Additional information |
Lydiadas was a tyrant of Megalopolis who dissolved his own tyranny in 235 BC to bring the city into the Achaean League — an act unusual enough that Plutarch thought it worth recording at length. That he was honored on Argive coinage generations after his death reflects the complicated politics of Peloponnesian civic identity during the League's slow collapse under Roman pressure in the first century BC.
Argos continued issuing silver fractions well after Rome's reorganization of Greece following the sack of Corinth in 146 BC, suggesting a degree of monetary autonomy that many neighboring poleis had already surrendered.