The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean
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For example, during the fourth century bce, Sidon—the largest and most important of the Phoenician city-states under Persian domination—led the other Phoenician cities in two revolts. Numismatic evidence suggests that the cities of Tyre and Byblos were allied with the Sidonians against their Persian overlords. Aradus (Arwad), located farther north along the Levantine coast, was apparently restrained from joining the rebellions. Aradus was close to one of the most important overland routes to the interior of the east, and to Persia, and may have drawn more attention from Persian security forces. A loose coalition among Phoenician city-states, unified in ethnicity and religion, manifested itself politically, militarily, economically, and monetarily. All the time, however, each of these city-states—and their mints—remained part of greater Persia. Striking coins in gold was reserved for the royal mint of Persepolis. Thus the coins authorized to be struck by the Phoenician cities’ mints supplemented the larger gold denominations from the Persian crown. Local issues in silver and bronze from the Phoenician mints facilitated the everyday ebb and flow of commerce along the eastern Mediterranean coastline.
The growing monetary economy of the Greeks was very powerful and was viewed by the Phoenicians and their Persian overlords as highly successful. The Persians came into this Mediterranean world of trade and commerce at a competitive disadvantage. Encouraging its vassal states and cities to strike coins and enter the monetary economy was a natural part of Persian expansion to the west and its encounter with the Greeks. The Phoenician naval and commercial fleets were the power projection platforms for Persia’s entrance into the Mediterranean world. Greek military forces stopped Persian aggression at Marathon, Plataea, and Salamis, but commercial competition continued unabated. Ruling authorities clearly understood that coined money facilitated commercial transactions and collection of taxes and tariffs. It is, therefore, to be expected that by the mid-fifth century bce, the Phoenician city-states were granted permission to strike coins on local types, providing the silver and bronze denominations needed to transact everyday business in the name of imperial Persia.
Of the four earliest Phoenician mints, Sidon was probably the most important in the fifth and fourth centuries bce. (For the history of Phoenicia under the Persian/Achaemenid empire, see chapter 7, this volume.)
Sidon
Scholars from more than a century ago, such as Six, Rouvier, Hill, and Babelon, were in agreement that Sidon struck coins in silver and bronze beginning in the mid-fifth century bce. Only a few of the bronze minimi (smaller bronze denominations) have survived, but we assume that these bronze coins supplemented the larger, more valuable silver ones. New archaeological excavations and discoveries at ancient sites along the Levantine coast will probably unearth many more examples of these coins in the future.
The earliest coins associated with Sidon depict a galley with a central mast and an unfurled triangular sail on the obverse, with a likeness of the Persian king, standing and shooting a bow on the reverse. This is a scene reminiscent of images of royal hunts known from Mesopotamia and Persia. A fractional silver coin probably depicts the podium of the Temple of Ešmun—the most prominent feature of the Sidonian landscape at the time. Dunand’s excavations at Sidon uncovered a ziggurat-like structure from neo-Babylonian times, which followed the plan of a typical Babylonian temple. This structure—the Eshmun sanctuary at Bustan esh-Sheikh of the early to mid-sixth century bce, was the focal point of the Sidonian religious cults (Dunand 1973: 7–25). There are no inscriptions on these early Sidonian coins, and no firm attribution to a ruler can be made.
Archaeological discovery of an inscription at Sidon bearing the names of four previously unknown kings, however, has allowed scholars to suggest who may be responsible for some of these early coins (Dunand 1965: 106–109). Military motifs are strong on the coins, as is a display of political obeisance to the king of Persia—the Great King. The depictions of the Great King are consistent with images known from Persian glyptic art.
The Sidonian coin series expanded to meet the monetary needs of trade and commerce, with increasing numbers of denominations and some variability in types. The most consistent elements on the Sidonian coins were representations of the warships—the galleys—of Sidon. First depicted with unfurled sails, then with partially furled sails, and finally without sails in full military splendor, the galleys are shown above waves with oars, and with a battering ram on the bow, as the vessels race into battle—presumably with the Greek navies. The Phoenicians provided major components of the Persian fleet in its repeated battles with Athens and the other Greek city-states in the fifth and fourth centuries bce. The other consistent element on these Sidonian coins was the representation of the Persian Great King, shown riding in a chariot as suzerain over Sidon and god of the royal cult. The king of Sidon follows behind the chariot in his role as chief priest of the city’s cultic activities. Alternatively, Henri Seyrig (1959: 52–56) has suggested that this figure in the chariot on the double shekels and shekels of Sidon was really the ba‘l of Sidon—the chief god of the cult (See also Chehab [1954: 4, nos. 2–4] where the Sidonian king is understood as the leader of Sidon’s cult devoted to the Sidonian version of Ba‘l—probably ’Ešmun).
By the end of the fifth century bce, Sidon was issuing coins depicting the city’s galley before the battlement walls of the city with towers, and the standard reverse type, with the king of Persia riding in a chariot pulled by horses. Phoenician letters, probably abbreviations of kings’ names, began appearing on the reverse flans of the coins by the end of the fifth century. Probably the earliest abbreviation—simply the Phoenician letter bet—is for the name of a king known from the Dunand inscription, Ba‘lšallim. Other kings’ names in abbreviated form follow in succeeding years, although not all commentators agree on the identity of these minting authorities.
Dunand’s inscription from the Temple of ’Ešmun at Sidon mentions a number of kings, including Ba‘lšallim, “son of king Ba‘na’, king of the Sidonians, son of King ’Abd’ešmun, king of the Sidonians, son of king Ba‘lšallim, king of the Sidonians”—all in reference to a blessing by the god ’Ešmun at a spring called Yidlal. These were new names of Sidonian royalty when Dunand published this inscription in 1965. More recent work by Javier Teixidor (1972), E. Theodore Mullen (1974), and the author have enabled us to date this inscription to ca. 380 bce, based upon its archaeological context and paleography. The author believes that these names subsequently appeared in abbreviated form on the coins struck in Sidon (Betlyon 1982: 3, 23n5).
Ba‘lšallim I probably ruled late in the fifth century bce (ca. 420–410 bce). He was the first Sidonian king to place his initials on his coin types. Bet-shin, a standard abbreviation of his name, may be read on the reverse type of the double shekel. While we do not know what circumstances triggered the innovation, this development was certainly in keeping with developments at other mints throughout the eastern Mediterranean region, from mints both Greek and East Greek (that is, allied with or dominated by Persia). This example of the abbreviated name of the minting authority was followed by succeeding monarchs in Sidon, and by other Phoenician mints using ethnic-type inscriptions. The Sidonian mint set the standard.
At Sidon, there is little variability in coin types by denomination. The obverse on the double shekels depicts a galley before the battlement walls of the city with five towers; the galley has a row of shields along the bulwark with two lions salient addorsed below the type. The reverse type depicts a chariot drawn by galloping horses, with a driver and the Great King riding in the chariot. On smaller denominations, there is some variation in these types, with fewer towers on the city’s battlements, and the chariot being drawn by pacing rather than galloping horses.
Later coins were struck in the large double shekel (figure 25.1) and in smaller denominations, including the shekel (š-q-l), half-shekel, quarter-shekel, sixteenth-shekel, and thirty-second shekel. The half-shekel depicts the Persian king slaying a lion in combat. The king seizes the lio
n by the forelock in his left hand and is about to strike the death blow with a dagger held in his right hand. Other coins were struck by succeeding leaders such as Ba‘na’, a second Ba‘lšallim, and a series of kings named ‘Abd‘aštart. The first of these rulers came to power ca. 372 bce—known in the Greek sources as “Straton, the Philhellene.” He was wealthy and powerful. Among other things, he received an Athenian embassy on its way to the Persian court and consequently was “granted the honor of proxenia by the Athenians” (Betlyon 1982: 14, 32). He was clearly pro-Greek in his politics, and his eventual participation in revolt against Persian authority is not surprising. One can easily perceive the political use of this coinage for propagandistic purposes—a move which eventually led to the revocation of Sidon’s minting authority. Under ‘Abd‘aštart I, the Phoenician weight standard was replaced with the Attic weight standard, which is extraordinary. The Attic standard was more widely accepted across the eastern Mediterranean, and its use probably facilitated Sidonian trade in many lucrative markets. Small bronze denominations continued to be struck on the Phoenician standard. On coins of the revolt, the head of ‘Abd‘aštart replaced the image of the galley. This means that the common denominator of trade—the double shekel—was replaced for a brief time with the tetradrachm, using the Attic standard which facilitated trade with Greece for the few years it was in use. Persian military operations against Egypt and those allied with it in revolt led to the fall of the Sidonian government of ‘Abd‘aštart I late in the 360s bce. Persia called on the satrap of Cilicia—Mazaeus, or “Mazday” in Phoenician—to strike coins on the traditional Sidonian types. Some scholars have argued that these coins were struck alongside the coins of ‘Abd‘aštart, but they were probably struck later in the aftermath of the revolt.
Figure 25.1 A double shekel of Tennes, ca. 357–347 bce.
Source: Public domain.
Persian military forces occupied Sidon for a few years under Mazday. When the Persians felt secure in the succession of Sidonian rulers, a pro-Persian nobleman named Tennes was chosen to rule from ca. 357–347 bce. Some of the details on these coins, such as the garment worn by the king of Sidon as he follows the Great King’s chariot on the reverse types, may be a clue. An Egyptian-style garment is replaced on the coins by a purely Asian-style cloak, perhaps reflecting Sidon’s friendship with Egypt and Persia’s disdain for her participation in the revolt of ca. 365 bce. We may suggest that Tennes stopped issuing coins in the late 350s bce when he joined in a full-scale, general rebellion against Persia. The revolt began in Egypt and Cyprus. Artaxerxes III tried unsuccessfully to put down this revolt with a massive military campaign in ca. 350 bce. Egyptian resistance to Persia was finally put down in 345 bce, when the revolt officially ended. Tennes apparently joined in this general revolt only after Persia’s first effort at putting down the rebellion failed, joined by the rebellious Persian subjects in Palestine.
This was an extremely serious military campaign. It is probable that only a few coins were struck in Sidon during the revolt. When Artaxerxes III finally outfitted a new mercenary army, he marched on Egypt via Sidon, with forces under Mazday—his Cilician satrap—and Euagoras II, a deposed monarch from Salamis, Cyprus. When peace was restored, Mazday again was in control in Sidon and the mint reopened, ca. 346 bce.
Two more kings would rule in Sidon under Persian hegemony, issuing coins over abbreviations of their names. One was ‘Abd‘aštart II, striking coins with the abbreviation ‘ayin-‘ayin, and the other was another king named ‘Abd‘aštart, abbreviating his name ‘ayin-bet. This king ruled Sidon when Alexander the Great conquered the Levant in 332 bce. Alexander replaced him with Abdalonymos (‘Abd’elonim, in Phoenician). These kings with very similar Phoenician names were all called “Straton” in the Greek sources. Two Stratons are not mentioned as ruling successively in the Classical sources. Several modern commentators have suggested the existence of three ‘Abd‘aštarts, although none applied this theory to the numismatic evidence. The coins appear to support this theory, in which the kings maintained their differentiation from one another on their coinage by using different abbreviations for the same name—both abbreviations being perfectly acceptable within the rules of Phoenician language and custom.
When Alexander assumed control of the Sidonian mint, he stopped striking the Phoenician local types, and struck coins on his own Hellenistic standards and types.
Tyre
Tyre was one of the leading Phoenician ports during the Persian period, surpassed in importance only by Sidon. Located south of Sidon on the mainland and two small offshore islands, Tyre played a critical role in Persian naval operations and maritime trade in the fifth and fourth centuries bce. As with the other Phoenician city-states, little is known of Tyre’s history after 500 bce, until the conquest of Alexander the Great. Sidon and Tyre sent out many colonists in this period, populating villages and towns along the Levantine coast and elsewhere in the central and eastern Mediterranean basins, including Carthage. Classical sources and archaeological data clearly support this assertion. Unquestionably, Tyre took part in the general revolt against Persia in the reign of Tennes, ca. 351 bce. Classical historians also noted the resistance that Tyre raised against Alexander in 332 (Rawlinson 1889: 511–29; Fleming 1915: 56ff.). Unlike the other Phoenician cities, Tyre fought the Macedonian advances, forcing a siege by land and by sea. Some of these events are mirrored in the coinage. The Phoenician standard was initially adopted by the Tyrian mint, later to be replaced by the Attic standard in the mid-fourth century bce (figure 25.2) (in general see Elayi and Elayi 2009). The Persians may have considered this an economic and commercial form of “sleeping with the enemy,” as Phoenician subordinates established closer relationships with the Greek opposition.
Figure 25.2 A Tyrian shekel of ca. 410–390 bce.
Source: Public domain.
The earliest coins struck in Tyre depicted a dolphin over lines of zigzag waves with a murex shell on the obverse. The murex shell represented Tyre’s dominance in the trade of purple dye, which was produced from the crustacean living inside the murex shell. The reverse type of the Tyrian shekel depicted an owl, head en face, with the crook and flail over the bird’s left shoulder. Several inscriptions occur on these early Tyrian issues, but they are problematic. The script is a lapidary form of the late fifth century, in keeping with the conservative traditions that we have already seen from the mint of Sidon. The owl is reminiscent of the Athenian owl which was used extensively on the coins of Athens from the mid- to late fifth century bce. The crook and flail behind the owl are traditional symbols of kingship in Egypt, which probably also represented royal power in Phoenicia. The Phoenician and Egyptian economies had been closely linked for over a millennium at this time.
These coin types continued into the early fourth century bce, with minor variations, such as the lack of intaglio around the reverse type. More and more Tyrian coins appear to have been struck after ca. 390 bce, when multiple denominations were struck on these types. Several issues in smaller denominations from the larger shekel depict the head of a bull—probably to be associated with the cult of Milqart, known elsewhere as Ba‘l Hammon. It was also this deity to whom many votive inscriptions were dedicated at Carthage, the most famous Tyrian colony.
By ca. 390 bce, the centrality of the dolphin is replaced by the figure of a deity, presumably Ba‘l Šamem, the “lord of the heavens,” riding on a seahorse with curved wings. Lines of waves and a dolphin appear below this scene. The usual reverse with the owl and crook and flail appears on the reverse type. Scholars have identified the deity riding on the seahorse as Milqart, the name of the principal god of Tyre. Milqart, meaning “king of the city,” may have been an epithet for a marine manifestation of Ba‘l Šamem in this context (for the Phoenician deities, see chapter 19, this volume; Betlyon 1982: 69n45).
Coins struck on these types continued for a period of years into the early fourth century bce. A wide variety of types was used on the smaller denominations
, including the bearded head of a satyr, the murex shell, and a ram’s head. A dating mechanism appears on coins beginning around 380 bce. Tyre joined Sidon in the revolt of the late 360s, interrupting the minting of coinage. When things resumed at Tyre, the coins were struck with a much flatter fabric, albeit these coins were technically superior to the former coins. Apparently, new personnel were working in the mint. When all the dust settled from the revolt, the mint in Tyre made the shift to strike coins on the Attic standard, probably around 355 bce, a standard maintained until the coming of Alexander the Great in 332 bce.
Some scholars, including Henri Seyrig, have suggested that the change to the Attic standard occurred with the coming of Alexander. But the Attic standard was already known in the region. For over a century, coins struck on the Attic standard were produced by the Judean mint in Jerusalem and by a mint farther south in the region of Gaza and Ashkelon. Some coins from this period leading up to 332 bce had the Phoenician letter ’ayin on them—probably an abbreviation for the name of the last king of Tyre before Alexander, a man named ‘Uzzimilk. Several coin hoards, including those at Tell Abu Hawam and Tell Fukkhar, contain coins of Tyre and Alexandrine issues. Tyrian coins struck on the Attic standard were already circulating when Alexander conquered the Levant (Betlyon 1982: 53–55).
From the mid-350s to 332 bce, Tyre assumed the leadership of the Phoenician league, replacing a decimated Sidon in the aftermath of the Tennes disaster. ‘Uzzimilk’s coinage helped to restore some of the commerce lost to Phoenicia because of the war. From this time to the coming of Alexander, Tyre’s coinage was the foundation upon which Phoenician commerce was built.
Aradus