Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction X 27 September 2015
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Ionia, Phokaia EL Hekte. Circa 478-387 BC. Bearded head of Tissaphernes to left, wearing satrapal headdress / Quadripartite incuse square punch. Bodenstedt 86; SNG von Aulock –; Boston MFA –; BMC –; Pozzi –; Traité –; Winzer 6.6; CNG e342, lot 287; CNG e210, lot 43; Gemini VI, lot 192; Peus 361, lot 184. 2.55g, 11mm.
Mint State. Extremely Rare, only one example recorded by Bodenstedt, and apparently only the fifth known.
From the Kleines Meisterwerk Collection.
Since it is known that satraps issued coins in their own name with their own portraits, both Bodenstedt and Winzer named the satrap depicted on this coin as Tissaphernes on the basis of parallels between the portrait as seen here and those on other coinages. Indeed there are distinct physical similarities (the shape of the nose, brow and eye sockets) between the present type and the portrait of Tissaphernes on the Kyzikene-issued tetradrachms of Athenian owl reverse type struck c.420-395.
Tissaphernes was born in 445 into an important Persian family; his grandfather was Hydarnes, who was a general under Xerxes, and commander of the Immortals during the invasion of Greece in 480. He rose to the position of commander in chief of the Persian armies in Asia Minor, and was appointed satrap of Lydia and Karia. Yet because Tissaphernes preferred duplicitous negotiation to open warfare, in 408 he was replaced in his position as general by the King's second son, Cyrus the Younger.
When King Darius II died in 404, his eldest son Artaxerxes II was crowned. Cyrus, seeking the throne for himself, attempted to have his brother assassinated, though Tissaphernes learned of the plot and informed Artaxerxes. Imprisoned, but soon pardoned through the intercession of their mother, Cyrus was sent back to his command, where he now gathered an army which included Xenophon's 'Ten Thousand' Greek mercenaries.
Tissaphernes was instrumental in warning Artaxerxes of his perfidious brother's intentions, and in gathering an army to oppose Cyrus. Cyrus was undone at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401, through the disobedience of the Greek commander Klearchos of Sparta, who refused to move his troops to the centre of the line (wary of his undefended right flank) in order to directly attack Artaxerxes. The Greeks instead charged and scatted the loyal Persian left wing, but meanwhile Cyrus died in his assault on the centre while attempting to kill or capture his brother. Tissaphernes was then able to rout all of Cyrus' leaderless and demoralised forces, except the Greek mercenaries who steadfastly maintained their discipline, and were unassailable by frontal assault. Tissaphernes therefore dealt with the Greeks by supplying them with food and leading them northwards for home. He invited the senior Greek commanders to attend a feast, whereupon he took them prisoner, led them before Artaxerxes, and had them decapitated. As a reward for his loyalty, Artaxerxes gave Tissaphernes one of his own daughters in marriage and restored him as governor of Lydia and commander in chief of the Persian armies in Asia Minor.
Xenophon, until then a middle ranking officer, was hereupon elected one of the leaders of the Ten Thousand. In his Anabasis, he describes Tissaphernes as lacking in all honour, the supreme example of faithlessness and oath-breaking, for he used his hospitality to delude and decoy his victims before having them executed - a treachery of the most heinous kind.
Mint State. Extremely Rare, only one example recorded by Bodenstedt, and apparently only the fifth known.
From the Kleines Meisterwerk Collection.
Since it is known that satraps issued coins in their own name with their own portraits, both Bodenstedt and Winzer named the satrap depicted on this coin as Tissaphernes on the basis of parallels between the portrait as seen here and those on other coinages. Indeed there are distinct physical similarities (the shape of the nose, brow and eye sockets) between the present type and the portrait of Tissaphernes on the Kyzikene-issued tetradrachms of Athenian owl reverse type struck c.420-395.
Tissaphernes was born in 445 into an important Persian family; his grandfather was Hydarnes, who was a general under Xerxes, and commander of the Immortals during the invasion of Greece in 480. He rose to the position of commander in chief of the Persian armies in Asia Minor, and was appointed satrap of Lydia and Karia. Yet because Tissaphernes preferred duplicitous negotiation to open warfare, in 408 he was replaced in his position as general by the King's second son, Cyrus the Younger.
When King Darius II died in 404, his eldest son Artaxerxes II was crowned. Cyrus, seeking the throne for himself, attempted to have his brother assassinated, though Tissaphernes learned of the plot and informed Artaxerxes. Imprisoned, but soon pardoned through the intercession of their mother, Cyrus was sent back to his command, where he now gathered an army which included Xenophon's 'Ten Thousand' Greek mercenaries.
Tissaphernes was instrumental in warning Artaxerxes of his perfidious brother's intentions, and in gathering an army to oppose Cyrus. Cyrus was undone at the Battle of Cunaxa in 401, through the disobedience of the Greek commander Klearchos of Sparta, who refused to move his troops to the centre of the line (wary of his undefended right flank) in order to directly attack Artaxerxes. The Greeks instead charged and scatted the loyal Persian left wing, but meanwhile Cyrus died in his assault on the centre while attempting to kill or capture his brother. Tissaphernes was then able to rout all of Cyrus' leaderless and demoralised forces, except the Greek mercenaries who steadfastly maintained their discipline, and were unassailable by frontal assault. Tissaphernes therefore dealt with the Greeks by supplying them with food and leading them northwards for home. He invited the senior Greek commanders to attend a feast, whereupon he took them prisoner, led them before Artaxerxes, and had them decapitated. As a reward for his loyalty, Artaxerxes gave Tissaphernes one of his own daughters in marriage and restored him as governor of Lydia and commander in chief of the Persian armies in Asia Minor.
Xenophon, until then a middle ranking officer, was hereupon elected one of the leaders of the Ten Thousand. In his Anabasis, he describes Tissaphernes as lacking in all honour, the supreme example of faithlessness and oath-breaking, for he used his hospitality to delude and decoy his victims before having them executed - a treachery of the most heinous kind.