Watch List notes:

Greek Coins

Tarsus, Mazaios, 361 – 344. Daric, AV 8.21 g. 'Baaltars' in Aramaic characters Baaltars seated l., r. hand holding long sceptre, l. holding ear of barley and grape bunch of grapes on vine. Rev. Lion l., grasping the back of stag recumbent l. and biting into its neck; in upper r. field, letter. All in linear square frame within shallow incuse square; in upper l. field, G in Aramaic characters. British Museum, Forgotten Empire, cf. 357 = Robinson, NC 1948, pl. V, 12.
An apparently unrecorded variety of an exceedingly rare type. Struck on a
narrow flan, otherwise good very fine

Mazaios was appointed satrap of Cilicia around 361 BC, but the territories under its administration were later expanded to include the entire province of Abar naharâ ("Across the River"), which included Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. When Sidon led the cities of Phoenicia in revolt against Artaxerxes III in 343 BC, Mazaios crushed the rebellion. Much of the satrap's coinage may have been struck in the context of this conflict. Thanks to his successes, under Artaxerxes' successor, Dareios III, Mazaios was promoted and became satrap of Babylonia.
Although Mazaios could not have known it when he introduced his Tarsian coinage, this stater and the related silver series were destined to have an incredible impact on the development of Greek numismatic iconography. Although the enthroned city god of Tarsos, called Ba'altars ("the Lord of Tarsos") in Aramaic inscriptions, had appeared on the satrapal coinages of Cilicia since the early fourth century BC, the treatment of the deity on the coinage of Mazaios is distinct compared to the preceding issues of Datames and Pharnabazos. Here Ba'altars sits with his torso facing the viewer and his head in profile while he holds his scepter perfectly straight vertically behind him.
In 333 BC, Alexander the Great reached Tarsos on his way to face Dareios III at the Battle of Issos. During an extended stay at the city due to illness, the Macedonian king is thought to have been exposed to coins with Mazaios' types (although by this time he was satrap of Babylonia). Inspired by the depiction of Ba'altars, whose appearance was almost indistinguishable from that of Greek Zeus, Alexander subsequently introduced his famous imperial tetradrachms with enthroned Zeus reverse since the type was an image of divine power easily recognizable to the Greeks and Macedonians he already ruled as well as to the Iranian and Semitic peoples he was in the process of conquering. Thus, Mazaios' type became an iconographic bridge between the dying Persian Empire and the Macedonian Empire that was soon to be fully born. Mazaios the man was himself a similar bridge. After the battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC struck the killing blow against the Persian Empire, Mazaios surrendered Babylon to Alexander. Recognizing the satrap's administrative skills, the Macedonian king confirmed him in his post as satrap of Babylonia, a position he retained until his death in 328 BC. Mazaios' iconography long outlived him in the form of Alexander's Zeus type, which continued to be struck by kings and cities into the first century BC.