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Mysia, Cyzicus. 1/24 EL Stater; Mysia, Cyzicus; 363 BC, EL Stater, 15.72g. von Fritze-187, SNG Paris-337 (this coin). Obv: Laureate, bearded head of Timotheus r., tunny fish below. Rx: Quadripartite incuse square. Ex Edoardo Levante Collection, acquired by him from the French National Collection in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris; this coin published as part of the French collection in SNG Paris, Mysie (2001), pl. 17, 337. Ex Triton XVIII, 6 January 2015, lot 577. Rare and historically important: this coin is thought to show the portrait of the Athenian general Timotheus, on the occasion of his breaking of the Persian siege of Cyzicus in 363 BC. Timotheus was the son of the Athenian general Conon and a non-Athenian mother. He was first elected strategos in 378 BC and served repeatedly in the following decades. His overarching goal was nothing less than the return of Athens to the dominant position in the Greek world the city held until its defeat by Sparta in 404 BC. In this he was largely successful; by the time of Timotheus' death in 354 BC, Athens was indeed the leading power in a revived Delian League. Timotheus' own career however was decidedly more up and down. Despite his unquestioned military ability--the orator Isocrates considered him the preeminent commander of his day--he made enemies as well as friends. After failing to relieve Corcyra from attack by Sparta in 373, Timotheus was brought to trial by Athens the following year. He was acquitted of negligence but left Athens to serve as a mercenary for the Persian king. Eventually returning to Athens he won numerous victories, capturing Samos in 365 BC and a string of cities along the Thraco-Macedonian coast and elsewhere in subsequent years. The present stater was presumably struck by the grateful citizens of Cyzicus, after Athenian forces led by Timotheus raised a Persian siege of the city in 363 BC. When he failed however to prevail in the great revolt against Athenian domination known as the Social War, Timotheus was again brought to trial in 355. He was convicted and fined. Unable to pay the fine, Timotheus went into exile in Chalcis where he died. That this rare stater presents a portrait of Timotheus was first suggested by Six in NC 1898, pp. 197-98, largely based on a similarity between the coins and a marble bust in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. That attribution has sometimes been disputed but is now generally accepted. Certainly the coin is a portrait of someone, an individual rather than a generic middle-aged man, and no other obvious candidate comes to mind.Portrait of Athenian general Timotheus of which only four examples exist. F

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