Leu Numismatik AG
Web Auction 18 18-21 Dec 2021
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PHOENICIA. Marathos, 3rd-1st centuries BC. Weight of 12.5 Shekels (Lead, 55x55 mm, 127.00 g). City monogram composed of 'mrt' above 't(bʿ) 12 1/2 (?)' (all in Phoenician). Rev. Blank. Pondera 11192. Very fine.
From a European collection, formed before 2005.
The Phoenician city of Marathos lay on the Levantine mainland in close proximity to its rival, the island polis of Arados. Periods of independence alternated with domination by its powerful neighbor, which considered Marathos part of its mainland peraia. The Aradians eventually destroyed Marathos in the late 2nd or early 1st century BC, as reported by Strabo: '[...] Marathus, the latter an ancient city of the Phoenicians, now in ruins. Aradians divided up this country among themselves [...]' (Strab. XVI, 753). Rebuilt on a smaller scale sometime thereafter, the settlement never fully recovered and was eventually abandoned in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD.
From a European collection, formed before 2005.
The Phoenician city of Marathos lay on the Levantine mainland in close proximity to its rival, the island polis of Arados. Periods of independence alternated with domination by its powerful neighbor, which considered Marathos part of its mainland peraia. The Aradians eventually destroyed Marathos in the late 2nd or early 1st century BC, as reported by Strabo: '[...] Marathus, the latter an ancient city of the Phoenicians, now in ruins. Aradians divided up this country among themselves [...]' (Strab. XVI, 753). Rebuilt on a smaller scale sometime thereafter, the settlement never fully recovered and was eventually abandoned in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD.