Nomos AG
obolos 24 21 Aug 2022
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SELEUKID KINGS OF SYRIA. Alexander I Balas, 152-145 BC. (Bronze, 19 mm, 7.00 g, 12 h), quasi-municipal issue, Byblos, uncertain date. Diademed head of Alexander I to right; below chin, date (here illegible). Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ / "[belonging] to holy Gebal" (in Phoenician) Six-winged Kronos-El standing left, holding was-scepter in right hand. HGC 9, 911 (R2). Cf. Rouvier 654-5 (date). SC 1822. Very rare. Green patina with earthen deposits. Good fine.
From the Thomas Kirby Collection, USA.
Byblos had been granted authority under Antiochos IV to mint quasi-municipal issues with the head of the king on the obverse and types of local importance on the reverse. Here the figure on the reverse is the many-winged god Kronos-El, who was thought to be a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Known as El to the Phoenicians, he was the most important deity on their pantheon, and was equated by the Greeks with the Titan Kronos.
From the Thomas Kirby Collection, USA.
Byblos had been granted authority under Antiochos IV to mint quasi-municipal issues with the head of the king on the obverse and types of local importance on the reverse. Here the figure on the reverse is the many-winged god Kronos-El, who was thought to be a Canaanite ruler who founded Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Known as El to the Phoenicians, he was the most important deity on their pantheon, and was equated by the Greeks with the Titan Kronos.