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Triton XVIII Sessions 1 & 2 6 January 2015
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IONIA, Achaemenid Period. Uncertain satrap. Circa 350-333 BC. AR Tetradrachm (22mm, 15.03 g). Persian king, wearing kidaris and kandys, in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear in right hand, bow in left; ΔH to left, grain ear to lower right / Incuse rectangle, containing pattern possibly depicting relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos. Johnston, Earliest 30; Meadows, Administration 328 var. (legend on obv.); Mildenberg, Münzwesen, Group 6.2; Traité II 75 (Memnon of Rhodes); BMC Ionia p. 323, 2; Sunrise 71 (this coin). EF, toned, some porosity. Very rare with letters on obverse.
From the Sunrise Collection. Ex Gorny & Mosch 121 (10 March 2003), lot 223.
Johnston has interpreted this remarkable reverse design as a relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos, which would make it the earliest Greek map and first physical relief map known. On the right (north) are the mountains Tmolos and Messogis between the river valleys of the Caÿster and Maeander, to the left of which are three mountain ridges (Madranbaba Dagi, Karincali Dagi, and Akaba Tepesi). Johnston follows Six in suggesting that the coins were probably struck under the Persian general Memnon at Ephesos, circa 336-334 BC, in order to pay his army after he had captured the city, but before his defeat by Alexander at the Battle of Granicus in 334. However, Johnston's theory has been the subject of some doubt, most recently by Leo Mildenberg.
From the Sunrise Collection. Ex Gorny & Mosch 121 (10 March 2003), lot 223.
Johnston has interpreted this remarkable reverse design as a relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos, which would make it the earliest Greek map and first physical relief map known. On the right (north) are the mountains Tmolos and Messogis between the river valleys of the Caÿster and Maeander, to the left of which are three mountain ridges (Madranbaba Dagi, Karincali Dagi, and Akaba Tepesi). Johnston follows Six in suggesting that the coins were probably struck under the Persian general Memnon at Ephesos, circa 336-334 BC, in order to pay his army after he had captured the city, but before his defeat by Alexander at the Battle of Granicus in 334. However, Johnston's theory has been the subject of some doubt, most recently by Leo Mildenberg.