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Greek city of Thessalonica in Macedonia
Bronze 23mm (13.68 grams) Struck circa 187-167 B.C.
Diademed head of Poseidon right.
ΘEΣΣAΛO / NIKHΣ above and below prow of galley right.
* Numismatic Note: This is a very rare, possibly unpublished type. Notice it’s heavy weight. A must-have for anyone collecting the coins of Thessalonica or of very rare, possibly unpublished types.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 A galley is a type of ship propelled by rowers that originated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and was used for warfare , trade and piracy from the first millennium BC. Galleys dominated naval warfare in the Mediterranean from the 8th century BC until development of advanced sailing warships in the 17th century. Galleys fought in the wars of Assyria , ancient Phoenicia , Greece , Carthage and Rome until the 4th century AD. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire galleys formed the mainstay of the Byzantine navy and other navies of successors of the Roman Empire, as well as new Muslim navies. Medieval Mediterranean states, notably the Italian maritime republics, including Venice , Pisa , Genoa and the Ottoman Empire relied on them as the primary warships of their fleets until the 17th century, when they were gradually replaced by sailing warships. Galleys continued to be applied in minor roles in the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea even after the introduction of steam propelled ships in the early 19th century.
The galley engagements at Actium and Lepanto are among the greatest naval battles in history.
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as “Earth-Shaker,” of earthquakes in Greek mythology . The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in  Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology : both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece , but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades . Poseidon has many children. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena .
Greek city of Thessalonica in Macedonia was founded around 315 BC by the King Cassander of Macedon , on or near the site of the ancient town of Therma and twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife Thessalonike , a half-sister of Alexander the Great . She gained her name (“victory of Thessalians”: Gk nikē “victory”) from her father, Philip II , to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over the Phocians , who were defeated with the help of Thessalian horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki developed rapidly and as early as the 2nd century BC the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Macedon , with its own parliament where the King was represented and could interfere in the city’s domestic affairs.
Roman era
After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in 168 BC , Thessalonica became a city of the Roman Republic . It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the Via Egnatia , the Roman road connecting Byzantium (later Constantinople ), with Dyrrhachium (now Durrës in Albania ), and facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia; it kept its privileges but was ruled by a praetor and had a Roman garrison, while for a short time in the 1st century BC , all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form of the name). Due to the city’s key commercial importance, a spacious harbour was built by the Romans, the famous Burrowed Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that accommodated the town’s trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help of silt deposits from the river Axios , it was reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour’s docks can be found in the present day under Odos Frangon Street, near the Catholic Church.
Thessaloniki’s acropolis , located in the northern hills, was built in 55 BC after Thracian raids in the city’s outskirts, for security reasons.
The city had a Jewish colony, established during the first century , and was to be an early centre of Christianity . On his second missionary journey, Paul of Tarsus , born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city’s synagogue, the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and he fled to Veroia . Paul wrote two of his epistles to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the First Epistle to the Thessalonians and the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians .
Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint, St. Demetrius , in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved the city, and was the Roman Proconsul of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor Maximian , later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies the Church of St. Demetrius , first built by the Roman sub-prefect of Illyricum Leontios in 463. Other important remains from this period include the Arch and Tomb of Galerius , located near the centre of the modern city.
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