|
Greek City of Mytilene chief city of the Island of Lesbos
Electrum Hecte 10mm (2.54 grams) Struck circa 377-326 B.C.
Reference: Bodenstedt 95
Certification: NGC Ancients VF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 5/5 3987513-008
Laureate head of Apollo right.
Female head (possibly Artemis) right, hair tied in topknot, within square linear frame.
Lesbos was the largest of the islands off the coast of western Asia Minor, Lesbos lay at the entrance to the gulf of Adramytteion. It was a great cultural center, and its mild climate and fertile soil supported no less than five cities, the most important of which was Mytilene. The chief city of Lesbos, Mytilene was situated in the south-east of the island, opposite the mainland. There can be little doubt that Mytilene was the mint of the important electrum coinage of Lesbos in the 5th and 4th centuries. .
Founded by Seleukos I circa 300 B.C. with Greek and Macedonian settlers brought from the destroyed city of Antigoneia on the Orontes. The city was named after Seleukos’ father with the purpose of being a western capital to guard against the northern expansion of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Eventually as many territories were lost, Antioch became the only capital of the Seleukid kingdom. Pompey the Great deposed the last king Antiochos XIII in 64 B.C. The Romans then made it a capital of a new Roman province and the seat of the Roman governors. There were temples of Olympian Zeus, Apollo in Daphne, hippodrome (built under the Seleukids and embellished by the Romans) and colonnaded main streets (being a gift from Herod the Great). It was an important center for the arts and learning.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver , with trace amounts of copper and other metals. It has also been produced artificially, and is often known as green gold. The ancient Greeks called it ‘gold’ or ‘white gold’, as opposed to ‘refined gold’. Its colour ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver.
The gold content of naturally occurring electrum in modern Western Anatolia ranges from 70% to 90%, in contrast to the 45–55% of gold in electrum used in ancient Lydian coinage of the same geographical area. This suggests that one reason for the invention of coinage in that area was to increase the profits from seigniorage by issuing currency with a lower gold content than the commonly circulating metal.
Electrum was used as early as the third millennium BC in Old Kingdom Egypt, sometimes as an exterior coating to the pyramidions atop ancient Egyptian pyramids and obelisks. Electrum was also used in the making of ancient drinking vessels . The first metal coins ever made were of electrum and date back to the end of the 7th century or the beginning of the 6th century BC. For several decades the medals awarded with the Nobel Prize have been made of gold-plated green gold.
The name electrum was also used to denote German ‘silver’ , mainly for its use in making technical instruments.
Mytilene (Greek: Μυτιλήνη) is the capital city of Lesbos , a Greek island in the Aegean Sea , and capital of Lesbos Prefecture and the Northern Aegean region. It is built on the southeast edge of the island. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is also the seat of a metropolitan bishop of the Orthodox church .
As an ancient city, lying off the east coast, Mytilene was initially confined to an island that later was joined to Lesbos , creating a north and south harbour. Mytilene contested successfully with Methymna in the north of the island for the leadership of the island in the seventh century BC and became the centre of the island’s prosperous hinterland. Her most famous citizens were the poets Sappho and Alcaeus and the statesman Pittacus (one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece). The city was famed for its great output of electrum coins struck from the late 6th through mid 4th centuries BC. Mytilene revolted against Athens in 428 BC but was overcome by an Athenian expeditionary force. The Athenian public assembly voted to massacre all the men of the city and to sell the women and children into slavery but changed its mind the next day. A fast trireme sailed the 186 nautical miles in less than a day and brought the decision to cancel the massacre.
Aristotle lived on Mytilene for two years, 337-335 BC, with his friend and successor, Theophrastus after becoming the tutor to Alexander , son of King Philip II of Macedon.
The Romans, among whom was a young Julius Caesar , successfully besieged Mytilene in 80 B.C. Although Mytilene supported the losing side in most of the great wars of the first century BC her statesmen succeeded in convincing Rome of her support of the new ruler of the Mediterranean and the city flourished in Roman times.
In AD 56 Paul the Apostle stopped there on the return trip of his third missionary journey ( 20:14Acts).
Lesbos, sometimes referred to as Mytilini after its capital , is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea . It has an area of 1,632 square kilometres (630 sq mi) with 320 kilometres (199 miles) of coastline , making it the third largest Greek island. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait and in late Palaeolithic/Mesolithic times was joined to the Anatolian mainland before the end of the last Ice Age .
Lesbos is a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and is one of five governing islands within it. The others are Chios , Ikaria , Lemnos , and Samos . The total number of islands governed by the North Aegean are nine: Lesbos, Chios , Psara , Oinousses , Ikaria , Fournoi Korseon , Lemnos , Agios Efstratios and Samos . The capital of the North Aegean Region is Mytilene . The population of Lesbos is approximately 86,000, a third of whom live in its capital, Mytilene, in the southeastern part of the island. The remaining population is distributed in small towns and villages. The largest are Plomari , Kalloni , the Gera Villages , Agiassos , Eresos , and Molyvos (the ancient Mythimna).
According to later Greek writers Mytilene was founded in the 11th century BC by the family Penthilidae, who arrived from Thessaly , and ruled the city-state until a popular revolt (590–580 BC) led by Pittacus of Mytilene ended their rule. In fact the archaeological and linguistic record may indicate a late Iron Age arrival of Greek settlers although references in Late Bronze Age Hittite archives indicate a likely Greek presence then. The name Mytilene itself seems to be of Hittite origin. According to Homer ‘s Iliad , however, Lesbos was part of the kingdom of Priam in what is now Turkey. Much work remains to be done to determine just what was happening and when. In Middle Ages, it was under Byzantine and then Genoese rule. Lesbos was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1462. The Ottomans then ruled the island until the First Balkan War in 1912, when it became part of the Kingdom of Greece.
|
