Browse Items (299 total)

The Athenian “owl” is one of the most recognizable coins of the ancient world. First minted in 515 BCE, the “owl,” featuring Athena on the obverse and, her symbol, the owl, on the reverse, was continually minted by the Athenians until they gave up…

Though never mentioned in Homeric epic, Thessaly claimed its founder was none other than Aiakos, the grandfather of Achilles, making it the Homeric Phthia, also the birthplace of Achilles.
Later in time, probably around 60 CE, Thessaly was…

Damates (ca. 407 - 362 BCE) was the satrap (Persian governor) of both Cappadocia and Cicilia under the Persian Great King Artaxerxes II (405-359 BCE). Proving his worth through many bloody battles, Damates became the most powerful satrap of…

This coin was minted during the time of one of the most famous attempts at Persian expansion, around the beginning of the fifth century BCE. The Battle of Marathon, where Darius I attempted to gain control of mainland Greece, is one of the most…

Croton was founded as an Achaean colony in 710 BCE. Croton was a very prosperous Greek colony: boasting many Olympic victors, the famous wrestler Milon, the school of Pythagoras (opened in 530 BCE), and, according to Herodotus (3.131), some of the…

King Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BCE) was the father of Alexander the Great. He began his relatively short but incredibly successful rule with conquering much of northern Greece followed by Boeotia and Athens in the battle of Chaeroneia (338 BCE)…

The famous Tarentine horse-riders first appear on coinage around 450 BCE. They could refer to the equestrian games held at Tarentum, or simply to the aristocratic spirit of the nobility of the area. The military poses of some of these riders have…

The coinage of Alexander the Great has been found all over the ancient world. It is believed to be one of the most widely circulated coinage in all of antiquity. This obverse portrait is one of the most famous images associated with Alexander.

On…

Aegina was the first island in Greece proper to mint coinage, around 580 BCE. The iconic turtle was always part of the design, first a sea turtle and then a land turtle. The sea turtle was likely a reference to their naval fleet which, from the…

This coin is from Sparta’s sole colony, Tarentum. It was one of the richest and, incidentally, one of the safest harbors along the coast. It was famed for its rich textiles and a precious deep red/purple dye, made by gathering the secretions of a sea…