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Mithridates & Perseus
"having received also from Hermes an adamantine sickle he (Perseus) flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them. So Perseus stood over them as they slept, an
sulla80
22 hours ago3 min read


May God perpetuate her kingdom
Today's 2.1g coin of interest carries an unusual legend. The third line on the obverse, in confident thuluth script, runs the formula "khallada Allāhu mulkahā " : خَلَّدَ اللهُ مُلْكَهَا : "may God perpetuate her kingdom." The alif (ا) added at the end of the final word: ملكه becomes ملكها. The feminine suffix is not a mistake of the engraver. It is acknowledgment that the sovereign whose name fills the field - Sāti Beg Khān - is a woman. The coin was struck at Awnīk in 739 A
sulla80
22 hours ago5 min read


Flattering the Queen?
This little 2.27g coin from Patrae was made quickly, in quantity, at a moment, around the middle 30s BCE, on the edge of the war that would end the Roman Republic. Achaia, Patrae; circa 35 BCE, AR Triobol or Hemidrachm (15mm, 2.27g, 6h), Damasias, son of Agesilaus, magistrate. (15 or 16 of these coins in ACSearch) Obv: Head of Aphrodite (with features of Cleopatra?), right, wearing stephane, earringand necklace, her hair bound in a bun at the back Rev: ΔA/MACIAC in two lines
sulla80
23 hours ago4 min read


Afterlife of Personal Rule
"The measure of contempt given our nation abroad (Italy, America, everywhere!), and after all deservedly so! — and this is decisive — because we tolerate this man's regime has become a factor for us of first-rate world political importance. Anyone who reads the foreign press for a few months must notice this. We are isolated because this man rules us in this fashion and because we tolerate it and whitewash it. No man or party who in any sense cultivates democratic, and at the
sulla80
24 hours ago9 min read
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