The Prophecy Croesus, King of Lydia, sent envoys to the oracles at Delphi and at the shrine of Amphiaraos. Herodotos gives their question and the answer: “Croesus, king of Lydia and other nations, believing that here are the only true places of divination among men, endows you with such gifts as your wisdom deserves. And now he asks you whether he is to send an army against the Persians, and whether he is to add an army of allies.” Such was their inquiry; and the judgment giv

The Macedonian Empire, 336-323 B.C. Map showing Thrace north of Macedonia with the Skythians north of Thrace. Public Domain from the "Historical Atlas" by William R. Shepherd, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923. Skythians and Thracians faced each other across the lower Danube. Their royal houses intermarried, the Thracians nearest the river fought Skythian-style as mounted archers, both peoples were prized as fighters, and both tattooed their bodies, the Thracians as a m

Seleuci Epiphanis Nikatoris, Seleucidarum imperium Jean Foy-Vaillant, 1632-1706 Today's coin of interest is a rare Seleucid drachm that carries an unusually well documented recent history. It sold at Roma Numismatics in March 2023 for 417 USD, then resurfaced six more times through a single successor firm, The Coin Cabinet, in October 2024, March 2025, October 2025, November 2025, February 2026, and August 2026, hammering each time in a narrow band between 344 and 505 USD. T

On the obverse, a veiled woman wears a city's walls as a crown, a weak strike enhancing the effect of the veil. On the other side, two felt caps under two stars, tied with ribbons and wreathed in laurel. A word below ΣΟΛΕΩΝ, "of the people of Soloi" with an AΠ monogram below. The veiled woman is Tyche goddess of fortune. The Greek word tychē itself translates directly as "luck", "fortune", or "chance". It is derived from the Greek verb tynchanō (τυγχάνω), which means "to hap

The Coin and Its Date In the year SE 165 [148/7 BC] Demetrius the Second, the son of Demetrius the First, left Crete and arrived in Syria, the land of his ancestors. When King Alexander heard about this, he was worried and returned to Antioch, the capital of Syria. -1 Maccabees 10:67-68 Seleukid Kingdom, Phoenicia, Sidon, Alexander I Balas (King, 152–145 BC), AR Tetradrachm (16.76 g, 31 mm), dated SE 165 (148/7 BC). Obv: Diademed head of Alexander I right. Rev: ΘΕΟΠΑΤΟΡΟΣ ΕΥΕ

The city of Elis administered the sanctuary of Olympia and the Olympic games for most of antiquity. Sulla plundered the sanctuary's treasures in 86 BC to pay his armies during his War with Mithridates of Pontus...

An arched structure of access to the cavea of the Aigai theater. A canting type is a coin design that makes a pun on the name of the issuing authority, almost always a city, by depicting an object, animal, or plant whose Greek name sounds like (or is identical to) the city's name. The term "canting" is a modern name borrowed from heraldry, where "canting arms" (armes parlantes) do the same thing for a family name. Ancient visual puns: the city's name, spoken in pictures. You

Kaunian rock tombs near Kaunos (today Dalyan, Türkiye), carved directly into the cliff face around 400 BCE, their façades resembling temples, overlook the Calbis River (today the Dalyan River). If we start with the physical parameters of the coin (AR hemidrachm, 1.09 g) and its imagery: a helmeted head of Athena on the obverse; a short, sheathed sword, the city's ethnic, and a magistrate's name on the reverse, invite three immediate thoughts: It represents a self-governing Gr

"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

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

In the winter of 379 BC, a small group of Theban exiles returned from Athens to a city held under Spartan occupation. Some entered Thebes under the guise of hunters; later that night, conspirators in women’s clothing entered a banquet and killed the pro-Spartan polemarchs. The coup ended the Spartan occupation of the Kadmeia and opened the way to Thebes’ brief but extraordinary ascendancy in Greece. This stater may belong to that world. The standard catalogue tradition dates

Thrace, c. 187-72 BC Who were "the Odrysians" and what was there relationship to Macedonia? Seuthes III, King of Thrace, was active in the late fourth century BC and was among the last major Odrysian rulers recognizable as an independent Thracian king in the time period after Alexander the Great. He established a regional power base around Seuthopolis and issued bronze coinage. Computer rendering of the project to restore access to the ruins of Seuthopolis, rediscovered in th

Map of Lydia circa 50 AD on the western edge of modern Turkije showing Smyrna (red dot). Image Source: Caliniuc, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons . The Coin Today's coin of interest is a dichalkon. Everyday money. The head on the obverse has what Milne calls a "more angular pose" - Milne's group δ (delta) are the least refined coins from Smyrna's final autonomous period. The border is neater than the other dies of this group, and this coin has excellent details compared

Such is the cycle of political revolution, the course appointed by nature in which constitutions change, disappear, and finally return to the point from which they started. -Polybius, Histories, 6.9.10

Coma Berenices is one of the 88 IAU constellations. The name means "Berenice's hair" in Latin and refers to Queen Berenice II of Egypt who sacrificed her long hair in the name of love. Today's post, inspired by a coin from Ptolemaic Egypt and the reign of Ptolemy III, takes us to 246 BC. The story starts with Ptolemy III headed off to the Third Syrian War to avenge his sister, Berenice Syra. Kyrenaika, Kyrene. temp. Magas (father of Berenice II). Circa 294-275 BC. AR Didra

It is said that there are three kinds of ancient coin collectors: Those who admit to having purchased fakes. Those who have purchased fakes and don’t admit it. Those who have purchased fakes and don’t know it.

Odessos (modern Varna, Bulgaria) began as a Milesian apoikia (colony) on an older Thracian settlement in the late 7th-early 6th century BCE and became a leading member of the Pontic Pentapolis, trading between the Aegean world and inland Thrace.

Seneca (writing 62-65 AD) classifies the thunderbolt alongside torches and shooting stars as "fire squeezed out of the air" (ignis aere expressus). He views them as transient, fleeting events caused by physical "defects" or pressures in the atmosphere rather than spontaneous divine whims.

By the 3rd century BC, the geopolitical landscape had fractured. Alexander the Great was dead, and his Successors (the Diadochi) were tearing his empire apart. In this chaos, the independent city-state (polis) was no longer enough to ensure survival.

This silver double shekel (23 mm; 15.78 g; die axis 2h) belongs to the Babylonian series conventionally known as the “Baal / lion” coinage, struck at Babylon...