![]() These designs are thought to have been derived from the contemporary coinage of Ptolemy III (246 to 222 B.C.), the Greek king of Egypt who had been a strong supporter of Cleomenes III.Īside from an exceedingly rare issue of bronze attributed to King Nabis, the Spartans do not appear to have struck bronze coins again until the 70s B.C. The earliest types, from the 220s B.C., pair a standing eagle with a winged thunderbolt. ![]() Thereafter, about another 300 years of Spartan coinage remained, though it was comprised entirely of base metal issues, most of which were struck in very small quantities.īronze coinage at Sparta had begun with issues of King Cleomenes III and had continued well into the era of Roman domination. It is currently believed that the last Spartan silver coins - triobols of the Heracles/amphora-and-Dioscuri caps design - were struck in about 50 B.C. While the acquisition of Macedon was a significant gain for Rome it did little for the cities of Greece, whose rivalry with the Macedonians was merely replaced with one with the equally imperialistic Romans. it had become an ally of Rome, whose power in the Greek world had grown immensely with its defeat of the Macedonian King Perseus (179 to 168 B.C.). Somewhat larger issues of hemidrachms and triobols were produced from the 90s through the 50s B.C., but even those are scarce today.īy the era of Spartan “small silver” the city’s power had all but evaporated, and in 146 B.C. They were struck while Sparta was a reluctant member of the Achaean League and were made in small quantities using dies engraved in fine style. The earliest of these small silver issues were hemidrachms dated to circa 175 to the 140s(?) B.C. The former shows the head of the god Zeus and the monogram of the Achaean League (a political confederacy in the Peloponnesus) and the latter bears the head of Heracles and an amphora (a transport container) flanked by the caps of the Dioscuri. They were struck in two denominations: hemidrachms (half-drachms) and triobols (three obols). ![]() Later in Spartan history, after the tetradrachm denomination had been abandoned, the Spartans began to issue small silver coins that typically weighed about 2.2 to 2.5 grams. However, Nabis also issued some very rare tetradrachms that paired the head of the goddess Athena with the seated figure of the hero Heracles. Both struck issues bearing their portraits, with examples of the former being very rare and the latter being known by just one example. Just two other Spartan kings issued silver tetradrachms: Cleomenes III (235 to 221 B.C.) and Nabis (207 to 192 B.C.). Whatever the circumstances that caused Sparta to issue its first coins, it occurred at a time when Sparta’s power had been greatly weakened by the rise of kingdoms throughout the Greek world. As such, they likely were produced for the Chremonidean War (267 to 261 B.C.), during which Sparta joined other Greeks in opposition to the Kingdom of Macedon. They were issued at the end of the reign of the Spartan King Areus I (309 to 265 B.C.), or very soon afterward. Even then, the first Spartan coins, comprised of silver tetradrachms and obols, were struck in very small quantities.
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