Nomos 24

MYSIA. Kyzikos. Circa 550-500 BC. Stater (Electrum, 21 mm, 16.08 g). Bearded male head to left; below, tunny fish to left. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. Rosen, ACNAC 5, 446 (same dies). Cf. SNG Paris 194 (hekte). Von Fritze I, 66 and pl. II, 19 (same dies). Very rare. With an impressive male head of fine late Archaic style. Slightly struck and with a flan crack, otherwise, nearly extremely fine.

From the Villiers Collection, ex Roma XVII, 28 March 2019, 467.

Whose head could this be? Is he mortal or divine? The fact that he is lacking any form of band in his hair - a wreath, diadem or taenia - makes it rather unlikely (though not entirely) that he could be Zeus, Poseidon or Dionysos. So, assuming that this is not a divine personage, who could be important enough to Kyzikos, or have such overbearing hubris of his own, to justify a Kyzikene magistrate deciding to use his head as a type on the coinage? If we can date the issuance of this coin to c. 510, we might think of Histiaios of Miletos; after all, he had great power and was a close associate of Darius I. Why not?