Nomos 23

THRACO-MACEDONIAN TRIBES, Bisaltai. Circa 475-465 BC. Oktadrachm (Silver, 32 mm, 28.43 g). CΙΣΑ ΛΤΙΚΩΝ (partially retrograde and inverted) Nude male hero, facing and wearing petasos with his head to right, standing behind a bridled horse walking to right, holding its reins and two spears. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square. AMNG III/2, 4 var. HPM pl. XI, 5-6 var. SNG Oxford 2242 var. Topalov 33. Bold and clear. Slightly porous and slightly weakly struck, otherwise, extremely fine.

From the Starnberg Collection, acquired in Munich prior to 2000.

The large denomination coins of the Bisaltai, as well as those minted by other tribal groups and by Alexander I of Macedon, were struck solely as a way of exporting the riches of the northern Greek silver mines, rather than for any form of normal daily use. The petasos-wearing hero on the obverse was a common type in both northern Greece and in Thessaly and is evocative of the horse-riding aristocracy that dominated those areas in archaic and classical times.