Independence in the Ancient World. A Coin of Lycia

Dynasts of Lycia, Perikles (c. 380-360 BC). AR Tetrobol (16mm, 3.05g). Uncertain mint. Facing scalp of lion. R/ Triskeles; above, dolphin r.; to lower l., laureate head of Apollo facing slightly l.; all within incuse square.

I came across the Lycians within the Iliad, where they are lauded as the allies of the Trojans who of old have been ever fierce in mighty conflicts. That the Lycians were fierce as described by Homer, and protective of their independence , is evident in the description provided by Heroditus of their actions against the invading Persians in 564 BC.

“and the Lycians, when Harpagos marched his army into the plain of Xanthos, came out against him and fought, few against many, and displayed proofs of valour; but being defeated and confined within their city, they gathered together into the citadel their wives and their children, their property and their servants, and after that they set fire to this citadel, so that it was all in flames, and having done so and sworn terrible oaths with one another, they went forth against the enemy and were slain in fight, that is to say all the men of Xanthos “.

Despite, or because of, this resistance, the Lycians continued to have a large degree of independence - there was not even a Persian satrap in Lycia. Pseudo Scylax in his Periplous describes Lycia as follows: 

“Past Caria is Lycia, a nation: and the Lycians have the following cities: Telmissos with a harbour and the river Xanthos, with a voyage upstream to (Xanthos, a city): Patera, a city with a harbour; Phellos, a city with a harbour; off these places is an island of the Rhodians, Megiste; Limyra, a city, to which the voyage is up the river. Then Gagaia, a city; then the Chelidoniai, a promontory with two islands; and Dionysias island; the promontory and harbour of Siderous. Beyond this is a sanctuary of Hephaistos in the mountain, and much spontaneous fire burns out of the ground and never goes out.”

The Lycians were not a Greek people, rather existing as a speakers of the Luwian language group who were contemporary with the Hittite empire which reached its height in Anatolia in the mid-14th century BC. Indeed, the language used on the coin here is not Greek but Lydian, a written form of Luwian. Pseudo Scylax goes on to say that of Xanthians who claimed after the battle to be Lycians the greater number have come in from abroad, except only eighty households. The Lydian dynasty was formed in around 525 BC under the rule of Kosikas and there were 12 kings between his rule and that of Pericles.

Lydia formed part of the Persian fleet under Xerxes, but after the defeat of the Persians in the Second Persian War they were, according to Diodorus, persuaded by Cimon to join the Delian league. The Lycians left the league in 429 BC (with the exception of Telmissos and Phaselis) and attempts by Athens to force their return failed. After Pericles in 366 or 362 BC, Persian rule was re-established firmly in Lycia. Control was taken by Mausolus, the satrap of nearby Caria, who moved the satrap's residence to Halicarnassus. Lycia fell into the hands of the general Antigonus by 304 BC. In 301 BC Antigonus was killed by an alliance of the other successors of Alexander, and Lycia became a part of the kingdom of Lysimachus.

The Lydians were given the right to coin by the Persians and the first coins with Lycian letters on them appeared not long before 500 BC under Kubernis, the second king of the Lycian dynasty centred at Xanthos. Although many of the early coins produced in the ancient world illustrated the images of various gods, the first portraiture of actual rulers appears with the coinage of Lycia in the late 5th century BC. This coin was minted between 380 and 360 BC under Pericles and on his death the Lycians seem to have struck virtually no coins for over a century and a half. You see the coinage reappear as that of the Lycian League, which was formed at some point in the early second century BC.

It is not surprising the see the laureate head of Apollo as a miniature portrait on the coin as Lycia was long associated with that god. In Knights, by Aristophanes, “Oh! Phoebus Apollo, god of Lycia! I am undone!” and Pindar’s Pythian ode also describes “Phoebus, lord of Lycia and Delos”.