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Figure 14.2A Silver tetradrachm of Aradus, continuing the types of Alexander the Great (see coin 14.1D), but bearing a palm-tree symbol (an emblem of Aradus) and a Greek monogram of the first two letters of the city’s name, AR. Below the figure of Zeus is a date in Phoenician, “year 30” of the city’s era of independence from the Seleucids (corresponding to 230/229 BCE). This Aradian Alexander coinage was discontinued c. 168/167 BCE in favor of smaller drachms imitating coins of Ephesus (see coin 14.2B).

Figure 14.2B Silver drachm of Aradus, imitating an issue of Ephesus, and dated 169/168 BCE. The obverse depicts a bee and the reverse a stag standing in front of a palm tree, both of which were standard Ephesian types, but in place of an Ephesian magistrate’s name the coin reads “of the Aradians.” These coins circulated in the Levant alongside genuine Ephesian drachms, which were apparently exported to Seleucid Syria from Asia Minor.

Figure 14.2C Silver tetradrachm of Ptolemy II (285–246 BCE), minted at Sidon. Unlike their neighbors and rivals, the Seleucids, whose silver coinage usually bears the portrait of the current ruler, the Ptolemies stressed dynastic continuity through use of the portrait of the dynasty’s founder, Ptolemy I. His portrait appears here, on the coinage of his son and successor Ptolemy II. The reverse type of an eagle was used on almost all Ptolemaic silver coinage, and was employed later at Phoenician mints by the Seleucids after their conquest of these Ptolemaic possessions in the Levant (see coin 14.3B).