LAMPSAKOS, silver diobol, (circa 390-330 BC)

DescriptionLampsakos was colonized by both Phoenicians and Greeks. It was contested by Persia and Athens, then was semi-autonomous under the Seleukids, then was incorporated into the Roman Empire.Greater Lydia under Croesus, the king renowned for his wealth, was the entire western salient of Anatolia. In later antiquity it was part of the Persian Empire, then was conquered by the Macedonians, who held on until the coming of the Romans.We think that our culture grew out of the culture of Greece because it was in Greece (and in China) that people started thinking about how things could be different than they were in a world where everything was dangerous and might made right. They also established principles of artistic expression that we still use today. We see this approach to art in their coins.Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.