The Dated Alexander Staters of Tyre: A Die Study and Revised Chronology
Abstract
A die study of the dated Alexander gold staters of Tyre, struck between 332 and 305,1 reveals that the
city employed 45 percent more dies than accounted for in Newell’s century old study of the dated coinage of
Ake, since reattributed to Tyre. It identifies several additions and corrections to Price’s classification of the
dated gold staters. Remarkably, fifty-five percent of Tyre’s total gold emission was produced over seven years, during Alexander the Great’s lifetime. Its value was twice that of the contemporary silver output. Comparing the number of stater obverse dies used each year at Tyre with those from Sidon, the study establishes that Tyre’s calendar was based on a Spring calendar year, while the start of the regnal era of a king was defined under an accession year dating system. With this new understanding, it is clear that the dating era of the Alexandrine issues began in the Spring of 348, sixteen years prior to the fall of Tyre to the Macedonians. Between 329 and 310 each of the local calendar years of Tyre and Sidon overlapped for only six months, rather than being congruent. In 310 the Greek/Macedonian calendar displaced the Tyrian calendar with dates defined on the era of Antigonus. A revised chronological calibration and the annual sequence of die usage for the dated Alexander issues of both Tyre and Sidon is presented. The revised chronology of the
dated Alexanders of Tyre conforms precisely to all the constraining evidence and data points that arise from
the reattribution to Tyre of the dated issues previously attributed to Ake. This is a further substantiation of
the reattribution. It closely aligns the iconographic and epigraphic progression evident in the coinage with
parallel developments at Sidon. It brings the peak of the dated gold emission at each city during Alexander’s
lifetime into chronological alignment.
References
Billows, R. A. 1990. Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Construction of the Hellenistic State. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boiy, T. 2000. Dating Methods During the Early Hellenistic Period. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 52: 115-121.
Bosworth, A. B. 1988: Conquest and Empire: The Reign of Alexander the Great. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Callataÿ, F. de. 2011. Quantifying Monetary Production in Greco-Roman Times: A General Frame, in F. de Callataÿ (ed.) Quantifying Monetary Supplies in Greco-Roman Times: 7-29. Pragmateiai 19. Bari: Edipuglia.
Elayi, J. 2006. An Updated Chronology of the Reigns of Phoenician Kings During the Persian Period (539-333 BC). Transeuphratene 32: 11-44.
Elayi, J. and A.G. Elayi. 2009. The Coinage of the Phoenician city of Tyre in the Persian Period (5th-4th cent. BCE). Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 188; Studia Phoenicia XX. Leuven: Peeters.
Elayi, J. 2018. The History of Phoenicia. Translated by A. Plummer. Atlanta: Lockwood Press.
Esty, W. W. 2011. The Geometric Model for Estimating the Number of Dies, in F. de Callataÿ (ed.) Quantifying Monetary Supplies in Greco-Roman Times: 43-58. Pragmateiai 19. Bari: Edipuglia.
Kholod, M. M. 2021. The Administration of Syria under Alexander the Great. KLIO: Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte 103 (2): 505-537.
Kholod, M. M. 2024. The Administration of Alexander’s Empire, in D. Ogden (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great: 290-316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lemaire, A. 1976. Le monnayage de Tyr et celui dit d’Akko dans la deuxième moitié du IVe siècle avant J.-C. Revue Numismatique 18: 11-24.
Le Rider, G. 2007. Alexander the Great: Coinage, Finances and Policy. Translated by W. E. Higgins. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Merker, I. L. 1964. Notes on Abdalonymos and the Dated Alexander Coinage of Sidon and Ake. American Numismatic Society Museum Notes 11: 13-20.
Newell, E. T. 1916. The Dated Alexander Coinage of Sidon and Ake. Oxford University Press.
Price, M. J. 1991. The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus. London: British Museum/Swiss Numismatic Society.
Seyrig, H. 1950. Notes on Syrian Coins. Numismatic Notes and Monographs No. 119. New York: The American Numismatic Society. 62 Billows (1990): 111-116. 63 Ibid: 126-130. 64 Boiy (2000): table 6. Based on analysis of regnal years attested to in Babylonian cuneiform documents.
Taylor, L. W. H. 2020a. Sidon to Tyre: The Macedonian administration and relative chronology. KOINON The International Journal of Classical Numismatic Studies III: 43-53.
Taylor, L. W. H. 2020b. On the Reattribution of some Byblos Alexanders to Arados II. American Journal of Numismatics Second Series 32: 31-92.
Taylor, L. W. H. 2021-2022. The Case for Reattribution of the Berytos Alexanders to Byblos. Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 31: 55-85.
Taylor, L. W. H. 2025. The Alexander Gold Coinage of Sidon. KOINON The International Journal of Classical Numismatic Studies VIII: 3-48.
Thiele, E. 1951. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. New York: Macmillan.
Wheatley, P. 1995. Ptolemy Soter’s Annexation of Syria 320 BC. The Classical Quarterly 45 (2): 433-440.
