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Persian Tarsos, Mazaios Satrap of Cilicia
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𐡁𐡏𐡋𐡕𐡓𐡆 ('B'LTRS' in Aramaic)
Baal of Tarsos seated left, holding holding eagle-tipped scepter; grain ear, grape-bunch, and Aramaic R in left field
MZDY ZY 'BRNHR' W ḤLK (Mazaios who is over Eber Nahara and Cilicia)
Lion bringing down bull above a pair of crenellated walls, each with four towers.
Tarsos, Cilicia 361/0-334 BC
10.74g
Casabonne Series 4, Group A; SNG BN 354-60 var. (control marks); SNG Levante 115
Ex-Dara Antiquities Auction 3, lot 1044
Hendin translates the Aramaic as "Mazaios who is over Eber Nahara and Cilicia." The similarity of this inscription and a descriptive phrase used in the Biblical texts of Ezra and Nehemiah has led to Hendin's suggestion that the walls on this coin represent the ones encompassing Jerusalem, which less than a century before had been rebuilt by Nehemiah, as related in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Both Nehemiah and Mazaeus (Mazdai) were Persian court officials, so they used similar phraseology for administrative and geographical regions. Mazaeus was governor, or satrap, of the land of Beyond the River around 350 BCE. Governing from Tarsus, the administrative capital, Mazaeus is telling us that he is in charge of "Beyond the River."
(A fuller discussion of the subject is presented on pages 100-103 of the 4th edition of Hendin's Guide to Biblical Coins.)
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