Here's an interesting coin I got recently. It's a small bronze '
pseudo-autonomous' issue from the Phoenician city of Tyre:
In
gallery:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=186277
People have been calling the city of Tyre
home for more than 4,700 years. The city is located along the eastern Mediterranean coast and rose to great prominence as an independent
maritime trading center in the second millennium B.C.
Tyre is frequently mentioned in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. Its first mention, in Joshua 19:29, refers to it as "the strong city of Tyre". 2 Samuel 5:11 records that Hiram I,
king of Tyre, sent an embassage to
King David in Jerusalem and established a mutually beneficial trade agreement with the Israelites. According to the account, Hiram and David became fast friends, and when Solomon became
king after David's death, Hiram honored Solomon as well and sent him
supplies, raw material, and skilled workmen for the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. (1 Kings 5:1-12) In fact, the master bronzeworker on the Temple project was a Tyrian craftsman, sent by Hiram, who grew up in the trade under
his father and was "highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze
work."(7:13 & 14)
Later in the
biblical account, we are told that the infamous Jezebel, wife of
King Ahab, was the daughter of Ithobaal I, who was the
king of Tyre and the founder of a new dynasty. (1 Kings 16:31)
As a
maritime power, Tyre founded numerous colonies throughout the region, including
Carthage and Lepcis Magna.
Tyre was famous throughout this period for its strength as a defensible city, surrounded by ocean and high walls, but these defenses weren't enough to stop
Alexander the Great from conquering the city in an epic siege in 332 B.C. The siege lasted for 7 months, during which Alexander actually built a causeway to the island citadel, nearly half a mile long and up to 900 feet wide, using the rubble from the mainland portion of the town. It was a monumental achievement, and the causeway is
still there - now a permanent feature of the coastline.
In the
Roman period, Tyre remained an important city, famous for its dyes which were produced by certain marine snails. Jesus visited the region briefly (Matthew 15:21,
cf. Mark 7:24) and it seems a number of
his followers were from Tyre (Mark 3:8) Later, the apostles Luke and Paul landed at Tyre and stayed for a week with the Tyrian Christians during Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 21:3 & 4.) This would likely have been around the time this coin was struck.
Tyre continued to flourish into the
Byzantine period up until a series of devastating earthquakes in the 6th century A.D., which crippled but did not destroy the city. Like the
palm tree that symbolized the ancient city, Tyre was able to rebound and recover and, owing to its strong influence on the Silk Road trade, thrived under the later Muslim and
Crusader empires.
This coin is pretty
rare, at least as far as I was able to ascertain.
RPC Online lists only 4 specimens (including this one) - and I found one here in the
Forum Gallery (
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=127922), making a total of 5 that I was able to find.
Interestingly, there were no pictures of the other 3
RPC coins, so I submitted my specimen photo, and now it is the (only) illustrated example of this
type.
Thanks for looking!
