Themistokles of Athens

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 184. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

IONIA, Magnesia ad Maeandrum. Themistokles. Circa 465-459 BC. AR Hemiobol (0.40 g, 6h). Head of Hephaistos right, wearing laureate pileos / ΘE monogram within incuse square. Nollé & Wenninger Th5a; Nollé pl. 1, 3c. VF, toned, minor porosity. Extremely rare, fewer than ten known.

Themistokles was perhaps the most important, and certainly one of the most powerful, political figures in early fifth century Athens. He persuaded the Athenians to use the newly found wealth from the silver mines of Laurion to build a navy, essential to their defeat of the Persians a short time later. Sometime in the early 460s BC, Themistokles was ostracized. He fled to Asia Minor, where he was well received by the Persian king, who granted him the income of three cities in Ionia. Themistokles chose Magnesia on the Maeander as his new headquarters, where these coins were struck.