Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 247. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $42500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Chersonesos. Miltiades II. Circa 495-494 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.20 gm, 3h). Lion standing right, head left, raising left forepaw, tail curled above / Head of Athena left, wearing crested Attic helmet and earring, within incuse square. Seltman Group Q, 488-489 var. (A332/P-; unlisted reverse die); BMC Thrace -; SNG Copenhagen -; Muchmov 5445 = Traité pl. LVII, 15; Pozzi 1101 = J.P. Six, "Monnaies grecques, inédites et incertaines," NC 1895, pg. 186, 5; Weber 2400 = H. Weber, "On some Unpublished or Rare Greek Coins in my Collection," NC 1892, pg. 188, 6; Pozzi 1100; Hirsch 897 (all from the same obverse die). Good VF, toned, minor porosity. Extremely rare, the finest of six known. ($20,000)

Miltiades II, an Athenian aristocrat, had a storied career involving a number of significant events during the period of the Persian invasion. In 515 BC he was sent by the Athenian tyrant, Hippias, to rule the Chersonese, a strategic point in Athens' grain trade. Miltiades' brother, Stesagoras, and uncle, Miltiades the Elder, had previously ruled there. As tyrant of the Chersonese, Miltiades found himself obliged to submit to Persian rule, and served in the campaign of Darios I against the Skythians. His Persian allegiance was short-lived, and he joined against Darios in the Ionian Revolt. When the rebellion was crushed and the Chersonese laid waste by the Persians, Miltiades was forced to flee to Athens, where, in 490 BC, he was elected one of the strategoi. The same year Miltiades persuaded the Athenians to confront Persia at Marathon and played a central role in the Athenian victory, choosing the moment of attack as well as the means which led to the Athenian double-envelopment of the Persian forces. Afterwards, Miltiades was given command over an Athenian fleet that was to attack Paros. He was severely wounded in the effort, and his mission was a failure, for which he was brought to trial and condemned to pay 50 talents. Before he could raise the funds, though, Miltiades died of his wounds. His son, Kimon, went on to become the most prominent Athenian leader in the 470s and 460s, and had his father's debt discharged.

This issue dates from the Ionian Revolt (499-494 BC). Miletos was the principal mover in the revolt, and city after city joined the cause against Persia. Athens sent a fleet to assist her Ionian cousins. The chief city of the Chersonese was Kardia, originally a Milesian foundation. Other cities expelled their pro-Persian tyrants, but the tyrant of the Chersonese was an Athenian with no love of the Persians, and Miltiades threw off his Persian allegiance and issued this coinage which proclaimed his loyalty to the revolt. Struck on the Attic rather than the Persian standard, these tetradrachms display the lion of Miletos on the obverse and a head of Athena, reflecting Athenian coins of the time, on the reverse.