Josette Elayi

The Coinage of the Phoenician City of Tyre in the Persian Period (5th - 4th Century Bce) (Studia Phoenicia) Josette Elayi

Here is the long-awaited corpus on Tyrian coinage in the Persian period (5th-4th cent. BCE), containing a chronological catalogue of 1,814 silver and bronze coins. Besides the usual numismatic analysis (monetary production, volume of emissions, manufacturing techniques and processes..), the authors have also studied the monetary inscriptions and iconography. They focused on using their own statistical method, the most objective and least biased method, to process this statistical data, reaching many interesting metrological conclusions. The Tyrian workshop was innovative, in that around 388 BCE it inaugurated a yearly dating system. This book is also an important historical volume on Tyre and on the Persians' western policy, based on the results of numismatic analysis, combined with all the other sources: in particular, the city's significant difficulties in the first part of the 4th cent. and its prosperity during the reign of King Ozmilk (347-333/2), in stark contrast to the decay of Sidon at that time.