SAMARIA. Series with personal names and miscellaneous letters. Brochubelos, Achaemenid official in Syria, circa 345-332 BCE. Mʿh = Obol (Silver, 9 mm, 0.47 g, 12 h). Biga galloping left, driven by a male figure wearing a Persian headdress, holding goad in his right hand and reins in his left; behind him, a similar figure standing left, raising his right hand. Rev. Horseman galloping left, wearing Persian headdress, holding goad in right hand and reins in left; below, 𐡁𐡓𐡅𐡇𐡁𐡋 (BRWḤBL in Aramaic). CSC 163. Hendin -. Jeselsohn 24. Meshorer & Qedar 15. NH 413-419. Samuels, Rynearson & Meshorer 26 = Shoshana I 20053. Sofaer 93. Wyssmann p. 248, MQ 15. Very rare and undoubtedly among the finest known examples of this historically important series. Beautifully toned and with excellent detail. Good extremely fine.



Brochubelos is known from only two brief historical references. Arrian records that in 330 BCE Antibelos, a son of Mazaios, came to Alexander 'the Great' together with the Babylonian Bagistanes and reported that Dareios III had been seized by Nabarzanes, Bessos, and Barsaentes (Arr. Anab. 3.21.1). This Antibelos is probably the same man whom Curtius Rufus, in his account of the same episode, calls Brochubelos, son of Mazaios, formerly 'praetor' of Syria (Syriae quondam praetor, Curt. 5.13.11). Curtius is evidently using the Latin term to denote a high administrative office in Achaemenid Syria, within the wider province of Eber-Nari, which may explain why coins were issued in Brochubelos’ name at Samaria.

Arrian’s Antibelos is probably a distorted Greek form of Brochubelos/Brocubelus, itself apparently a Semitic name usually understood as 'blessed by Bel.' The currently preferred reading of the Samarian coin legend as BRWḤBL further supports the identification with Brochubelos. The iconography of this remarkable obol, however, remains difficult to interpret. Gitler, Johananoff, and Tal relate the chariot scene to Sidonian coin types, where the charioteer and the Great King are clearly distinguished. On the Samarian coins, by contrast, the two figures in the chariot are dressed almost identically, as is the horseman on the reverse. It therefore remains unclear whether the scene shows Brochubelos with the Great King, Brochubelos with a charioteer, or the Great King with his charioteer.