PHILISTIA. Gaza. Circa early 340s-332 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 14 mm, 3.91 g, 1 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette; on cheek, 𐡌 (M in Aramaic). Rev. Owl standing right, head facing; to left, olive sprig and crescent; to right, Α☉Ε. Fischer-Bossert, Philistian, 16c = Gitler & Tal V.25Dc (this coin). Hendin 6010. Jeselsohn 101 (same dies). Mildenberg, Vestigia, pl. XXIV, 7 (same dies). Shoshana II 20006-20007 (same dies). Sofaer -. Beautifully toned and with an unusually attractive obverse. The reverse weakly struck, otherwise, very fine.



The letter mem (𐡌) on Athena's cheek is the symbol of Marnas, the chief god and civic deity of Gaza, thereby securing the attribution of the drachm to the Philistian coastal city. In the Graeco-Roman period, Marnas was identified with Zeus and worshipped in the city’s famous Marneion. The symbol itself enjoyed a remarkable iconographic continuity: already attested on the present issue, dating to the early 340s-332 BCE, it remained the emblem of the god and the city for at least six centuries, still appearing on the last Roman provincial coins of Gaza, struck in 241/2 CE under Gordian III (238-244). See also lot 426 below, a coin of Hadrian showing the Temple of Marnas.

Unlike other Philistian coinages of the Athenian type, which are generally thought to have continued into the early years of Macedonian rule, the coinage of Gaza provides a clear terminus ante quem. In 332 BCE, Alexander the Great besieged the strongly fortified city during his advance towards Egypt. After a siege of several weeks, involving extensive earthworks and the use of siege engines, Gaza was captured by the Macedonians; the ancient sources report heavy losses among the defenders and the enslavement of part of the population. Gaza’s autonomous coinage therefore most likely ceased with, or at the latest by, the Macedonian conquest of the city in 332 BCE.