PHOENICIA. Marathos, 3rd-1st centuries BC. Weight of 50 Shekels (Lead, 75x75 mm, 467.00 g). City monogram composed of 'mrt' above '20+20+10' (all in Phoenician); to left, kerykeion. Rev. Blank. Pondera 12899 var. (no kerykeion). Good very fine.


The Phoenician city of Marathos lay on the Levantine mainland in close proximity to its rival, the island polis of Arados. Periods of independence alternated with domination by its powerful neighbor, which considered Marathos part of its mainland peraia. The Aradians eventually destroyed Marathos in the late 2nd or early 1st century BC, as reported by Strabo: '[...] Marathus, the latter an ancient city of the Phoenicians, now in ruins. Aradians divided up this country among themselves [...]' (Strab. XVI, 753). Rebuilt on a smaller scale sometime thereafter, the settlement never fully recovered and was eventually abandoned in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD.