ATTICA. Athens, Peisistratid Tyranny. Hippias, in exile, as tyrant of Sigeion in Troas, 510-circa 490 BC. Obol (Silver, 8 mm, 0.43 g, 11 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet. Rev. HIΠ Owl standing right, head facing; to left, grain ear; all within incuse square. E. Babelon: Une Obole au nom d'Hippias, in: J. Evans et al. (eds.): Corolla Numismatica. Numismatic Essays in Honour of Barclay V. Head. London 1906, pp. 1-9 and figs. 1-2 = Svoronos pl. 7, 44 = Traité I, 2, p. 1233 and pl. LVII, 22 (same obverse die). K. Konuk: A New Obol of Hippias of Athens, in: J. Bodzek, A. Bursche and A. Zapolska (eds.): Proceedings of the XVI International Numismatic Congress, 11-16.09.2022. Warsaw and Turnhout 2024 (in press.), figs. A-B (same obverse die). Of the highest rarity, the third known example of this tremendously important issue in the name of the last Athenian tyrant, and the earliest Greek coin to bear the name of a human. Struck on a very broad flan with a full crest and a perfectly legibly name. Porous, otherwise, very fine.



Despite the early publication of the Parisian obol inscribed with 'HIΠ' by E. Babelon in 1906, this then unique piece has largely been overlooked in scholarly research until recently. This neglect is particularly surprising given the extensive study of Athenian coinage by numerous renowned numismatists since the 19th century. Perhaps the reasons for this oversight lie in the coin's small size, the challenges of its classification, or simply its inconspicuous placement in works like Svoronos, where it blends almost imperceptibly among typical Athenian obols. Yet, this coin represents one of the great sensations in Greek numismatics, as the inscription HIΠ, as Babelon argued already over a century ago, undoubtedly belongs to Hippias, the infamous last Peisistratid tyrant of Athens.

The Peisistratid dynasty traces its origins to Peisistratos, an Athenian aristocrat who, after two failed attempts, finally seized power as tyrant of Athens around 546/5 BC. Upon his death in 528/7 BC, his sons Hippias and Hipparchus succeeded him. After Hipparchus was assassinated in 514 BC by the famous tyrant-slayers Harmodios and Aristogeiton, Hippias ruled Athens alone. It was only the intervention of Spartan King Kleomenes I that led to the abdication of the tyrant in 510 BC, after which Hippias retreated into exile in Sigeion, in the Troad - a personal possession of the Peisistratids. Like other prominent Athenian families, such as the Philaids, with Miltiades, the future victor at Marathon, holding estates on the Thracian Chersonese, the Peisistratids had secured lands outside Attica early on. Sigeion, located at the entrance to the Hellespont, clearly held particular strategic importance for securing Athens' vital grain supply from the Black Sea.

The crucial question now is when, where, and for what purpose were these extremely rare obols bearing Hippias' name minted? In an important forthcoming article (thanks are due to K. Konuk for making it available to this author), Konuk delves into this question, rightly pointing out that Hippias' obols are distinguishable not only by their inscription but also by the reverse symbol - a grain ear - which sets them apart from the city coinage of Athens. He associates this symbol with the intensive grain cultivation in northwestern Troad, and contrary to C. Seltman's view (expressed in Athens: its History and Coinage before the Persian Invasion. Cambridge 1924, p. 76), proposes that these coins were minted in Sigeion during Hippias' exile after 510 BC. Supporting this theory is the fact that the Parisian piece was acquired in Smyrna in the 19th century. According to this hypothesis, Hippias minted these coins in Sigeion for local use, asserting his continued claim to power over Athens through the issuance of coinage bearing his name. Konuk further suggests that this indicates the famous Athenian owls were already introduced under the Peisistratids, as it is unlikely that Hippias would have imitated a new, 'democratic' coin type from Athens while in exile, making these coins significant evidence for an earlier introduction of the owl type in Athens itself.

The attribution of these obols to Sigeion is indeed compelling, as it seems unlikely that Hippias, as the tyrant of Athens, would have issued a one-time, very limited mintage - only three examples from one obverse and two reverse dies are known - of obols bearing his name. A mintage in or for Sigeion makes much more sense, yet the extraordinary stylistic and technical similarity of Hippias' coins to contemporary Athenian issues (e.g. Triton XXIV (2021), 512 and, particularly, CNG E-Auction 433 (2018), 57) raises important questions. Could the small polis of Sigeion - unlike, for instance, Magnesia on the Maeander decades later under Themistokles - have been capable of perfectly imitating Athenian coinage in what was not only its first but also its only mintage for more than a century? Or do alternative explanations exist? Historical sources report that after leaving Athens, Hippias traveled to Persia, where he sought reinstatement as tyrant from the Great King. Two decades later, he joined the first great Persian campaign against Greece, which ended in the disastrous Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. He is said to have died on the return journey to Asia Minor, though this account is disputed.

It is important to remember that later, democratically-inclined sources had a vested interest in portraying an irreconcilable opposition between tyranny and democracy. This black-and-white approach fails to capture the complex and shifting political landscape of the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC, as exemplified by the ambiguous role of Miltiades, an Athenian aristocrat who was himself a tyrant of the Thracian Chersonese but later became the savior of his now democratic homeland. In 510 BC, the Athenians certainly had every reason to rid themselves of Hippias, but this does not preclude later relations between the city and the exiled tyrant, especially since he resided just a few days' journey away, and along Attica's most crucial grain supply route. It is quite conceivable that Hippias could have commissioned the dies for his coins in Athens, and that the city initially saw no reason to refuse, as long as he remained in Asia Minor. The proximity of another Athenian nobleman - Miltiades, depicted in our sources as one of the 'good' aristocrats in Athenian history - residing as a tyrant just a few kilometers from Sigeion, might also have opened doors for Hippias. However, this remains speculative.

The unique historical significance of these coins, on the other hand, is undeniable: Hippias was the first Greek to dare to inscribe his own name on his coinage, preceding later dynasts such as Themistokles in Magnesia, and even early royal coins like those of Alexander I of Macedon, by decades. In Asia Minor, his coins stand at the beginning of a long series of small dynasts and Persian satraps who sought to encapsulate their rule in numismatic imagery. The coins of Hippias are thus not anomalies of history, but the earliest harbingers of a trend that would gain momentum in the following decades, manifesting in the numerous pre-Hellenistic dynastic coins of western and southwestern Asia Minor. One might see in the Athenian type of Hippias’ coinage a programmatic image chosen by the exiled tyrant, symbolizing his unyielding claim to power over his homeland. From a less ideologically charged perspective, however, these coins may also have served a more practical purpose, facilitating trade with the Athenian grain ships that annually transported the vital Black Sea grain past Sigeion’s doorstep. Due to the recognizable Athena and her owl, and the Attic weight standard, Hippias’ coins would have been nearly indistinguishable from Athenian issues, with only the inscription and reverse symbol revealing their local origin upon closer inspection. In this interpretation, the grain ear might not represent the agricultural wealth of the Troad, but rather hint at the grain from the Black Sea that fed Athens.