MACEDON. Mende. Circa 460-423 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 17.25 g, 6 h). Dionysos, bearded and holding kantharos in his right hand, reclining left on the back of a donkey walking to right; to right, bird perched right on bush. Rev. MEN-ΔA-I-ON around vine with five bunches of grapes within linear square; all within shallow incuse square. HGC 3.1, 545. Noe, Mende, Group II, 58 (same dies). SNG ANS 335 (same dies). SNG Berry 35 (same dies). Nicely toned, perfectly centred, and well struck. A very attractive example, with a wonderful rendering of the drunken Dionysos. Extremely fine.



Mende, on the western coast of Pallene, was one of the wealthiest cities of Chalcidice in the fifth century BC. The city’s prosperity rested to a large extent on the export of its celebrated wine. As Athenaios preserves in a comic fragment of Hermippos (Deipn. 1.53 = 29e), Mendean wine was celebrated in terms so extravagant that even the gods are said to respond to it with comic excess. Recent studies of amphorae have confirmed the strong presence of Mendaean imports at Athens. The importance of viticulture is vividly reflected in the magnificent Early Classical tetradrachms of Mende: Dionysos, drinking as he rides a donkey, appears on the obverse, and the vine on the reverse serves as an almost emblematic expression of the city’s principal economic resource and cultural identity.

Mende’s great flourishing period came to an end in 423 BC, when the city revolted against Athenian rule and joined the Spartan general Brasidas. The Athenians quickly suppressed the revolt, and although Mende regained its independence after the end of the Peloponnesian War, it did not recover its former prosperity. Its magnificent Early Classical coinage likewise ceased in 423 BC and was followed by a smaller silver issue bearing the head of Dionysos on the obverse and a donkey on the reverse.