MACEDON. Ennea Odoi (?). Circa 500-480 BC. Stater (Silver, 18 mm, 10.04 g). Cow standing right on hatched ground line, head turned left towards calf suckling right below; above, three annulets. Rev. Incuse square with rough surfaces diagonally divided. Boston MFA 605 ('uncertain'). SNG ANS 924 var. (two annulets above cow, as 'uncertain'). Svoronos, HPM pl. XVIII, 9 ('Bottiaei'). Traité pl. XL, 8 ('uncertain'). Very rare. A splendid, sharp piece of vigorous archaic style. Very slightly granular, otherwise, extremely fine.


Svoronos attributed this wonderful archaic stater to the Bottiaei, a Macedonian tribe living in the western Chalkidiki, which has been refuted by E. S. G. Robinson, who interpreted the legend 'EN' found on a similar (but somewhat later) issue as the ethnic of Ennea Odoi. The archaic settlement of Ennea Odoi was situated on a strategically important crossroad near the mouth of the Strymon river (Ennea Odoi literally means: 'nine roads'); Thukydides reports that it was captured in 437 BC by the Athenian general Hagnon, who founded the city of Amphipolis at this spot to get access to the important Thraco-Macedonian natural resources such as gold, silver and timber.