Thrace. Thasos (Circa 480-463 BC)

Obverse: Ithyphallic satyr advancing right, carrying off protesting nymph.
Reverse: Quadripartite incuse square.

Le Rider, Thasiennes, 5; SNG Copenhagen 1010-2; HGC 6, 331.

Both location and mineral riches aided the thriving economy of the North Aegean island of Thasos. According to Herodotos (VI, 46), the city derived 200-300 talents annually from her exploitation of its local silver mines as well as mines controlled on the Thracian mainland opposite the island city-state. Additionally, Thasos gained much material wealth as a producer and exporter of high quality wines, and it was perhaps due to this trade in wine that her coinage spread throughout the Aegean making it a widely recognized and accepted coinage in distant lands.

Thracians for the most part were illiterate, with no alphabet of their own and no written history or literature. Aristotle, though no doubt exaggerating, wrote that Thracians were unable to count beyond four. What we know about Thracians is largely through the prism of what the Greeks and Romans have written and from archeological findings (including coins). We know they were fiercely independent, powerful, and feared, excelling in warfare, horsemanship, and metalwork. Thracians regarded war and plunder as the noblest way of life. Another ancient Greek philosopher, Xenophanes, described Thracians as being "large, powerfully built men," with "a skin white, delicate and cold," and "largely red-haired." Among the noteworthy Thracians of history are thought to be the gladiator Spartacus and the fable-writer Aesop.

The motif of the satyr abducting a maenad appears on several northern Greek coins. In the case of Thasos, this Dionysiac motif served to promote the island's famous wine. Satyrs belong to the retinue of Dionysos (the god of wine) while maenads were the immortal female followers of Dionysos.

This particular series of coinage likely terminated with the capture of Thasos by Athens in 463 BC after its revolt two years earlier. The terms under which Thasos surrendered were harsh and involved the loss of most of her sources of revenue, except that from her famous wine.