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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 3801133, member: 96898&quot;]Nice one! My Pherai hemidrachm is an ex BCD collection coin, too:</p><p><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">[ATTACH=full]1014826[/ATTACH] </font></p><p><font size="3">Pherai, Thessaly, hemidrachm, ca. 302–286 BC. Obv: Head of Ennodia left, torch behind. Rev: ΦΕΡΑΙΟΥΝ, the nymph Hypereia left, touching the top of lion&#039;s head fountain right, from which water pours forth, ΑΣ/TΟ within wreath to lower left. 15mm, 2.72g. Ref: BCD Thessaly I, 1321; BCD Thessaly II, 714; SNG Copenhagen 239; BMC 20. Ex CNG, e-auction 432, lot 27; ex BCD collection.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>I have already mentioned this in a previous post, but just to reiterate: this coin gets bonus points for a fancy philological feature. The wreath left of the nymph Hypereia contains the letters AΣTO. Two other coins from Pherai (BCD Thessaly II, 712 and 713) indicate that this is an abbreviation of a magistrate’s name, AΣTOMEΔON. Now, the name ‘Astomedon’ doesn’t make much sense in Ancient Greek, unless you take a specifically Thessalian dialectal and/or orthographic phenomenon into account. Thessalian inscriptions regularly abbreviate the prefix “aristo-”, which goes back to the adjective ἄριστος (meaning ‘best’), as “asto-”. The name ‘Astomedon’ thus should be read as ‘Aristomedon’, translating roughly into ‘the best ruler’ – a promising name for a magistrate.</p><p><br /></p><p>(For further information see M. Leumann: &#039;Aστο- für &#039;Aριστο- auf thessalischen Inschriften, in: Glotta 18, 1929, pp. 65–66.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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