ACHAEMENID EGYPT. Sabaces, as Satrap (ca. 340-333 BC). AR tetradrachm (24mm, 17.23 gm, 9h). NGC VF 2/5 - 2/5, test cut. Uncertain mint in Egypt, Imitating Athens, ca. 340-333 BC. Head of Athena to right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette on bowl / MZDK (Aramaic) owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent to left, Mazakes symbol to right. Van Alfen, Owls, Type III. Flatly struck in the center, but well-centered on the flan. Light toning around the devices. Egypt had revolted from the faltering Persian Empire at the end of the fifth century BC, and for sixty years was ruled by three native dynasties. The last Pharaoh of this period was Nectanebo II of the Thirtieth Dynasty, who was to be the final native ruler of Egypt for well over a thousand years. Nectanebo was defeated in 340 BC by a resurgent Persian Empire under Artaxerxes III, who appointed a man named Pherendares as satrap of Egypt. This Pherendares soon died or was quickly replaced by Sabaces, who was satrap by at latest 338 BC. The Persians had only been able to conquer Egypt due to the substantial contingents of Greek mercenaries that accompanied their forces, and these mercenaries requested their payment in coinage familiar to them. No coin would have been more familiar to the Greek world (and the entire region, for that matter) than the Athenian tetradrachm. Examples imitating official Athens issues had been struck across the Eastern Mediterranean since the mid-5th century BC, including in Egypt. Sabaces continued this tradition, but with an important modification: he replaced the Greek legend AΘE of Athens with his own name in Aramaic. Thus, the coins that the Greek mercenaries brought home helped to bolster the fame of the ambitious Persian satrap, who would have seemed mightier still given that names of living people were then an uncommon occurrence on Greek coinage. Sabaces ruled Egypt as the viceroy for several Persian kings, fighting off a native revolt in Upper Egypt and eventually joining forces with his overlord Darius III in the latter's efforts to fight Alexander the Great. At the decisive Macedonian victory at Issus in 333 BC, Darius' army was scattered and many prominent Persian generals, including Sabaces, were killed. His successor Mazaces surrendered Egypt to Alexander without a fight a year later and was possibly rewarded with the Alexandrine satrapy of Mesopotamia, where a man of the same name struck coinage of a similar style to the Egyptian issues of Sabaces. This coin is highly unusual as it pairs the obverse die in a style used by Sabaces and a reverse die with the name and symbol of his successor, Mazaces (ca. 331-323/2 BC).

HID09801242017

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