Cyrenaica, Barce
Tetradrachm circa 465, AR 17.18 g. Silphium plant; in lower field, A – I. Rev. B – A – P – K Head of Zeus Ammon r., within dotted circle. All within incuse square. Traité III, 1947. BMC 8 (these dies). Very rare and in exceptional condition, undoubtedly one of the finest tetradrachms of Barce in existence. A magnificent portrait of superb style struck on very fresh metal and with a light iridescent tone. Virtually as struck and almost Fdc Ex Roma Numismatics sale XIX, 2020, 589. Stated as having been privately purchased from M&M in 1971 and from Freeman & Sear in 2007. About three or four generations after Cyrene was founded, a new settlement, Barce, was established in the 570s or 560s B.C. It was located about seventy-five miles westwards down the coast from Cyrene, and sixteen miles inland, in the midst of a large and fertile plain. The impetus for the new colony was a feud among the brothers of Cyrene's ruling Battiad family, then led by Arcesilaus II. Rarely does a family quarrel have such good consequences: Barce became one of the most prosperous Greek cities of North Africa, such that it rivaled the capital. Like Cyrene, it submitted to Persian rule late in the 6th Century B.C., yet the people of Barce still seem to have enjoyed a good degree of autonomy before a general revolt was staged. The Persian governor of Egypt, Aryandes, responded with great force, destroying the city and taking most of its people into captivity. Barce recovered with relative speed, no doubt because of its resources. By the time this tetradrachm was struck, the city had restored much of its commercial advantage. If the designs of coinage can be taken as evidence, it would seem that the main product of Barce at this time was the silphium plant. A veritable cure-all, it is said to have had hundreds of medicinal and cosmetic uses, in addition to being a source of food. It was indigenous to Cyrenaica and apparently resisted all attempts at mass cultivation. The value of silphium as a source of food for cattle and the popularity of its juice in regional and foreign markets contributed to its extinction by the 1st Century A.D. It often is shown in great detail on coinage, and Robinson, in his 1927 work that served as the final volume of 'A Catalogue of the Greek Coins' in the British Museum, was able to identify the three major variants of its depiction.