Pnytagoras, 351 – 332. Stater circa 351-312 BC, AV 8.29 g. Head of Aphrodite l.; behind, BA Rev. Turreted head of Aphrodite l.; behind, ΠN. BMC 76. Jameson 1631 (this coin). Tziambazis 132. Mildenberg, Melanges Price, p. 285, 54 and pl. 60, 54 (this coin illustrated). Markou 424 (this coin). de Hirsch 1616. Jameson 1631. Very rare. Two wonderful portraits of fine style well struck in high relief. An unobtrusive nick on obverse field, otherwise good extremely fine Ex Hess-Leu April 1954, 179; Hess-Leu April 1958, 241 and Leu 28, 1981, 191 sales. From the Jameson collection. In 351 B.C., Evagoras II, the Greek king of Salamis was overthrown and sent into exile after he refused to support a Cypriot rebellion against the Persians. He was succeeded on the throne by his nephew, Pnytagoras, whose political views were better aligned with those of the city’s Greek population. Evagoras II obtained the promise of the Great King Artaxerxes II that if he could recapture Salamis for the Persian Empire he would be restored as king. With military assistance from the Athenian general, Phokion, Evagoras II besieged Pnytagoras in Salamis and took the city. However, during the campaign, Artaxerxes II began to hear unspecified and unpleasant rumors about Evagoras II. The rumors were of such great concern that the Great King decided to renege on his promise and instead confirmed Pnytagoras as king of Salamis. Pnytagoras still reigned in the city when Alexander the Great defeated the Persians at the Battle of Issos (333 B.C.). In the following year, he joined the Macedonian conqueror as an ally, supplying elements of his fleet to assist in Alexander’s difficult siege of Tyre. Alexander later rewarded him by detaching the city of Tamassos from the territory of Kition and adding it to the kingdom of Salamis. Pnytagoras died later in 332 B.C., leaving the kingdom to his son, Nikokreon. This gold stater depicts two different aspects of Aphrodite, the divine patron of Cyprus. On the obverse she wears a turreted crown to assimilate her to the city-goddess, Tyche, and to identify her as the protectress of Salamis. On the reverse she appears as an oriental goddess with long hair in tight ringlets and wearing a hoop earring. The same types were reused for the staters of Nikokreon.