The Case for Reattribution of the Berytos Alexanders to Byblos

A tetradrachm die study of the Macedonian imperial coinage attributed to Berytos by Price establishes that this was a compact, yet complex emission struck from seven obverse dies and at least 43 reverse dies. Based on mint controls and their varied placements, seventeen different types are identified in a sequence that is tightly die linked. Forty percent of the types identified are previously undocumented. The coinage has all the hallmarks of a short duration emission from an ephemeral mint. Influences derived from Arados and Sidon are identified in the diversity of iconographic detail and style. It is inferred that resources were possibly drawn from these mints to strike the coinage. One specific iconographic detail on some of the reverse dies is also found on some of the Year 13 dated issues of Sidon otherwise absent on all other Alexander’s struck in Phoenicia. In all likelihood, the coinage was a contemporary of this Sidon issue, struck in association with the transit of the Macedonian royal army from Egypt to the assembly at Triparadeisos. The hoard record of the coinage and its historical context converge to suggest that it was struck at Byblos, a vassal kingdom on the Phoenician coast, rather than Berytos, which at the time was a small port within the territory of the kingdom of Sidon. https://numismatics.org.au/naa-journal/volume-31-2021-2022/