v51_0299 - PHOENICIA - SIDON Demi-shekel

PHOENICIA - SIDON

(5th - 4th centuries BC)

Sidon was with Tire one of the main ports of the Phoenician coast, essentially a military port. Sidon was one of the oldest cities in Phenicia. The city was famous for the commercial exploitation of purple (murex). Its coinage seems to have begun in the second half of the 5th century BC and lasted until the Macedonian conquest in 332 BC. The city submitted to the conqueror without a fight, unlike its neighbor, Tyr who resisted for seven months. The new coinage of Sidon began in 112-111 BC Pompey maintained the status of a free city, later confirmed by Marc Antoine. Autonomous coinage ceased in 30/29 BC.