bgr_542980 - PHOENICIA - SIDON Seizième de shekel

PHOENICIA - SIDON

(Ve - fourth century BC)

'Abd Eschmun (425-410/407 avant J.-C.)

Tyre with Sidon was one of the main ports of the Phoenician coast, essentially a military port. Sidon was one of the oldest Phoenician cities. The city was famous for the commercial exploitation of the purple (Murex). His coinage appears to have started in the second half of the fifth century BC and lasted until the Macedonian conquest in 332 BC The city submitted to the conqueror without a fight to the opposite of 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, then confirmed by Marc Anthony. The autonomous coinage ceased in 30/29 BC.