350-320 BCE
AR Drachm 3.07g, 16mm
Head of Aphrodite right
Forepart of a Lion right.
SNG Keckman 174-175
Pausanias describes Knidos as a sort of ‘double city’ because part of it was on the mainland and part on and island. A bridge or causeway connected the two. The island itself was describes as 7 stadia (4200 feet) in circumference and high and theater-shaped. The majority lived on the island, probably because it was more defensible.
The causeway allowed two ports, one of which Pausanias mentioned was for triremes and the other could be closed. Opposite it was the city of Nisyros.
A number of famous people came from Knidos. The mathematician and astronomer Eudoxos was born and lived much of his life in Knidos. He is widely considered the best of the classical mathematicians and perhaps second best in all of antiquity after Archimedes. He proved a number of geometric principles and was heavily borrowed from by Euclid.
Agatharchides was also from Knidos and was a historian famed for his information on Egypt and Arabia. Although his works have been lost, he was widely quoted by many other historians including Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pliny, and Josephus. Supposedly he was the one who deduced the true reason for the regular flooding of the Nile and learned the language of the Ethiopians.
Pausanias also mentions Theopomops and his son Artemidoros, who were allies of Caesar, and the physician Kresias as being from the city. Sostratos, who built the Pharos (one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World) in Alexandria was also from Knidos.
The city contained a temple to Aphrodite, who is pictured on the obverse of this coin. In ancient times, the city also contained a large lion statue that resembles the one on this coin. That statue was removed to London and now stands in the British Museum. The Turkish town that now occupies the site has asked for it back.