Uncertain mint, circa 323-240 BCE
16.48g, 21mm, 1h.
Attic standard. Head of Athena to right, wearing earring, necklace, and crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves over visor and a spiral palmette and grape bunch on the bowl / Owl standing to right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent behind, AΘE before; all within incuse square
Cf. Bopearachchi, Sophytes Series 1A; cf. Roma XIV, 341 corr. (grape bunch on rev.)
Ex 1960s Andragoras-Sophytes Group
Sophytes, Sophytes, we don’t really know thee Sophytes. While Alexander was campaigning in India, a local ruler named Sophytes submitted to him and gave a gift of some hunting dogs. To exhibit the dogs, he set out a lion and had the dogs attack it (PETA wasn’t a thing back then).
While the dogs were thrashing at the lion, a soldier came up and cut off one of the dogs’ legs. At this, Alexander immediately protested. However, Sophytes promised he would give him more dogs. The soldier then hacked off pieces of the dog while it remained attacking the lion. Even to the Romans reporting the event, this was disgusting.
Some time later, some coins were issued in the region of Baktra (modern day Afghanistan) with the name “Sophytes”.
Today, we have no idea about the following:
1) Where these two Sophytes different people? There have been arguments for and against.
2) To which Sophytes does this coin belong? The main guess is this coin was minted before those with the name “Sophytes”. However, modern day numismatics believe it was minted by some Sophytes.
So, we’re not sure if this coin came from a sadistic dog-torturing satrap, or from a random guy who felt strong enough about himself to post his name across every coin, or whether these are one and the same.
The argument for the same person, though, seems unlikely, since the coins stretch across eighty years. Maybe Sophytes also had a son named Sophytes? Maybe they were a whole family collective?
To confuse matters further, there are inscriptions in Pakistan naming a Sophytes, who may or may not be the same guy. Therefore, there were between one and three Sophytes.
Personally, I have no idea, other than I’m naming this my “Sophytes coin” and am crossing everyone named Sophytes off my list.