circa 375-325 BCE
Æ 11 mm, 1,87 g
Draped and turreted bust of Tyche left, wearing earring and necklace
E-F, bee
SNG Copenhagen 256; BMC Ionia pg. 55, 68-70; SNG von Aulock 1839; Laffaille –
Today, Ephesos is one of the most famous visitable ruins in the world. Images of the Library of Kelsos adorn almost every tourist brochure of Turkey. That library was built in the early second century CE, or roughly four hundred years after this coin was minted.
The city is ancient and has been studied in depth. An entire book should be available concerning its history, though I couldn’t find one.
Alexander the Great entered the city himself. When he noticed the unfinished Temple of Artemis and offered to finance its completion, the inhabitants wisely answered that it would be “inappropriate for one god to build a temple to another.”
Lysimachos later took control of the city and moved most of the inhabitants out when the river silted up and malaria decimated the population. He created the city of Arsinoea after his wife, Arsinoe II. He later moved the inhabitants of Kolophon and Lebedos to this city after he destroyed those towns.
After his death, the city came under the control of the Seleukids, until occupied by the Ptolemies in 263 BCE.
The coinage of Ephesos most often used a bee or a deer in its coins. The deer was a symbol of Artemis, who was their patron goddess. She was often depicted riding a deer or using them for her chariot.
Per legend, the original Athenian colonists of Ephesos were led by muses who took the form of bees, though this tale is somewhat dampened by the fact that Ephesos is an older city than Athens. The priestesses of Artemis were also called ‘bees’ while the head priest was the ‘king bee’. There is some research showing that bee and deer images predate the Greek mythology in the area.