Lycia Xanthos [as Arñna]

The Lycian city of Xanthos [Arñna in Lycian] had a tragic early history. When faced with the superior Persian forces of Harpagos in 540 BC, the Xanthians reportedly destroyed their acropolis, killed their wives and children, and then undertook a suicidal attack on the Persians. The entire population was destroyed except for 80 families who were away from their city at the time of this calamity. When the families that were away at the time of the city’s destruction returned, they rebuilt Xanthos and became subjects of the Persian Great Kings, but the city was destroyed once again sometime between 475 and 470 BC, caught in the middle of the conflict between the Greek cities led by Athens and Persia. This coin, struck after Xanthos was again restored, reflects the city’s sometimes precarious position between the Greek and Persian cultural and political spheres. The obverse depicts a male head wearing a Persian satrapal headdress, possibly representing the satrap of Lycia, while the reverse depicts Apollo, the Greek God par excellence.