Friday, August 11, 2006

Molon Labe.


The coin on the left is a 1/12th Stater from the Greek city-state of Miletos, which is located on the Turkish mainland. It was minted sometime between 500 and 480 BC, when the city was under the rule of distant Persian overlords.

Perhaps one summer, two thousand, four hundred, and eighty six years ago today, it was in the pouch of a free Greek in the allied contingent near the spa waters of Thermopylae.

Probably not.

But I'd like to think it was.

Molon Labe.

7 comments:

FHB said...

Where the hell did you get that?

Tam said...

http://museumsurplus.com/


Don't forget that over the course of a thousand years, the Greeks and Romans had plenty of time to lose spare change all over Europe.

FHB said...

Cool. I'll check that out.

theirritablearchitect said...

Tam,

I'll give you a dollar for that '41 penny.

schwweeet.

Ben said...

Today the enemies of self-determination are more insidious than the forces of ancient Persia. The enemy within.

Zendo Deb said...

When told that the Persians would fill the sky with their arrows and block out the sun, a Greek soldier remarked... "Then we shall have our battle in the shade."

BobG said...

Cool! I have some Roman coins from Constantine's time, and I have often wondered what kinds of stories might be associated with them.