Sidon, Phoenician (War Galley, Tyche) AE23 80-87 CE 

• 85 
• Phoenicia 
• AE 23 
• Ancient Greece after 146 BC. 

7565595

Coins

Sidon, Phoenician (War Galley, Tyche) AE23 80-87 CE

85

Galley, Tyche

5

23

SIDWN QEAS IERAS KAI ASOULOU KAI NAUARCIDOS

BMC Phoenicia, 193

OBV; text in six lines above and below galley left, stem terminating forward in volute, aphlaston at stern REV: Turreted and veiled bust of Tyche right. Phoenicia was an ancient Semitic civilization situated on the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent and centered on the coastline of modern Syria and Lebanon. All major Phoenician cities were on the coastline of the Mediterranean, some colonies reaching the Western Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 3200 BC to 300 BC. The Phoenicians used the galley, a man-powered sailing vessel, and are credited with the invention of the bireme. They were famed in Classical Greece and Rome as 'traders in purple', referring to their monopoly on the precious purple dye of the murex snail, used, among other things, for royal clothing, and for the spread of their alphabets, from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets are derived.