Cilicia, Tarsos AR Stater. Circa 440-400 BC. Horseman (Syennesis?) riding to left, wearing kyrbasia, holding lotus flower in right hand and reins in left, bow in bowcase on saddle; Key symbol below horse, [Aramaic 'TRZ'] in exergue / Archer in kneeling-running stance to right, quiver over shoulder, drawing bow; Key symbol behind, all within dotted border within incuse square. BMC -; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG Levante -; SNG France -; Casabonne -; MIMAA -; Traité II, 521, and pl. CVI, 1 = Hunterian, p. 546, 4 and pl. LX, 7. 10.71g, 20mm, 9h.
Good Very Fine; lightly toned. Extremely Rare.
From a private Swiss collection.

  'Syennesis' was the title held by the local Tarsiote dynasts of Cilicia, at least three of whom figured prominently in Near-Eastern history. The first, an independent monarch in his own right, joined with Nebuchadnezzar in mediating between Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes of Lydia in circa 610 BC. The second appears as a vassal of the Achaemenid king Darius I, and whose daughter was married to Pixodaros, son of Maussolos. He was perhaps the same man whom Herodotos mentioned as one of the most distinguished of the subordinate commanders in the fleet of Xerxes I. The last recorded Syennesis participated in the rebellion of Cyrus the Younger against Artaxerxes II as described in detail in Xenophon's Anabasis. The lack of any further mention of this dynasty following the events of Cyrus' rebellion has long been taken as meaning that the syennesis was forcibly retired and a satrapy established in his place; the general and long-held acceptance by numismatists such as J. P. Six, E. Babelon and C. M Kraay of the obverse horseman portraying the Tarsiote syennesis has therefore complicated the dating of such issues (for an in-depth discussion see Casabonne, Le syennésis cilicien et Cyrus : l'apport des sources numismatiques, 1995).
   Casabonne does not refute the identification of the obverse figure as the syennesis, but he cautions against attempting to identify particular individuals within the series, rather suggesting the type should be considered in a less literal manner, and, viewed as evidence that the "Tarsiote monetary iconography attests to a certain continuity of relations between the central and local powers", he accepts the type as being certainly "charged with political significance". This being the case, and despite the fact that numismatists and historians alike have long seen the Tarsiote coinage as probably struck (at least in part) for the payment of such tribute to the Achaemenid king as is attested in several sources (see, for example Strabo XV.3.21), it should nonetheless be viewed primarily as a civic and not military coinage, regardless of what it may eventually have been used to finance.