Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes in the Troad

This article presents a small hoard group from the Troad which appeared on the London market in February 2016. The hoard group can be dated to the mid-350s when Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes were ruling the Troad on behalf of the Persian authorities. It therefore provides a much-needed fixed point in the chronology of Troad coinages which allows us to re-date a number of other 4th century silver coinages from the Troad to the 350s/340s, thus producing a new picture of the region's minting activity in this period. The hoard group contains one example of a rare anepigraphic series depicting an archaic cult statue of Athena Ilias on the reverse. This and other numismatic depictions of this cult statue can now be placed in the context of Memnon and Mentor's rule of the Troad and provide an important precedent for the Hellenistic and Imperial-era koinon of Athena Ilias as an expression of regional identity.