Today's coin of interest was minted by Mazzaeus who served as Satrap of Cilicia for Darius III of Persia and for Alexander III who rewarded him for recognizing Alexander as the rightful successor to Darius III. The Battle of Gaugamela is a military engagement that shifts history. It leads to the collapse of the Persian Empire. The victory opens the path for Alexander III "The Great" to rule over much of the ancient world.
The Battle of Arbela, Atlas of Ancient & Classical Geography. London and Toronto, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton & Co, 1925.
The battle is also referred to as the Battle of Arbela, named for a nearby city (Arbela, modern-day Erbil in Iraq), however the actual battlefield was closer to the village of Gaugamela.
Bataille d'Arbelles, 331 avant J.C., oil on canvas by Guillaume Courtois, Jacques Courtois ("Le Bourguignon"), and Pietro Berrettini Da Cortona, created between 1662–1664, depicting Alexander the Great and Darius III, located in the King's Apartment (Grand Couvert) at Versailles. Image Public Domain as a work of art before 1929.
Cilicia, Tarsus, Mazaeus, as Satrap (ca. 361-328 BC), AR stater (26mm, 10.66 gm, 5h)
Obv: B'LTRZ (𐡁𐡋𐡕𐡓𐡆 Aramaic), Ba'altars seated left, head facing, eagle, grain ear and grapes in right hand, scepter in left; MR (𐡌𐡓 Aramaic) to lower left
Rev: MZDY (𐡌𐡆𐡃𐡉 Aramaic, Mazaeus), lion attacking bull left; SM (𐡎𐡌 Aramaic) below.
Ref: SNG France 2, 343-345.
This coin was issued before the Battle of Gaugamela. Mazaeus was a key leader in the battles against Alexander, but peacefully surrendered Babylon after the defeat and Death of Darius III at Gaugamela (331 BCE).
Alexander appointed him as satrap of Babylon, which is illustrates Alexander’s policy of integrating Persian officials into his administration.
Baal of Tarsos
Ba'altars was the deity of the city of Tarsos. Anyone familiar with the drachms and tetradrachms of Alexander the Great cannot help but see the link with the reverse of this coin (A Tetradrachm of Salexander from Susa) with Zeus in the place of Ba'altars.
for more on this visual link there is a nice article from The Artemis Collection that goes into more detail on the origins of this image.
Lion vs. Bull
The lion attacking the bull is seen as a representation of cosmic dualism, with the lion symbolizing the force of the king or the gods imposing order on the chaotic forces of nature (the bull). There could also be a link to the zodiac signs of the Leo and Taurus and their relative positions at the vernal equinox when Leo would appear above Taurus at the time of the Persian New Year.
Specifically in the context of Mazaeus’s coins, this motif likely reflects the Persian royal ideology, where the king (symbolized by the lion) has the divine mandate to bring order to the world, subduing opposing forces and ensuring prosperity.
The Alexander Sarcophagus
Waldemar Heckel, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Calgary, argues persuasively in 2006 that the Alexander Sarcophagus could represent the Battle at Gaugamela and could have been made for Masaeus (rather than for Abdalonymus a humble gardener of distant royal descent who became King of Sidon with tahnks to Alexander the Great). Heckel argues that "the (apparently) historical scenes on the sarcophagus have no bearing on the life of Abdalonymus".
He connects the images on the sarcophagus to descriptions by Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st Century AD) 4.16.1-7, and Diodorus Siculus (1st Century BC):
"At this time Mazaeus, the commander of the Persian right wing, with the most and the best of the cavalry, was pressing hard on those opposing him, but Parmenion with the Thessalian cavalry and the rest of his forces put up a stout resistance. For a time, fighting brilliantly, he even seemed to have the upper hand thanks to the fighting qualities of the Thessalians, but the weight and numbers of Mazaeus's command brought the Macedonian cavalry into difficulties. A great slaughter took place, and despairing of withstanding the Persian power, Parmenion sent off some of his horsemen to Alexander, begging him to come to their support quickly. They carried out their orders with dispatch, but finding that Alexander was already in full pursuit at a great distance from the battlefield they returned without accomplishing their mission. Nevertheless Parmenion handled the Thessalian squadrons with the utmost skill and finally, killing many of the enemy, routed the Persians who were by now much disheartened by the withdrawal of Dareius."
-Diodorus Siculus,The Library of History, 60.4.5-8References
Heckel, Waldemar. “Mazaeus, Callisthenes and the Alexander Sarcophagus.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 55, no. 4, 2006, pp. 385–96.
Six, J. P. “LE SATRAPE MAZAÏOS.” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society, vol. 4, 1884, pp. 97–159.
Almagor, Eran. (2021). The Horse and the Lion in Achaemenid Persia: Representations of a Duality. Arts.
University of Chicago, Perseopolis Lion and Bull, https://youtu.be/R4B8ZBi-_JM?si=eVhGdRlM8RJ_NeQg
Willy Hartner, and Richard Ettinghausen. “The Conquering Lion, the Life Cycle of a Symbol.” Oriens, vol. 17, 1964, pp. 161–71. Also available at: "https://www.scribd.com/document/361043483/The-Conquering-Lion-The-Life-Cycle-of-a-Symbol
Other resources on Cilician coins can be found here (Forum Ancient Coins): https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=cilicia
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