AEOLIS, Temnos
AR Tetradrachm. 16.15g, 34.4mm
MINTED: AEOLIS, Temnos, circa 188-170 BC. Civic issue in the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon
REF: Price 1676; Müller 956
OBVERSE: Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress.
REVERSE: Zeus Aëtophoros seated left, holding sceptre; AΛEΞAN∆POY to right, two monograms above oinochoe within vine tendril to left.
 
Notes:
Lightly toned. Struck on a broad, impressive 34mm flan. 
The iconic tetradrachms of Alexander III of Macedonia were minted at over two dozen cities spread throughout his vast empire during his lifetime. They served primarily to pay soldiers in his armies, and they uniformly featured the head a youthful Herakles wearing a lion-skin headdress on the obverse and Zeus Aëtophoros enthroned on the reverse. So powerful was Alexander's legacy that for more than two hundred years after his death, these tetradrachms bearing his name continued to be struck and used in numerous kingdoms and cities, even when they ceased to be part of the Macedonian Empire. 
 
Historical Notes:
The town of Temnos was built on an elevated hillside site near the river Hermos, where it looked out over the neighbouring towns of Kyme and Smyrna.  It was heavily damaged by an earthquake during the reign of Tiberius (AD 14-37), and some decades later, Pliny the Elder wrote that it had been completely abandoned.  The town seems to have been later rebuilt and resettled, as attested to by its coinage, issued during the 3rd century AD.