009b MACEDON ROMAN PROTECTORATE, Questor Aesillas

MACEDON (ROMAN PROVINCE).

Ruler / mint authority: Aesillas, quaestor, circa 95-70 BC. 

Obverse: MAKEΔONΩN (‚of’ the Macedonians) Head of Alexander the Great to right, with horn of Ammon over his ear; in field to left, Θ.

Reverse: AESILLAS / Q Money chest (cista), club, and curule chair (sella); all within laurel wreath.

Denomination: Tetradrachm

Mint: uncertain mint in Macedon.

Reference: HGC 3.1, 1110. 

Weight: 16,66 g

Diameter: 30 mm 

Note: The tetradrachms struck bearing the name of the quaestor Aesillas are suggested to have been issued as a monetary bribe paid to the Thracian tribes to buy their neutrality in the First Mithradatic War, thus securing by some measure the Roman supply line along the Via Egnatia (see Ursula Kampmann, Money Museum Zurich, "Becoming Masters of Asia Minor: When the Roman Quaestor Aesillas minted un-Roman Tetradrachms to buy Thracian Loyalty").  

The questor Aesillas was the first Roman provincial officer to put his name on a Greek coin-type, he is not known from any other sources.  

Collezione : 17 Greek Tetradrachms and staters