Arados (Phoenicia) AR Stater, 400-350 BC, Bearded God; War Galley

Arados, Phoenicia, Silver Stater, silver, 400–350 BC, 10.55 g, 22 mm.

Anepigraphic obverse with laureate head of a bearded deity right. Anepigraphic reverse with war galley sailing right on three lines of waves. Struck at the island mint of Arados on the Phoenician standard; civic issue with anepigraphic dies. References: S.5971; BMC Phoenicia 18–26; Betylon 10. Arados (Arwad) was a major Phoenician island city controlling maritime routes along the Syrian coast under Achaemenid hegemony in the 5th–4th centuries BC. Its early staters are anonymous and emphasize two core civic identities: the local god—often identified by scholars as Baal of Arwad/Melqart—and the seafaring power of the polis, represented by the war galley. These coins circulated widely in Levantine and Cypriot trade, reflecting Arados’s role as a naval contributor to Persian campaigns and as an intermediary in regional commerce.