Aspendus is located in the area of ancient Pamphylia in the southern quadrant of modern day Turkey and bordered ancient Lydia to the west, Cilicia to the east and Pisidia to the north. Coinage was prevalent in the area starting in the fifth century, reflecting the wealth of the region. Pamphylia was part of the Delian league, a group of Greek city states aligned with Athens during the Greco-Persian Wars. Just some 45 years earlier the Battle of Eurymedon, in the vicinity of Aspendus, took place between the Greeks and the Persians. According to the historian Diodorus, This battle proved successful for the Greek general Cimon, who successfully fought a naval battle by day and in the evening won another battle at the Persian campsite on land. The event is memorialized in a somewhat crass way on a piece of pottery now in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg (Germany). This vase shows a Greek soldier in a nude heroic pose with a Persian bent over in front of him waiting to be penetrated. On the vase is written: "My name is Eurymedon. I am getting screwed." The ancients obviously had quite a sense of humor!