nice coin and a worthwhile quest MT...while i'm 'too to for tets', i went/am going down that road meself collecting his and his generals-rulers-afterwards coinage
The successors of Alexander is one of many subsets of my collection. I completed the set some years ago. Monophthalmus is my favorite, but unfortunately he did not issue coins with either his portrait or his name in the legend. :-( BTW: If anyone is interested in reading more about this Monophtalmus and the days of the Diadochi, you may want to consider a book I have on my shelf by Richard A. Billows, titled Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State. https://books.google.com/books/about/Antigonos_the_One_eyed_and_the_Creation.html?id=MPlrRrAGBVwC
This is my absolute favorite part of history, and is the main focus of my collection. Here are some of my recent additions: Antigonos I Monophthalmos (Antigoneia mint!) Antiochos I Soter Antipater Chandragupta Maurya (or at least the rough time he was around) Kassander Perdikkas Ptolemy II Philadelphos Polyperchon Pyrrhos
Tetradrachm of Philip III Arrhidaeus 323/322-320 BC Struck under Perdikkas as Regent. Babylon Obv Head of Herakles with lion skin headdress. Rv Zeus Aetophoros seated left. Price P 205 17.18 grams 26 mm Photo by W. Hansen Perdikkas was given the unenviable position of trying to keep the empire together and almost immediately his authority was challenged. Unable to control the growing divisions with the empire, he died in 320 BC during an attempt to bring Ptolemy Satrap of Egypt to heel. The problem of dating this coin is the result of controversy over date that the title Basileos was conferred on Philip III. Price assumed that the title was conferred automatically in 323 BC. However he assumed that the title was conferred on Alexander III in 325 and placed on the coinage immediately afterwards. This was not the case and the Basileos issues did not start till after after the death of Alexander III in 323 BC. Sources now contend that the title was not conferred on Philip III until 322 BC.
That's a beautiful tet! I love the face of Helios on it, and I would have thought it was a tet from Rhodes until I looked it up. I do wonder what the motive for that mark was. I also struggled with identifying a coin for Perdikkas. Since my main source is Pella, and they didn't show much that identified to his short reign, I zero'd in on Tyre and Sidon since they dated their coins. The one I posted above is from Tyre and dated RY 29 of Azemilkos, or 321/0. The precise date of his death is 321 or 320, so there is the possibility this coin was minted just afterwards, but the odds seem pretty good it's lifetime. I also wanted to make sure it was a region under the control of Perdikkas, so obviously anything from Macedon wouldn't count. Perdikkas' army supposedly marched through the area on the way to Egypt. After his death, Ptolemy moved northward to take the cities, so I presume around the time of this coin Perdikkas had control. One curious detail from your post: it was my understanding that "Basileos" was used on some lifetime Alexander coins. As I read, this was a common title in the East, but was not a Macedonian practice and was not preferred by Alexander - but some cities in the East still used it. Is there new research indicating that all "Basileos Alexandros" coins are posthumous? I'd love to read it.
Tragedies... Alexander IV & Philip III Arrhidaeus (Seller attribution) Makedonon Philip III Arrhedaeus & Alexander IV, 323-317 BCE AR Drachm, 2.595g, maximum diameter 13.0mm,die axis 270o Amphipolis mint Obv: diademed head of of Apollo right Rev: ΦIΛIΠΠOY, naked youth pacing right on horseback, palm frond in right, reins in left, E in wreath below Ref: Le Rider p. 123, pl. 45, 31 - 32; SNG ANS 621, SNG Cop -, SNG Alpha Bank -, Comments: VF, struck with worn dies, porous, bumps and scratches rare Ex: Forum Ancient Coins
And... this guy did it... KASSANDER Makedon AE 20 Kassander 319-297 BC Herakles Horse prancing S 6754 var SNG Cop 1142
Al The first three greats of the Antigonid dynasty: One eye The besieger of cities Gonatas One of one eyes greatest enemies, Lysimachos Ptolemy That d bag K-assander ATG's mentally handicapped big bro and ex King of Macedon, Arrhidaios Al's cousin once removed on his mom's side and Hannibal's second favorite general, Pyrrhus The guy nobody would have bet on coming up big upon the death of Alex, Seleukos
In answer to @kirispupis Probably the best overall discussion on the coinage of Alexander III is this one. One that I have mentioned a number of times This book was written by Georges Le Rider in 2007. This one is the best. In this book he does refer to Hyla Troxell's conclusions from this book. There are other discussions mostly by Lloyd Taylor in the AJN and Koinon There are others but these are the principals. Overall I do agree with the timeline as given by the scholars listed above though in one minor area I still believe Price is more correct. Le Rider postulates that the Alexanders from Arados commence in 332 BC however given the remarkably small issue of this coinage I believe that this coinage probably started in 325 BC along with mints such as Damaskos. Tetradrachm of Arados Minted under the aegis of Laomedon 322-320 BC In the name and types of Alexander the Great Obv Head of Herakles wearing lion skin headdress. Rv Zeus Aetophoros seated left. Price 3332 HGC 910n 17.10 grams 25 mm Photo by W. Hansen Laomedon appears to have been an partisan of Perdikkas and was given Syria to govern. He almost immediately locked horns with Ptolemy. He was caught up in the defeat of Perdikkas at the hands of Ptolemy. His fate is unrecorded. On a personal note; I have always loved how the fur on the headress is trested on this coin.
Thanks Terrence. I think eventually I’ll have to break down and pick up Price and Le Rider, but it’s tough allocating the budget there instead of for the coins. Maybe I’ll see if I can get an interlibrary loan…
Thought I'd add a few more: Alexander III Demetrios Poliorketes Lysimachos And two honorary additions: Philip II Patraos Technically has nothing to do with the Diadochi. Earlier it was believed that this was an image of Ariston, who rode with Alexander III, but this has been mostly disproved, and in fact there's some evidence that the victim is actually Macedonian. IMHO, though, no coin better depicts the atmosphere of the times.
PTOLEMY was the Greatest of the Diadochi! Egypt Ptolemy I Soter Tet Delta bankers marks CELATOR DELTA called out Seleukid Seleukos I 312-280 BCE AR Tet 14.46g Seleucia on Tigris. Zeus - Athena driving a quadriga of 4 horned elephants SC 130 Thrace -Lysimachos AR drachm 305-281 BCE R Alexander head-Ammon horns - rev Lysimachos Athena
