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<p>[QUOTE="Alegandron, post: 2903623, member: 51347"]I was about to pull the trigger on a cool AR animal coin from the Archaic Greek World, when I read the next coin's attribute... OMGosh, I had snare this as it represented a <b><i>Critical Juncture in Human History</i></b>...(yeah, I collect these...)</p><p><br /></p><p>I remember this story so vividly from my University Class on Alexander III the Great of Makedonwn that I attended 40 years ago. <b><i><span style="color: #b30000">One fateful swoop of a sword was so close to changing Western History into EASTERN History! </span></i></b> It was a very impressionable concept for me.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>This is the Seller's write-up</u>:</p><p><i>"A rather seldom seen monetary issue of this <b>Persian satrap</b> of some historical importance; particularly nice here is the well-centered, expressive obverse portrait. <b>Spithridates was one of the tragic heroes</b> of the <b>first of four great battles won by Alexander the Great</b> as he progressed eastward from Western Asia Minor, through the Persian realm, all the way to India. Although the veracity of historical accounts purporting to depict pitched battle minutiae can always be brought into some question, Arrian's chronicle of</i> <b>[the Battle of]<i> Granicus</i></b><i> easily captures the imagination, valiantly thrusting the Macedinonian king into center field at the helm of his troops, cutting down opposing leaders while barely escaping their own mortal blows... </i><b><i>The closest of the latter calls was apparently a deadly swing of Spithridates' scimitar aimed at Alexander, negated in the last moment through a nifty move by Cleitus, son of Dropides... The rest was, as they say - history, </i></b><i>and regardless of whether one believes that </i><b><i>Spithridates was truly within a hair of irrevocably changing it </i>[Western History]<i>,</i></b><i> he did earn his place in it - as should this fine piece in a collection of any historically-minded ancient coin enthusiast." </i>[Brackets and BOLD are my editing for some clarity.]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]699888[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="5"><b>Persian Empire</b></font></p><p><font size="5"><b>Spithridates, Achaemenid satrap of Sparda (Lydia and Ionia)</b></font></p><p><font size="5"><b> ca 334 BC </b></font></p><p><font size="5"><b>AE10, 1.20g</b></font></p><p><b>Obv:</b> Head of satrap r., wearing Persian headdress</p><p><b>Rev:</b> Forepart of galloping horse r., monogram above, Greek <strike>PI below</strike></p><p><b>Ref:</b> VA 1823, Klein 367, Cop 1538</p><p><b>Comment:</b> VF+ / VF , rev. bit o/c, highlighted olive green-brown patina, scarce</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>You can see in this many-years-modern painting from Charles Le Brun, depicting the critical junture in history <b><i>where Cleitus is staving off Spithridates' blow to Alexander...</i></b></p><p><strike>[ATTACH=full]699891[/ATTACH]</strike></p><p><strike>[ATTACH=full]699892[/ATTACH]</strike></p><p><strike><br /></strike></p><p>Here is a nice recap of the Battle of Granicus from Wiki:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Granicus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Granicus" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Granicus</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And a small blurb about Spithradates on Wiki:</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithridates" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithridates" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithridates</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><i><font size="6"><span style="color: #b30000">Please feel free to post any really cool coin that just LEAPT out at you, that you HAD to HAVE!</span></font></i></b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Alegandron, post: 2903623, member: 51347"]I was about to pull the trigger on a cool AR animal coin from the Archaic Greek World, when I read the next coin's attribute... OMGosh, I had snare this as it represented a [B][I]Critical Juncture in Human History[/I][/B]...(yeah, I collect these...) I remember this story so vividly from my University Class on Alexander III the Great of Makedonwn that I attended 40 years ago. [B][I][COLOR=#b30000]One fateful swoop of a sword was so close to changing Western History into EASTERN History! [/COLOR][/I][/B] It was a very impressionable concept for me. [U]This is the Seller's write-up[/U]: [I]"A rather seldom seen monetary issue of this [B]Persian satrap[/B] of some historical importance; particularly nice here is the well-centered, expressive obverse portrait. [B]Spithridates was one of the tragic heroes[/B] of the [B]first of four great battles won by Alexander the Great[/B] as he progressed eastward from Western Asia Minor, through the Persian realm, all the way to India. Although the veracity of historical accounts purporting to depict pitched battle minutiae can always be brought into some question, Arrian's chronicle of[/I] [B][the Battle of][I] Granicus[/I][/B][I] easily captures the imagination, valiantly thrusting the Macedinonian king into center field at the helm of his troops, cutting down opposing leaders while barely escaping their own mortal blows... [/I][B][I]The closest of the latter calls was apparently a deadly swing of Spithridates' scimitar aimed at Alexander, negated in the last moment through a nifty move by Cleitus, son of Dropides... The rest was, as they say - history, [/I][/B][I]and regardless of whether one believes that [/I][B][I]Spithridates was truly within a hair of irrevocably changing it [/I][Western History][I],[/I][/B][I] he did earn his place in it - as should this fine piece in a collection of any historically-minded ancient coin enthusiast." [/I][Brackets and BOLD are my editing for some clarity.] [ATTACH=full]699888[/ATTACH] [SIZE=5][B]Persian Empire[/B] [B]Spithridates, Achaemenid satrap of Sparda (Lydia and Ionia)[/B] [B] ca 334 BC [/B] [B]AE10, 1.20g[/B][/SIZE] [B]Obv:[/B] Head of satrap r., wearing Persian headdress [B]Rev:[/B] Forepart of galloping horse r., monogram above, Greek [S]PI below[/S] [B]Ref:[/B] VA 1823, Klein 367, Cop 1538 [B]Comment:[/B] VF+ / VF , rev. bit o/c, highlighted olive green-brown patina, scarce You can see in this many-years-modern painting from Charles Le Brun, depicting the critical junture in history [B][I]where Cleitus is staving off Spithridates' blow to Alexander...[/I][/B] [S][ATTACH=full]699891[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]699892[/ATTACH] [/S] Here is a nice recap of the Battle of Granicus from Wiki: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Granicus[/url] And a small blurb about Spithradates on Wiki: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spithridates[/url] [B][I][SIZE=6][COLOR=#b30000]Please feel free to post any really cool coin that just LEAPT out at you, that you HAD to HAVE![/COLOR][/SIZE][/I][/B][/QUOTE]
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