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 $25
The obverse depicting Hercules
is remarkably striking to the the portrait of Alexander. Alexander considered
himself akin to Hercules and son of Zeus. You are bidding on authentic ancient
Greek coin from 336-323 B.C. Certificate of Authenticity guarantees this item
authentic for a LIFETIME. Bid today and own a piece of history.
The immense issues of coinage made in the name of
Alexander the Great for a topic which could occupy the pages of a large volume.
Obviously it is not possible, in a work of this scope, to do justice to such a
subject. As in the case of Philip II, coinage in the name of Alexander continued
long after the king's death. No doubt this was largely due to the lack of an
effective successor to the imperial throne. Almost two decades were to elapse
before Alexander's generals, his true successors, felt sufficiently secure to
take the title of 'king' and to issue coinage in their own names. Although he
began his career as King of Macedon, Alexander spent only the first two years of
his reign in his native kingdom, and by the time of his death, at the age of
thirty three, he ruled a vast empire stretching from Greece to India.
Consequently, his coinage was on an imperial scale, unlike those of his
predecessors, and was struck at a multitude of mints in many lands, often
replacing an existing autonomous series. nevertheless, the macedonian mint of
Amphipolis remained one of the principal sources of currency. In later ages
(3rd-2nd century B.C.) the types of Alexander's silver coinage were revived by
various cities as they regained a measure of autonomy from the declining
Hellenistic Monarchies.
 Alexander
the Great (Greek: Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also
known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most
successful military commanders in history, if not the most successful. Before
his death, he conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks; he is
regarded as one of the greatest military strategists and tacticians who ever
lived. Alexander is also known in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz
Nāmag as "the accursed Alexander" due to his conquest of the Persian Empire and
the destruction of its capital Persepolis. He is known as Eskandar in Persian,
Dhul-Qarnayn (The two-horned one) in Middle Eastern traditions, al-Iskandar al-Kabeer
in Arabic, Sikandar-e-azam in Urdu, Skandar in Pashto, Alexander Mokdon in
Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in Aramaic (the two-horned one), apparently due to an
image on coins minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two
ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon. He is known as Sikandar in Urdu and
Hindi, a term also used as a synonym for "expert" or "extremely skilled".
Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under
the rule of his father, Philip II of
Macedon, (a labour Alexander had to repeat twice because the southern Greeks
rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander would conquer the Persian Empire,
including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and
Mesopotamia and extend the boundaries of his
own empire as far as the Punjab. Before his death, Alexander had already made
plans to also turn west and conquer
Europe. Also he wanted to continue his march eastwards, in order to find the end
of the world. Alexander integrated foreigners (non-Macedonians, non-Greeks known
as the Successors[2]) into his army and administration, leading some scholars to
credit him with a "policy of fusion." He encouraged marriage between
his army and foreigners, and practised it
himself. After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died,
possibly of malaria, typhoid, or viral encephalitis.
His conquests ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and rule over distant
areas, a period known as the Hellenistic Age. Alexander himself lived on in the
history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. After his death (and even
during his life) his exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appears
as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles. |
