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Obverse: Alexander in the Guise of
Hercules
Reverse: Zeus Seated Holding an Eagles
and
Scepter
Alexander the Great, son of Philip II of
Macedon,
is arguably the most important
historical figure
in the ancient world. Born on July 20th,
356 BC,
he was an astute, if somewhat headstrong
student, and was schooled by various
famous
teachers, notably Aristotle. By the time
of his
death at the age of 32, he had
personally
supervised one of the largest land-based
military expeditions of all time, and
had
conquered the whole of the then known
world
from Asia Minor across the whole of
Persia,
Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza,
Egypt,
Mesopotamia, Bactria, parts of India,
Afghanistan
and Pakistan. A legend in his own
lifetime, he
became known as much for his excesses
and
cruelty as his extraordinary military
prowess but
was nonetheless a comparatively fair and
temperate man. Perhaps due to his
supposed
descent from Achilles and Herakles, he
essentially became deified during the
Hellenistic
period. The Greeks celebrated Alexander
in art
and song, and his legend continued under
the
Romans, who had a fascination with
military
campaigns and tactics.
How many hands have touched a coin in
your
pocket or your purse? What eras and
lands have
the coin traversed on its journey into
our
possession? As we reach into our pockets
to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to
think of
who touched the coin before us, or where
the
coin will venture to after us. More than
money,
coins are a symbol of the state that
struck them,
of a specific time and place, whether
currency in
the age we live or an artifact of a long
forgotten
empire. Worth a week's pay, a silver
coin like this
would have rewarded the bravery and
fortitude of
the officers serving under one of
history’s most
celebrated generals, Alexander the
Great. While
his vast kingdom dissolved after his
death, the
carefully cultivated legend of Alexander
will
continue to live on not only in our
history books
and museums, but also in artifacts like
this coin:
concrete remnants of ancient empires
passed
from the hands of civilization to
civilization, from
generation to generation.
- (C.3070)
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