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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.0746)
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