Ancient Greek Coin ALEXANDER THE GREAT as Hercules

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Certified Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i7174) Greek - Alexander III the Great - Bronze 11mm Struck under Alexander the Great 336-323 B.C. Reference: Sear 6739 Obverse: Head of Hercules right, wearing the lion-skin headdress. Reverse: Bow and club, Hercules' weapons, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ in between. This coin's Numismatist Suggested Retail Price : $24.99. This will be reflected in the Certificate and makes a great gift! 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. Ancient Greece: The Athenian adventurous spirit, and their loyalty to their Ionian kin led them to come to the aid of the Asia Minor colonies that were feuding with the powerful Persian Empire. To aid the Ionian Revolt, led by Miletus, the Athenians landed a small garrison in Ionia to fight against the Persians and to spread the revolt. The Greek forces burned the capital of Lydia, Sardis in 498 enraging the Persians, before they were finally defeated in 494 BCE. The sacking of Sardis invoked the wrath of Darius who vowed revenge. In 490 BCE, he landed his forces twenty miles north of Athens, at Marathon. While the Spartans were occupied with a religious festival, the outnumbered Athenians under the leadership of Miltiades mounted a surprise attack and routed the dumbfounded Persians at Marathon to preserve Greek independence for the time being. It took ten years, but the Persian king Xerxes, determined to succeed in his second attempt, amassed what Herodotus described as the greatest army ever put together in order to attack Greece again. The Athenians, expecting a full attack from the Persians, under the leadership of Themistokles cashed the silver extracted from the newly dug mines of Lavrion, and built a formidable navy of triremes. Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in 480 BCE with his massive army and began annexing Greece through land and sea. The first line of defense for the Greek alliance of city-states was at the narrow passage of Thermopylae w Leonidas with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians held back the mighty Persian army for three days before they fell to a man through deceit. At the same time the Athenian ships fought the Persian navy to a stalemate at nearby Artemision before it withdrew to the straights of Salamina. The Athenians vacated the entire non-combat population from their city, so when the Persians arrived they met no resistance. They took vengeance on the buildings and temples of Athens by burning them to the ground, and anchored their fleet at Faliron in pursuit of the Greek navy that was sheltered at nearby Salamina Island. While the joint leadership of the Hellenes argued in typical Greek fashion if they... read more

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