talents had been during his reported residence at Thebes,. under the protection of the celebrated Epaminondas.

To follow Alexander in his successive subjection of Egypt and the vast countries of Asia, even beyond the frontier of India, would be superfluous in this place: most of the details of that vast career of conquests being known to every schoolboy. The great story of the conquests of the Macedonian hero, not only formed the delight of the after ages of Greece, and then of Rome, but passed into the middle ages as the subject of one of the most popular romances of that period; the story of the siege of Troy, and that of the conquests of Alexander, being among the most attractive of those tales of chivalry which formed the light reading of the age of the crusades. The "Romance of Alexander," as it is called, of course became, in the middle ages, an incongruous jumble of miracles, and magicians, and errant knights, and enchanted castles-yet all founded, with more or less accuracy, on the great Macedonian conquests.

Vast numbers of coins were issued by Alexander both in Europe and Asia; and, in fact, their numbers were such that they are still abundant, and a few shillings will purchase a genuine coin of Alexander the Great. A great quantity of the existing coins of the whole of civilised Asia, were then, no doubt, recoined, with the types of the Grecian conqueror, and the Persian darics were, probably, converted by thousands into the staters of Alexander. This transformation, no doubt, accounts for the extreme rarity of gold darics, notwithstanding the evidence that they were once so plentiful. The coins of Alexander, struck in different places, generally bear some minor mark or type, by which the place of their mintage may be ascertained, as a small bee, at the side of the principal type, on those struck at Ephesus, &c. Those executed in Europe may generally be distinguished from the Asiatic coins, by a more high and bold relief, similar to that exhibited on the money of his father, Philip—while those of Asia are generally more elaborately and highly finished, but the relief less strong.

The gold staters of Alexander the Great; have types entirely different to those of the celebrated staters of his father; the obverse bearing a head of Minerva, and the reverse a Victory holding a laurel wreath, and the inscription

ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ (ALEXANDROU), "of Alexander." Sometimes the Victory of the reverse is accompanied by smaller types (in the field *) indicating the place of mintage.

No. 1, Plate VI., is a tetradrachm or four-drachm piece of Alexander, of Asiatic coinage; the production, no doubt, of some of those Greek cities of Asia Minor, which, though long under the barbaric yoke of Persia, had lost none of their love of the fine arts, which they still practised with eminent success. The head on the obverse has been the subject of much dispute, as to whether it should be considered a head of Hercules, with the lion-skin head-dress, -or, whether it is not rather a portrait of Alexander, in the character of Hercules; the latter being the opinion of the celebrated Visconti, and the former, that of most English numismatists. However that may be, the head in some of the finest coins is one of the most magnificent productions of Grecian engraving, as may be seen by our copy, though modern art can never perfectly realise the antique sublimity of the finest Grecian works. The reverse of this coin is a sitting figure of the eagle-bearing Jupiter, with the inscription AAEZANAPOT (ALEXANDROU), and two monograms that have not been deciphered. There are many varieties of these silver tetradrachms, and of other silver coins of Alexander, bearing the mint marks of several places, such as a lion and star for Miletus in Ionia, the letters кOAO for the city of Colophon, and MTPT for Myryna, &c. Some of his coins have the head covered with the fore portion of the skin of an elephant showing the tusks, instead of the lion skin, adopted, as some suppose, after the victories in India. The death of Alexander occurred at Babylon from a fever brought on by excesses of every description, in the year 323 B.C.

Philip III., Arrhidæus, half-brother of Alexander, was appointed regent of the vast empire, the son of Alexander, by the celebrated Roxana, being still an infant;-but, as is well known, the great captains who had aided in the conquests parcelled out the empire into independent kingdoms for themselves, which I shall have occasion to notice in speaking

The field, in numismatic phrase, is the plain part of the coin not occupied by the principal figure or type.

of the coinages of the dynasties that thus arose. Though the power of Philip Arrhidaus was a mere shadow, yet it appears that he issued coins, with the same types as the coinage of Alexander; those having the Hercules head with the lion-skin, and the Jupiter reverse, but with the inscription Aпo (PHILIPPOU), are attributed to him, though they were formerly assigned to Philip II.

Cassander (315 to 296 B.c.), a son of Antipater, who was left governor of Macedonia on the departure of Alexander on his Asiatic expedition, succeeded, after an interval of anarchy, in taking possession of the throne of Macedonia; while Seleucus eventually obtained greater part of Asia; Ptolemy, the states of Egypt; and Lysymachus, Thrace, &c. Cassander cleared his way to the Macedonian throne, first by the murder of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and afterwards, of Roxana, and her infant son.

No coins of this unscrupulous usurper are known except a few coarse ones of copper, which have the head of Hercules, like the coins of Alexander, on the obverse, and the old type of the Macedonian horseman on the reverse, with the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΚΑΣΣΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS CASSANDROU) “of the King Cassander." Haym, in his "Tessoro Britannico," figures one with the same inscription, but which bears on the obverse a helmet of singular form, and on the reverse the head of a lance.

Philip IV. (from 29€ to 295 B.C.), the son of Cassander, succeeded his father; but his short reign is barren in a numismatic point of view. Alexander IV., sometimes called the Fifth, in consequence of the infant son of Roxana being called Alexander IV., was a son of Philip IV., and exercised ephemeral authority; but no coins of his are well authenticated.

Demetrius Polyorcetes, "the city-taker," (294 to 287 B.C.), was a son of Antigonus, who, soon after the death of Alexander, eonquered his rival, Eumenes, and assumed the title of King of Asia. After many adventures, Demetrius, by the assassination of Alexander, a son of Cassander, obtained possession of the Macedonian throne, from which he was eventually driven by Lysimachus. Coins, however, exist of his issue, though his reign was short; and the regal portrait, now for the first time openly placed on the Mace

Jonian coinage, substantiates the contemporary accounts of the personal beauty and agreeable countenance of Demetrius. The obverse has a fine figure of Neptune, in allusion to his numerous naval victories, and the inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ (BASILEOS DEMETRIOU) “ of the King Demetrius.” *

There is a fine coin struck by his father, Antigonus, on 'he occasion of the great naval victory obtained by Demetrius ver Ptolemy, who had become king of Egypt. This beautiful coin is a tetradrachm, and has on the obverse a noble head of Jupiter; the custom of placing the head of the sovereign on the coinage not having become customary during the ascendancy of Antigonus. The reverse has a most beautifully executed figure of Apollo sitting on the prow of a vessel, with the inscription ΒΑΣΙΔΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΟΥ (BASILEOS ANTIGONOU), " of the King Antigonus."

Lysimachus (287 to 281 B.C.)-Lysimachus, aided by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, drove Demetrius out of Macedonia in the year 287 B.C. Soon afterwards, Lysimachus succeeded in driving out his ally, Pyrrhus, and thus obtained sole possession of Macedonia, in addition to which, he held all the other European territories of the Macedonian empire. Having possession of the rich gold and silver mines of Thrace, he issued a most abundant coinage in those metals, of beautiful execution. The types on nearly all the coinage of Lysimachus are, on the obverse, a head with a regal fillet and the horns of the Ammonian Jupiter. This head is stated by some to be the portrait of Alexander as the son of Ammon, a title which he had assumed. By others it is considered that the horns allude to the descent which Lysimachus himself claimed from the horned Bacchus, and that the head is a portrait of Lysimachus, notwithstanding its resemblance to the head on the coins of Alexander. This theory is supported by the existence of coins struck at Lysimachia, a city which he founded, and which bear a head with a royal fillet, but without the horns-which appears much like a simple portrait, and yet resembles the heads on the coins above described. The reverses of the coinage of Lysimachus

*Some assign the coins of this type to another Demetrius, one of the 'eucidan kings of Syria.

have generally a sitting figure of Minerva, supporting a small figure of Victory in her right hand, with a star above; and the inscription is ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ (BASILEOS LYSIMAKOU), "of the King Lysimachus."

In consequence of the murder of Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, a war broke out between that monarch and Seleucus, king of Syria and great part of Asia. These two veterans were the last survivors of the great generals of Alexander; and when they met on the battle-field of Corus, in Phrygia, where Lysimachus lost his life, both were near eighty years of age, but had yet lost little of the ardour which had been so instrumental in effecting the conquests of Alexander. Seleucus, after the death of his rival, dreamed of adding the European dominions of Alexander to those of Asia, which he already possessed, and so uniting again under one head the great Macedonian empire: with, however, the exception of Egypt, securely held by the Ptolemies, and the extreme eastern possessions, which had been abandoned; but on his way to Macedonia he was assassinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus. So perished the last of the great captains of Alexander,men described by Trogus Pompeius as, not only forming the élite of Greece and Macedonia, but of the whole human race.

Ceraunus, brother of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt; Antipater, a son of Cassander; and Sosthenes, elected by the Macedonians, held the supreme power in Macedon successively from 281 to 278 B.C. Ceraunus was early slain in repelling an invasion of the Gauls under Belgius, and Sosthenes fell in an engagement with the Gaulish invaders under Brennus. There are no coins of any of these princes.

Antigonus Gonatus the son of Demetrius Polyorcetes, then succeeded to the throne of Macedonia, and reigned from 278 to 242 B. C., or, as some state, 239. He was driven from the throne, soon after his accession, by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, whc, on thus obtaining possession of Macedonia for the second time, committed frightful ravages and even violated the ancient tombs of the kings at Aegae. By the death of Pyrrhus in the following year, Antigonus regained possession of the throne, to be again driven from it by Alexander, the son of Pyrrhus, but only for a short time, fo: he at last obtained firm possession of the country, and