Page images
PDF
EPUB

Macedonian hat, for principal type, and on the reverse a lion treading on a broken spear, with the letters AMYNT (AMYNT.)

These coins are finely designed and executed, and have much of the simple grandeur and energy of the Phidian school of art. Other coins of this prince have the Herculeslike head, wearing the lion's skin-which seems to have been a sort of family type. On the reverse of these coins is an eagle killing a serpent,* probably in allusion to the expulsion of Pausanias, and the restoration of the direct line of Caranus.

Alexander II. (from 369 to 367 B.C.).—It is uncertain whether we possess coins of this prince; but a coin, with the Hercules head, and having for reverse a horseman, has been assigned to him with some show of probability—as also,

[blocks in formation]

though on slighter grounds, some rude coins—which are more probably of an earlier period.

Perdiccas III. (from 364 to 359 B.C.)—A coin has been assigned to this prince, which has for obverse the family type of the head of Hercules; and for reverse, a horse, beneath which is a club, and the name, as Perdicca― ПEPAIKKA). The total absence of the punch-mark proves that it could not belong to the period of Perdiccas II. He fell in battle against the Illyrians.

Philip II. succeeded his father Perdiccas III. in the year 359 B.C., and his accession marks a new era in the Macedonian monarchy, not only in its political influence, but also in that which more immediately concerns the present volume, the Macedonian coinage. Soon after the year 356 B. C. he attacked and took a settlement of the Thracians, called Crenides, from the springs (pva) with which it abounded. Introducing new colonists, he named it Philippi, after himself, conferring this especial honour on the place as having put

*These are copper coins.

him in possession of the gold mines of the district, the working of which he so improved, that, according to Diodorus, he derived from them a revenue of 1000 talents, or 243,1307, a sum which most likely falls far short of their actual yield, judging from the vast quantity of gold coin struck from the metal which they furnished. Philip, after bringing nearly the whole of the Grecian states within the vortex of his policy, backed by his gold, was assassinated while walking in a procession at Aegae, the Macedonian capital, on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter with Alexander of Epirus. He had ordered his guards to keep at a distance, stating that the good-will of all Grecians was a sufficient protection. But, as the procession moved forward, a youth, named Pausanias, darted from the crowd, and plunged a Celtic sword, with fatal aim, into his body, in revenge, it is said, for an insult he had received from one of the officers of Philip, for which that monarch had refused redress. This event occurred in the forty-seventh year of his age and the twenty-fourth of his reign. Philip, though ruling over a nation deemed barbarous by the Greeks, contrived, by a series of victories and negociations, to assume the high position, in relation to Grecian affairs, which had been the aim of his whole career. He was appointed to the place of the subdued Phocians in the Amphictyonic council, and, conjointly with the Thebans and Thessalians, received the presidency of the Pythian Games. Such recognitions of his Hellenic character were of the highest importance to him in his great project for the invasion of Persia, as the head of a confederacy of the whole of the Grecian states, the means for which were in preparation at the time of his death. The carrying of the vast project into execution was reserved for still abler hands— those of his celebrated son Alexander the Great.

The profuse gold coinage issued by Philip consisted of staters and half-staters, which soon became known as "Philips," and long passed current in Greece, and in the East, under that name, and have been occasionally found in circulation in remoter provinces, even in modern times. No. 1, Plate VI., is the gold stater of Philip II. It nas a laureated head of Apollo on the obverse, and a biga or two-horse chariot, and the inscription IAIППOT "of Philip," on the reverse; a device which Alexander ridiculed

his father for having adopted, to celebrate his victories at the Olympic Games.

These staters were copied in Sicily with no other variation than that of the inscription on the reverse, which became ZYPAKOZION (of the Syracusans), and sometimes the addition of the Sicilian triquetra. His silver coins, generally didrachms, are not so finely executed as the gold, but are yet bold and striking in general character. The obverse is

[graphic][subsumed]

generally a well-executed head of Jupiter, and the reverse a horseman, wearing the Macedonian hat, and the inscription ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ (PHILIPPOU). The horse is generally stepping; but there are many variations, and several other types are found on the coinage of this reign.

Alexander III. (the Great), who began to reign in the year 336 B.C., found the Macedonian monarchy in a highly flourishing state. A great army existed, organised more perfectly than at any previous period, while an aristocracy had been formed by his father, Philip, which became a natural support of the throne as being educated at the court, under the immediate auspices of the monarch. It was among this chosen band, selected by Philip from the leading families of Macedonia, that Alexander chose the great men who became the mighty captains in his Asiatic campaigns, and who, after his death, founded vast kingdoms from the huge fragments of his empire. His father Philip was as remarkable for his protection of the fine arts and literature, as for his success in intrigue and war; and his admiration of Plato, and the appointment of Aristotle as the tutor of his son, bear sufficient testimony to the fact. The advantages derived by the future conqueror of Asia from such a preceptor cannot be over-estimated; and his capacity for holding the reins of an empire, as yet unparalleled in extent, was thus perfected for the cabinet, as completely as his warlike

[merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][graphic][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »