Browse Items (299 total)

The first Ptolemy, Ptolemy I Soter, was elected satrap of Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE. In 305, he declared himself king of Egypt and started the Ptolemaic dynasty that would rule for almost three-hundred years.

This…

Persis, an area now in southern Iran, was the original home of the Persians. Conquered by Alexander the Great, it was controlled by the Seleucids after his death in 323 BCE. There was a period, however, when Persis was basically independent: after…

Zancle (“sickle”), named for its sickle-shaped harbor, was conquered by Anaxilas, the tyrant of Rhegium, a city on the Italic peninsula just across the strait, in the early fifth century BCE. Anaxilas settled Messenian exiles there and the named was…

This coin is from Sparta’s sole colony, Tarentum. It was one of the richest and, incidentally, one of the safest harbors along the coast. It was famed for its rich textiles and a precious deep red/purple dye, made by gathering the secretions of a sea…

Aegina was the first island in Greece proper to mint coinage, around 580 BCE. The iconic turtle was always part of the design, first a sea turtle and then a land turtle. The sea turtle was likely a reference to their naval fleet which, from the…

The coinage of Alexander the Great has been found all over the ancient world. It is believed to be one of the most widely circulated coinage in all of antiquity. This obverse portrait is one of the most famous images associated with Alexander.

On…

The famous Tarentine horse-riders first appear on coinage around 450 BCE. They could refer to the equestrian games held at Tarentum, or simply to the aristocratic spirit of the nobility of the area. The military poses of some of these riders have…

King Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BCE) was the father of Alexander the Great. He began his relatively short but incredibly successful rule with conquering much of northern Greece followed by Boeotia and Athens in the battle of Chaeroneia (338 BCE)…

Croton was founded as an Achaean colony in 710 BCE. Croton was a very prosperous Greek colony: boasting many Olympic victors, the famous wrestler Milon, the school of Pythagoras (opened in 530 BCE), and, according to Herodotus (3.131), some of the…

This coin was minted during the time of one of the most famous attempts at Persian expansion, around the beginning of the fifth century BCE. The Battle of Marathon, where Darius I attempted to gain control of mainland Greece, is one of the most…