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The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins

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The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins THE LEGEND OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON GREEK AND ROMAN COINS Karsten Dahmen collects, presents and examines, for the first time in one volume, the portraits and representations of Alexander the Great on ancient coins of the Greek and Roman periods (c. 320 bc to ad 400). Dahmen offers a firsthand insight into the posthumous appreciation of Alexander’s legend by Hellenistic kings, Greek cities, and Roman emperors combining an introduc- tion to the historical background and basic information on the coins with a comprehensive study of Alexander’s numismatic iconography. Dahmen also discusses in detail examples of coins with Alexander’s portrait, which are part of a selective presentation of representative coin-types. An image and discussion is combined with a characteristic quotation of a source from ancient historiography and a short bibliographical reference. The numismatic material presented, although being a representative selection, will exceed any previously published work on the subject. The Legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman Coins will be useful for everyone in the Classics community including students and academics. It will also be accessible for general readers with an interest in ancient history, numismatics, or collecting. Karsten Dahmen is a Classical Archaeologist and Numismatist of the Berlin Coin Cabinet. http://avaxho.me/blogs/ChrisRedfield THE LEGEND OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT ON GREEK AND ROMAN COINS Karsten Dahmen First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2007 Karsten Dahmen All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dahmen, Karsten. The legend of Alexander the Great on Greek and Roman coins / Karsten Dahmen.—1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Coins, Greek. 2. Coins, Roman. 3. Coins, Ancient. 4. Alexander, the Great, 356–323 B.C.—Portraits. 5. Numismatics, Greek. 6. Numismatics, Roman. 7. Greece—Antiquities. 8. Rome—Antiquities. I. Title. CJ385.D34 2007 737.4932—dc22 2006034904 ISBN 0-203-96799-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–39451–1 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–39452–X (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–96799–2 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–95451–2 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–39452–9 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–96799–7 (ebk) FOR ANNIKA What should one say about those people, who use magic charms and amulets, and carry bronze coins of Alexander the Makedonian around their necks and on their feet? John Chrysostom, Ad illuminandos catechesis 2.5 (Patrologia Graeca 49, p. 240). CONTENTS Foreword xi Maps xiii Introduction 1 1 Images of Alexander: A survey of Alexander’s image on ancient coins 6 2 Man, king, hero and god: Alexander’s changing portraits 39 3 Making good use of a legend 48 4 Excursus: Alexander in disguise 56 Conclusion: perspectives and limitations 58 Notes 65 Plate section (text and images) 108 Description of coins illustrated 156 Selected bibliography 170 Index 177 ix FOREWORD The study of Alexander’s numismatic portrait goes back to my research project ‘Sehnsucht nach Alexander/Longing for Alexander’ which was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Bonn. I am very grateful for additional support through participation in the foundation’s follow-up pro- gramme. I would also like to express my gratitude to my academic host R.R.R. Smith of the Cast Gallery, Ashmolean Museum, and to J. Kelly of St John’s College Oxford for his and the College’s kind hospitality. I am also grateful to a number of colleagues and friends for allowing me to study their institutions’ collections, for support, discussions and criticism while preparing this study: V. Heuchert, C.J. Howgego, H. Kim, Sh. Bhandare and Alessia Bolis, Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum; C.V. Crowther, Centre for the Studies of Ancient Documents Oxford; A. Kropp, University of Nottingham; Chr. Fricker and R. Smith, St John’s College; S. Stevens, Exeter College; Louise Davies, Hillingdon; A. Meadows and J. Cribb, Department of Coins & Medals, The British Museum; A. Popescu, Department of Coins & Medals, The Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; W. Stancomb, Market Lavington; D. Gerin and M. Amandry, Cabinet des Médailles Paris; F. de Callataÿ, Cabinet des Médailles/ Penningkabinet Brussels; M. Castro Hipólito, Museu Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Lisbon; F. Lopez Sanchez, Oxford/Zaragoza; S. Kremydi- Sicilianou, Athens; C. Arnold-Biucchi, Harvard University Art Museums; L.M. Yarrow, City University of New York; S. Hurter, Zürich; G. Dembski, Münzkabinett Wien; Chr. Boehringer, Göttingen; D. Salzmann, A. Lichten- berger and K. Martin, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster; B. Weisser, Münzkabinett Berlin; W. Hollstein, Münzkabinett Dresden. All opinions expressed below are those of the author and remain his responsibility, as do any errors. xi Map 1: Alexander’s campaigns 334–323 bc Source: From Stoneman 2004: Map 2, reproduced with permission. Map 2: The Hellenistic World of c. 200 bc Map 3: Greek cities minting coins with images of Alexander in the Roman period INTRODUCTION There are many ways of experiencing Alexander1 III of Makedonia (356–323 bc). Historians and archaeologists have studied his personality, his legacy and the impact of his reign from various perspectives. Material culture and ancient literary sources provide the basis for our modern image of Alexander the Great. This study allows an understanding of the socio-cultural processes which cul- minated in the rise of Makedonia to be the leading power in Greece, the conquest of the Persian empire and, after Alexander’s death, the fragmentation of his realm. Much of Alexander’s importance lies in his posthumous fame. In antiquity and the medieval and early modern periods, the king and conqueror became a shining vessel of contemporary fascination as well as imagination. Thus we learn not only about Alexander but about the cultural preoccupa- tions of Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and later societies, including our own. This book focuses on the numismatic representations of Alexander the Great in Antiquity. From shortly after his death to the final days of the Roman empire in the West some 750 years later Alexander’s portrait appears on coins. We are confronted with many images of the king, presenting him in a variety of roles. In this way, the contemporary authorities that were responsible for their production – Greek kings and rulers, Greek and Roman citizens and even Roman emperors – gave visual representation to, and immortalised, their very own view of Alexander. Surprisingly enough, this rich corpus of numismatic evidence has not previously been unearthed nor made accessible to both the scholarly community and the public.2 This book tries to read a cultural legend that endures from the creation of Alexander’s myth during his own lifetime to the fifth century ad in the city of Rome. This legend materialises on coins from Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleukid Mesopotamia, Hellenistic Sicily, Greece, Asia Minor and Baktria as well as from the cities of Roman Makedonia, Asia Minor, Kilikia and Arabia, to close with a final appearance of Alexander and his infamous mother on coin-like bronzes from the city of Rome itself. In each and every case their iconography, and often their inscriptions, too, relate to Alexander and thus enable us to trace not only a specific representation of the king but a contemporary society’s motivation for using and distributing it. 1 INTRODUCTION Imagining Alexander There is no doubt about the large number of representations of Alexander that existed in antiquity. They included statues in stone and bronze, portrait heads and busts, relief in sculpture, statuettes, gems, cameos, appliqués and finger-rings; and also paintings, mosaics and textiles. But when archaeologists try to establish an iconography for Alexander and focus on his portrait, they find a peculiar absence of secure evidence. Apart from the well-known Alexander mosaic in Pompeii only one piece of sculpture – the famous ‘Azara herm’ – offers a positive identification of an Alexander portrait by giving his name (‘Alexander, son of Philip, the Makedonian’) in a badly faded inscription on its shaft.3 Of a more generalised appearance are two repre- sentations of Alexander on the Alexander-sarcophagus from Sidon.4 Another portrait-type also surviving in a small number of ancient copies has been labelled ‘Athens-Erbach’ after its most prominent specimens. It has been gen- erally accepted as a representation of the prince Alexander, but lacks a secure identification through an inscription. Two more heads form the so-called Dres- den type, again linked through stylistic characteristics. Apart from these few examples we are confronted with a large number5 of individual heads, statues and busts of young unbearded men with windblown hair and tilted heads, characteristics that we, just like the ancients, relate to Alexander.6 They all seem to be in one way similar to each other, but so different in the detailed rendering of their hair and physiognomy as to exclude dependence upon each other. These portraits, whose names were lost with the inscribed base they once stood on, have in almost every case attracted the interest of an archaeologist who tried to identify his or her very own Alexander.7 Unfortunately these characteristics are not restricted to Alexander alone.
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