Alexandreia (BC 171­-65) Drachm

ca 102/1-66/5 BC. AR Drachm (3.60g, 11h). Dated CY 228 (73 BC). Laureate head of Apollo left / Apollo Smintheus standing right, quiver over shoulder, holding bow, arrow, and patera; monogram to inner left, date to inner right, [magistrate’s name in exergue]. Near VF, surface laminations, cleaning marks. Extremely rare denomination for this dated series (Bellinger records only two drachms, in the BM and Berlin, bearing the years 227 and 228, respectively).

This drachm belongs to the period of the city’s autonomy following the devastating defeat of Antiochos III of Syria by the Romans at the battle of Magnesia in 189 BC. Apollo Smintheus is depicted on both sides of the coin, the deity actually being named in the reverse inscription. Apollo Smintheus’ temple lay at Chryse, within the territory of Hamaxitos, one of the cities which had provided the original population of Alexandria. The statue of the god, by the celebrated Parian sculptor and architect Skopas, showed him standing with a mouse at his feet. This particular drachm is part of a series of dated issues that began during the time of Mithradates VI of Pontos (see Callataÿ, pp. 155-9). Consisting primarily of tetradrachms, of which fewer than 40 examples are known, this series was sporadically minted over the course of approximately 50 years. All of these issues bear the same types and monogram, but various magistrates’ names appear in the exergue on their reverses.