PHILIP III possibly unique HALF UNIT Ancient Greek Macedonian Coin 323BC i39784

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Item: i39784  Authentic Ancient

Greek Coin of Macedonian Kingdom  Philip III, Arrhidaeus - King of Macedonia : 323-317 B.C. Bronze Half Unit 13mm (2.86 grams) Struck circa 323-319 B.C. Reference: Possibly Unlisted Head of Alexander the Great as Hercules right, wearing the lion-skin headdress. Youth on h orse prancing right, ΦIΛIΠΠΟΥ above, H below horse.

* Numismatic Note: Very rare, possibly unpublished type. This coin combines the obverse of Alexander the Great coins (336-323 B.C.) with the reverse of Philip II (359-336 B.C.) coins to make a unique type. Perhaps used to promote the idea of Philip III, the half brother of Alexander the Great, via their father Philip II was truly the blood of the two honored kings.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.  

History Behind the Coin Horse racing was an Olympic event of great prestige and intense competition. It was a great honor for Philip II of Macedon to gain entry to the games, since they were open only to Greeks. Prior to that time, the Macedonians were considered by other Greeks as barbarians. It was an even greater honor for Philip's horses to win the prize. In 356 BC his entry won the single horse event, and in 348 the two horse chariot event. Both of these victories were proudly announced (should we say propagandized) by placing references to them on the reverses of his coins struck in gold, silver and bronze. Plutarch tells us that this was indeed his intention: "[Philip] ...had victories of his chariots at Olympia stamped on his coins."


Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles , who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter ) and the mortal Alcmene . In classical mythology , Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.

The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules . In later Western art and literature and in popular culture , Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him. This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition .

Labours

Hercules is known for his many adventures, which took him to the far reaches of the Greco-Roman world . One cycle of these adventures became canonical as the "Twelve Labours," but the list has variations. One traditional order of the labours is found in the Bibliotheca as follows:

  1. Slay the Nemean Lion .
  2. Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra .
  3. Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis .
  4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar .
  5. Clean the Augean stables in a single day.
  6. Slay the Stymphalian Birds .
  7. Capture the Cretan Bull .
  8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes .
  9. Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta , Queen of the Amazons .
  10. Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon .
  11. Steal the apples of the Hesperides .
  12. Capture and bring back Cerberus .

The Latin name Hercules was borrowed through Etruscan , where it is represented variously as Heracle , Hercle, and other forms. Hercules was a favorite subject for Etruscan art , and appears often on bronze mirrors . The Etruscan form Herceler derives from the Greek Heracles via syncope . A mild oath invoking Hercules (Hercule! or Mehercle! ) was a common interjection in Classical Latin .

Baby Hercules strangling a snake sent to kill him in his cradle (Roman marble, 2nd century CE)

Hercules had a number of myths that were distinctly Roman. One of these is Hercules' defeat of Cacus , who was terrorizing the countryside of Rome. The hero was associated with the Aventine Hill through his son Aventinus . Mark Antony considered him a personal patron god, as did the emperor Commodus . Hercules received various forms of religious veneration , including as a deity concerned with children and childbirth , in part because of myths about his precocious infancy, and in part because he fathered countless children. Roman brides wore a special belt tied with the "knot of Hercules", which was supposed to be hard to untie.[4] The comic playwright Plautus presents the myth of Hercules' conception as a sex comedy in his play Amphitryon ; Seneca wrote the tragedy Hercules Furens about his bout with madness. During the Roman Imperial era , Hercules was worshipped locally from Hispania through Gaul .

Medieval mythography

After the Roman Empire became Christianized , mythological narratives were often reinterpreted as allegory , influenced by the philosophy of late antiquity . In the 4th century, Servius had described Hercules' return from the underworld as representing his ability to overcome earthly desires and vices, or the earth itself as a consumer of bodies. In medieval mythography, Hercules was one of the heroes seen as a strong role model who demonstrated both valor and wisdom, with the monsters he battles as moral obstacles. One glossator noted that when Hercules became a constellation , he showed that strength was necessary to gain entrance to Heaven.

Medieval mythography was written almost entirely in Latin, and original Greek texts were little used as sources for Hercules' myths.

Renaissance mythography

The Renaissance and the invention of the printing press brought a renewed interest in and publication of Greek literature. Renaissance mythography drew more extensively on the Greek tradition of Heracles, typically under the Romanized name Hercules, or the alternate name Alcides . In a chapter of his book Mythologiae (1567), the influential mythographer Natale Conti collected and summarized an extensive range of myths concerning the birth, adventures, and death of the hero under his Roman name Hercules. Conti begins his lengthy chapter on Hercules with an overview description that continues the moralizing impulse of the Middle Ages:

Hercules, who subdued and destroyed monsters, bandits, and criminals, was justly famous and renowned for his great courage. His great and glorious reputation was worldwide, and so firmly entrenched that he'll always be remembered. In fact the ancients honored him with his own temples, altars, ceremonies, and priests. But it was his wisdom and great soul that earned those honors; noble blood, physical strength, and political power just aren't good enough.


Philip III Arrhidaeus (Greek; ca. 359 BC – December 25, 317 BC) was the king of Macedon from after June 11, 323 BC until his death. He was a son of King Philip II of Macedon by Philinna of Larissa , allegedly a Thessalian dancer, and a half-brother of Alexander the Great . Named Arrhidaeus at birth, he assumed the name Philip when he ascended to the throne.

In Plutarch 's report, he became both physically and mentally disabled following a poisoning attempt by Philip II's wife, Queen Olympias , who wanted to eliminate a possible rival to her son Alexander. However, this may just be malicious gossip, and there is no evidence that Olympias really caused her stepson's condition. Alexander was very fond of him, and took him on his campaigns, both to protect his life and to ensure he would not be used as a pawn in a challenge for the throne. After Alexander's death in Babylon, Arrhidaeus was proclaimed king by the Macedonian army in Asia. However, he was a mere figurehead, and a pawn of the powerful generals, one after the other. His reign and his life did not last long.

The crater Ariadaeus on the Moon is named after him.

 Biography

He appears to have never been a danger for Alexander's succession to Philip II, notwithstanding their being of about the same age; all the same, when the satrap of Caria Pixodarus proposed his daughter in marriage to Philip, who offered Arrhidaeus as husband, Alexander thought it prudent to block the operation, with considerable irritation of his father (337 BC). Arrhidaeus' whereabouts under the reign of his brother Alexander are unclear; what is certain is that no civil or military command was given him in those thirteen years (336 BC–323 BC).

He was at Babylon at the time of Alexander's death, the 11 June 323 BC. A succession crisis erupted: Arrhidaeus was the most obvious candidate, but he was mentally unfit to rule. A conflict exploded between Perdiccas , leader of the cavalry , and Meleager , who commanded the phalanx : the first wanted to wait to see if Roxana , Alexander's pregnant wife, would deliver a male baby, while the second objected that Arrhidaeus was the closest relative living and so should be chosen king. Meleager was killed, and a compromise was engineered: Arrhidaeus would become king with the name of Philip, and he would be joined by Roxana's son as co-sovereign should he prove a male, as he did, and joined his uncle with the name of Alexander . It was immediately decided that Philip Arrhidaeus would reign, but not rule: this was to be the prerogative of the new regent , Perdiccas.

When news arrived in Macedon that Arrhidaeus had been chosen as king, Cynane , a daughter of Philip II, matured the design to travel to Asia and offer the new king her daughter Eurydice for wife. This move was an obvious affront to the regent, whom Cynane had completely bypassed: to prevent the move Perdiccas sent his brother Alcetas to kill Cynane, but reactions among the troops generated by this murder was such that the regent had to give up and accept the marriage. From that moment on Philip Arrhidaeus was to be under the sway of his bride, a proud and determined woman bent on substantiating her husband's power.

Eurydice's chance came when the first war of the Diadochi sealed the fate of Perdiccas, making a new settlement necessary; settlement that was made at Triparadisus in Syria in 320 BC. Eurydice moved deftly enough to obtain the removal of the first two designed regents, Peithon and Arrhidaeus , but was powerless to block the too powerful Antipater : the latter was made new regent and Philip Arrhidaeus and his wife were forced to follow him to Macedon.

The regent died of natural causes the following year, nominating as his successor not his son Cassander , but a friend of his, Polyperchon . Cassander's refusal to accept his father's decision sparked the second war of the Diadochi, in which Eurydice saw once again a chance to free Philip from the control of the regent. An opportunity presented itself in 317 BC, when Cassander expelled Polyperchon from Macedon: Eurydice immediately allied herself with him and made her husband nominate him new regent, and Cassander reciprocated by leaving her in full control of the country when he left to campaign in Greece .

But all this was to prove exceedingly volatile: that same year (317) Polyperchon and Olympias, allied with the king of Epirus Aeacides , invaded Macedon, while the Macedonian troops refused to fight the son of Alexander, whom the invaders had brought with them. Philip and Eurydice had no choice but to escape, only to be captured at Amphipolis and thrown into prison. It soon became clear that Philip was too dangerous to be left alive, as many enemies of Olympias saw him as a useful tool against her, and so on December 25 317 BC she had him executed, while his wife was forced to commit suicide.

The following year, when Cassander reconquered Macedon and avenged Philip's death, he interred the bodies of Philip and Eurydice with royal pomp at Aegae , and celebrated funeral games to their honour.

In 1977 important excavations were made near Vergina leading to the discovery of a two-chambered royal tomb, with an almost perfectly conserved male skeleton. Manolis Andronikos , the chief archaeologist on the ground and the majority of archaeologists, decided it was the skeleton of Philip II, but many have disputed this attribution and instead proposed it to be the remains of Philip Arrhidaeus.

Subsequent forensic reconstruction of the skull contained in the gold Larnax (cremains container) clearly demonstrates damage to the right eye socket of the skull in keeping with historical accounts that Philip II had been struck by an arrow in the right eye and as a consequence, had been severely disfigured. See Prag, John and Richard Neave: Making Faces: Using Forensic and Archaelogical Evidence (British Museum Press: 1997).


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