Thread by @DocCrom

Ancient Coin of the Day: An example of a particularly interesting design of a silver decadrachm of Alexander the Great, one of the so-called 'Porus' type: likely struck at Babylon, ca. 325 BC. #ACOTD #Alexander

Image: ANS 1959.254.86

There is a wealth of aspects to this coin that are deserving of comment, so I fear I won't be able to do it justice here. But until recently this type of coin was a source of much discussion, concerning date, depictions, place of minting, so you can see the interest.

The Reverse of this coin seems a good place to begin, with its crowned portrait of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt. He wears a triumphal crown and is arrayed in Macedonian attire; the thunderbolt in his hand serving as a marker of his semi-divine status.

This portrait has been used to evidence that the coin was produced during Alexander's own lifetime, with a parallel drawn to the portrait of Alexander bearing a thunderbolt that Apelles painted in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Pliny, Natural History 35.92).

The Obverse of the coin is also thought to show Alexander himself at the Battle of the Hydaspes (326 BC) charging at King Porus, who drives his elephant onwards while a squire attempts to fend off Alexander's lance.

The lack of Legend on either Obverse or Reverse is also perhaps telling here in that the symbolism of the coin must have been obvious to the viewer, lending weight to the interpretation of it as being commemorative of Alexander's defeat of Porus.

For more on this design, see:

FOX, R. J. LANE. “TEXT AND IMAGE: ALEXANDER THE GREAT, COINS AND ELEPHANTS.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, vol. 41, 1996, pp. 87–108.

jstor.org/stable/43646599

#ACOTD #Alexander