Lot 2020
Lot 32020 > MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Demetrius I Poliorcetes (306-283 BC). AR tetradrachm (27mm, 17.02 gm, 12h). NGC Choice XF 5/5 - 3/5, brushed. Uncertain mint, 294-288 BC. Diademed head of Demetrius I right, with bull's horn / BAΣIΛEΩΣ / ΔHMHTPIOY, Poseidon, nude, standing left, grounded trident in left hand, leaning with right arm on right leg with foot on rock; eight pointed star above Δ in outer left field, A in outer right field. SNG Copenhagen -. Newell 160. Demetrius I Poliorcetes ("the Besieger") was the most dynamic of Alexander's immediate successors, but was ultimately undone by his personal failings. He spent the first half of his career supporting the claim of his father, Antigonus Monopthalmus; after the latter's defeat and death at Ipsos in 301 BC, Demetrius carried on and managed to seize the throne of Macedon in 294 BC, holding it against all rival claimants for six years. Hard-drinking, tyrannical and relentlessly ambitious, he was ultimately driven from Macedon by his own subjects and was held prisoner by his former benefactor, Seleucus I, for the rest of his life. His handsome visage is clearly shown on this striking tetradrachm of Chalkis; he adopts a bull's horn as a symbol of divinity, counterpoint to the ram's horn seen on the coins struck by his rival Lysimachus. The reverse image of Poseidon recalls the naval victory at Salamis.
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