MACEDONIAN KINGDOM — Demetrios I Poliorketes, 306-283 BC. Silver tetradrachm

MACEDONIAN KINGDOM — Demetrios I Poliorketes, 306-283 BC. Silver tetradrachm, Amphipolis mint, struck 292-291 BC. 27 mm, 17.15 g. Obverse: Diademed head of Demetrios right, wearing the horn of a bull (alluding to his descent from Poseidon); dotted border. Reverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ — Poseidon seated left on a rocky outcrop, holding aplustre (ship’s stern-ornament) in his outstretched right hand and resting a long trident in his left; monograms in left and right fields. References: Newell, Demetrius 100; HGC 3.1, 1013 b. Delicate iridescent toning over lustrous metal; light circulation marks, portrait in high relief and reverse devices sharp.

Struck soon after Demetrios wrested control of Amphipolis from Cassander’s heirs, this issue advertises the king’s mastery of the sea. The bull’s horn—borrowed from Alexander’s iconography of Zeus-Ammon—links Demetrios to his divine father Poseidon, while the seated sea-god brandishing an aplustre proclaims the fleet that earned Demetrios the epithet Poliorketes (“Besieger of Cities”). Amphipolis, commanding the mouth of the Strymon and the timber resources of Mount Pangaion, became the lynch-pin of Macedon’s naval revival during these campaigns.