Watch List notes:

PISIDIA. Apollonia-Mordiaeum. Time of Caracala, 211-217. Tetrassarion (Bronze, 32 mm, 17.00 g, 6 h), a Homonoia or alliance issue with Perge (and Lycia). AΛΕΞΑΝΔΟΣ (sic!) KTICT AΠOΛΛΩNIA-T Head of Alexander the Great to right, wearing the lion's skin headdress of Herakles, familiar from silver coinage of Alexander, tied in front of his neck. Rev. AΠOΛΛΩNI-AT-ΩN ΛY ΠEPΓ-EΩ / ΟΜΟΝΟ/IA The turreted and draped Tychae of the two cities, Apollonia and Perge, facing each other and clasping their right hands; on the left, Apollonia standing to right, holding the cult statue of Apollo in her left hand; on the right, Perge standing to left, holding the cult Statue of Artemis Pergaia in her left hand; between them, lighted altar. Franke-Nollé, Homonoia, 73-74 =Von Aulock, Pisidiens, 19-20 (same dies, but reverse legends misread). Extremely rare, hitherto only the two examples in Berlin and Vienna were known. An excellent, well-centered piece with a grey-green patina. Some uncleaned deposits, otherwise, good very fine.


Alexander the Great is named on this coin as the 'Ktistes' - founder, of the Pisidian city Apollonia. In the historical memory of the people of the east, the portrait on the silver coinage of Alexander the Great was not that of Herakles, the patron of the royal house of Macedon, but the portrait of Alexander himself. There has been a long-running scholarly debate on whether Alexander intentionally merged his portrait with that of Herakles, which is generally, perhaps falsely, not accepted by most scholars. In any case, the people of Apollonia honoured Alexander as the founder of their city, and most certainly believed that the portrait shown on this coin was his rather than that of Herakles.