#amphipolis

Alexander III (Alexander the Great) coinage was not confined to a single minting center—his monetary system spread across a vast network of cities, reflecting both imperial control and local administration.

Key mints such as #Tarsus, #Amphipolis, #Sidon, and #Sardes played an important role in producing his silver and gold issues during and after his campaigns.

Across these cities, Alexander issued coins on a massive scale—so extensively that his coinage system can be identified as imperial in reach but local in production. In fact, he effectively “multiplied” mints across his empire, allowing many cities to strike coins under his authority rather than centralizing production in one location.

Most of these coins share a common design:

* Obverse: Herakles (or idealized Alexander) wearing a lion skin

* Reverse: Zeus seated on a throne holding an eagle and scepter

What helps historians distinguish the origin of each issue is not the main design, but the small variations in control marks, symbols, and inscriptions placed around Zeus on the reverse. Each city used its own identifying marks—mint symbols, monograms, or local abbreviations—allowing modern numismatists to trace coins back to specific production centers.

Quick redesign of Amphi (as she long needed one)

Notes:

Amphipolis an Athenian colony situated in Macedonia, northern Greece. It was built in 437BC upon annexation of the Thracian city of Ennea Odoi (=nine roads), on either side of the river Strymon, hence it's name: "around/from both sides (of the) city".

In antiquity, it was known for its excellent lumber and its proximity to the Pangaion mines, which produced a great quantity of silver and gold.

In 424, in the context of the Peloponnesian war, the Spartans would occupy Amphipolis, while 2 years later the Spartan king, Brasidas, would take his last breath at the Battle of Amphipolis. The Amphipolitans would then constitute him the founder of the city, taking down any signs of the original Athenian founder (Agnon).

Amphipolis

Amphipolis, située dans une plaine au nord de la Macédoine, près du mont Pangaion et du fleuve Strymon, était une colonie athénienne fondée vers 437 avant J.-C. sur l'ancien site thrace d'Ennea Hodoi. Thucydide raconte que le général athénien Hagnon donna ce nom à la ville parce que le Strymon l'entoure sur trois côtés ("amphi" signifie "des deux côtés") et ajoute qu'il fit construire une muraille de fortification sur son côté non protégé. La ville et son port maritime, Eion, ont prospéré grâce à leur situation géographique favorable et à la proximité de ressources naturelles abondantes, notamment l'or, l'argent et le bois. En 2012, une impressionnante tombe hellénistique a été découverte, l'une des plus importantes découvertes archéologiques des 40 dernières années qui a une fois de plus mis Amphipolis sous les feux de la rampe.

A Macedonian provincial…

Roman Province - Macedonia

AE24 - 9.19g

Lucius Verus 161-169 AD

Amphipolis Mint

Obverse ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙ Λ ΑΥΡΗ ΟΥΗΡΟC

Head of Lucius Verus right

Reverse ΑΜΦΙΠΟΛΕΙΤΩΝ

Tyche seated left, holding patera

An Ancient Ghost Story: Philinnion & Machates

Ghost stories have existed for thousands of years, often in similar forms and frequently dealing with the same themes, in many of the most ancient cultures. The writer H.P. Lovecraft once wrote, "As may naturally be expected of a form so closely connected with primal emotion, the horror-tale is as old as human thought and speech themselves." The human desire to defeat death, to live forever, found expression through stories of those who seemingly had done so by returning from the grave.

Still, to the ancients, these tales were not some kind of psychological expression of a basic human desire but illustrated the reality of the human condition. Those who had died could come back to the land of the living if the gods who ruled the underworld gave them special permission under the right circumstances.

The Tale of Philinnion & Machates

One of the oldest of these stories in the west is the tale of Philinnion and Machates from ancient Rome as told by Phlegon of Tralles (2nd century CE) and later by Proclus (5th century CE). The story is reported to have taken place during the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BCE). In this tale, the maiden Philinnion is the daughter of Demostratos and Kharito of Amphipolis. She is married to a general in Alexander's army named Craterus and dies six months after the wedding. She then appears, in bodily form, in the home of her parents where she "consorts" for three nights with a young man named Machates who was a guest there.

When she is finally seen by another member of the household and her parents discover her, she claims that what she has done was approved of by the will of the gods of the underworld and her parents should not have interfered with her; having given her explanation, she then dies a second time. Her parents, thinking that perhaps this woman is simply an imposter who looks exactly like their dead daughter, order her tomb opened and find her body missing. Further, the trinkets she gave to Machates during their time together are identical to those which were buried with her and which, of course, are also missing from the tomb, while the gifts he had given to her during their nights together are found there. The conclusion is that, somehow, Philinnion came back to life for purposes which are never specified.

I like how they kept Xena’s hometown and Gabrielle’s hometown so close to each other in ‘Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’. Both of them residing in Makedonia. Now the travelling on foot distance makes some sense.

It’s spelt majorly differently.

It’s Macedonia and Potidaea.