KINGS OF THRACE. Lysimachos, 305-281 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 33 mm, 17.15 g, 10 h), Amphipolis, circa 288/7-282/1. Diademed head of Alexander the Great to right with horn of Ammon over his ear.
Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ Athena seated left, holding Nike, crowning the king's name, in her right hand and leaning with her left arm on shield decorated with lion's head; behind, transverse spear; in inner left field and in exergue, monograms. HGC 3.2, 1750l. Müller 544. Thompson 211. A magnificent piece struck in high relief, beautifully toned and with a splendid portrait of Alexander. Good extremely fine.
From the Basileiai Hellēnikai Collection of Exceptional Tetradrachms and from the Kleinkunst Collection, Leu 6, 23 October 2020, 108, ex Bourgey, 4-5 June 1991, 89.
Lysimachos was among the most enduring and successful of Alexander’s successors, the Diadochoi (Greek for "successors"). Though he originally served as one of the king’s bodyguards and was not among the most prominent of Alexander’s officers, he steadily expanded his position after receiving the important, but small and vulnerable province of Thrace as his satrapy in 323 BC. During the Fourth War of the Diadochi (307-301 BC), he allied with Seleukos against Antigonos Monophthalmos, who was defeated and killed at the Battle of Ipsos in 301 BC, a victory that secured for Lysimachos control over western and southern Asia Minor. In 288 BC, he invaded Macedon alongside his ally Pyrrhos of Epeiros, and together they defeated Antigonos’ son, Demetrios I Poliorketes, consolidating their hold over the region.
With his authority now firmly established, Lysimachos made Amphipolis his principal mint in the later years of his reign, which ultimately came to an end in 281 BC at the Battle of Koroupedion, the final confrontation between the last surviving generals of Alexander. Now nearly eighty years old, he was defeated and killed by his slightly younger rival, Seleukos I (born circa 358 BC), who annexed the Kingdom of Thrace and, after more than half a century, crossed the Hellespont to return to Macedon. Yet before he could set foot in his homeland, he was assassinated in Lysimacheia, a city founded by the very opponent he had vanquished, leaving his long-awaited return unfulfilled. His remains were later acquired by Philetairos of Pergamon and handed over to his son, Antiochos I, who laid him to rest in a mausoleum at Seleukeia Pieria, known as the Nikatoreion
