EGYPT Ptolemy II 285-246 BC bronze dichalkon
$40.00
EGYPT, Ptolemy II, 285-246 BC, dichalkon, no date, Obverse: head of Zeus Ammon R, Reverse: eagle with open wings L on thunderbolt, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥBASILEWS PTOLEMAIOU, no marks, bronze, 17mm, 3.38g, SV418, SG7785v, F+
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Description
Ptolemy II (the Great), reigned more than four decades. He engaged in a lot of building in Alexandria, and campaigned in Asia Minor and the Levant. His chief rivals were the Seleukids and the Makedonian kings.
Alexander the Great took Egypt at an early point in his Persian war. When Alexander died his generals fought each other about what to do next. Ptolemy ended up with Egypt, a land of which he was fond. He founded a dynasty that ruled Egypt longer than any other dynasty. For a while Egypt was the most powerful of the Hellenistic states. But the ruling family engaged in the usual succession conflicts, the position of Egypt deteriorated as that of Rome improved. After making the wrong choice who to go with in the Roman Civil War Egypt was conquered and incorporated in the new Roman imperial system as a personal estate of the Emperor.
The big change that Alexander the Great brought about was the union of the Greek spirit of inquiry with the methods of imperial bureaucracy.
Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.