circa 325 BCE
Æ 17mm 5.12g, 2h.
In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress /
Bow-in-bowcase and club; laurel branch below, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ between.
Price 3113; Cox Curium, 8; ANS 1944.100.26537
Pasikrates was the ruler of Kourion during Alexander the Great’s invasion. He was the son of Aristokrates and the brother of Themistagoras.
When Alexander first invaded, Pasikrates’ fleet was under the command of the Persian Autophradates. However, they defected along with many of the other Kypriot kingdoms after the Battle of Issos and joined Alexander’s fleet.
This help was instrumental in allowing Alexander to take Tyre. During the siege, Pasikrates’ main quinquereme was destroyed by a Tyrian counterattack. We don’t know of Pasikrates was on this warship, nor do we know anything more about him.
This coin, which was minted in the names and types of Alexander the Great, is extremely rare and this particular copy may be the best of the type.
Androkles of Amathos, Pnytagoras of Salamis, and Pasikrates of Kourion join Alexander the Great at the Siege of Tyre, where their qinqueremes are destroyed.