Sardeis 323-319 BCE
14mm 4.45g
Minted by Menander or Kleitos the White
Price 2605
Menander did well for himself by choosing the right leaders. After accompanying Alexander the Great into Asia and leading a group of mercenaries, he was rewarded with the satrapy of Lydia.
After Alexander‘s death, Menander used his presumably refined brown-nosing skills to retrain his satrapy, but in the Treaty of Triparidisus his satrapy was given to Kleitos.
However, that doesn’t seem to have been a punishment, as he’d already cozied up to Antigonos I Monophthalmos by betraying Kleopatra‘s plan to marry Ptolemy to him. No longer in charge of a satrapy, Menander’s new job was Brown-Noser-in-Chief to Antigonos.
Menander participated in the chase of Eumenes, but after that we have no record. Did Eumenes kill him? Did Menander have a heart attack while riding one day? Did he have some bad sushi? We may never know.