Tetradrachm AR 24 mm, 16.80 g, 7 h
Susa, struck under Koinos, circa 324-323 BCE.
Price 3829
In the case of this coin, the most interesting history involves what happened around the time it was minted, and not necessarily the satrap who minted it.
First, the satrap Koinos. Initially I was thrilled to obtain a Koinos coin, though I’d made a bit of a mistake. Had I read my history a bit more, I would have realized that the “super famous” Koinos – one of Alexander‘s principle generals – died shortly after the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE. This coin was minted by a different Koinos.
Our Koinos was given the satrap of Susiana by Alexander in 325 BCE, and held it until sometime before 320 BCE, when he wasn’t mentioned in the Treaty of Triparidisus either because he died or because he pissed off the wrong people, which was easily done by supporting Perdikkas.
That’s his history, but in 324 BCE, something really cool happened in Susa where this coin was minted. You see, Alexander‘s primary goal in life was to achieve world peace. His plan to accomplish this involved two steps:
1) Kill everyone who’s not peaceful.
2) Force everyone to work with each other.
For the second step, he integrated Persians and others into his army, but at Susa he did something even more remarkable. Each of his roughly three hundred top generals was married to a Persian wife. The idea was to create a new mixed race – neither Macedonian nor Persian. Other documents, purported to have been found after his death, involved moving half the population of Europe to Asia, and half of Asia to Europe.
The weddings went on as planned, but few stayed married to their wives. For example, Krateros repudiated Amastris. One notable exception was Seleukos I Nikator, who remained married to Apama for her life. She was the mother of his successor, Antiochos I Soter.
This makes me wonder, when exactly was this coin minted? Was it present at the Susa Weddings?
Koinos arrives in Persia with mercenaries to support Alexander III.
Koinos given rule of Susa.