MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Demetrius I Poliorcetes (306-283 BC). AR tetradrachm (30mm, 17.24 gm, 11h). NGC MS 5/5 - 4/5. Pella, 294-293 BC. Nike standing left on prow of galley left, sounding trumpet in right hand, cradling stylis in left arm / ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ-ΒΑ-ΣΙΛΕΩ-Σ, Poseidon, nude, striding left, seen from behind, net draped over extended left arm, preparing to throw trident held in right hand; ΞΩ monogram in left field, dolphin left above eight pointed star in right field. Dewing 1196. Newell Demetrius, 68 and pl. VI, 18. From the Penn Collection. Ex Classical Numismatic Group, private sale (3 October 1995) The most dashing of Alexander's successors, Demetrius I Poliorcetes was the son of the great Macedonian general Antigonus Monopthalmus ("one-eyed"), who served both Philip II and Alexander III the Great. After Alexander's death, Demetrius led armies in support of his father's claim to supreme power. He won an important naval victory in 306 BC at Salamis against the Ptolemaic fleet. He, along with his father, accepted the title Basileos ("king"), ending the fiction that the Diadochi were ruling a united government. In 305 BC, Demetrius subjected Rhodes to a titanic siege, employing the largest and most elaborate artillery engines and battle towers yet constructed. Ultimately unsuccessful, the siege still won him the epithet Poliorcetes ("besieger"), by which he is still known. He had more success ruling Macedon during 301-288 BC, but his extravagance and capricious nature eventually proved his undoing and he spent his waning years in comfortable Seleucid captivity. Still, the dynasty he established endured in Macedon until 168 BC. This dynamic tetradrachm type was struck at several mints in honor of the great naval victory over Ptolemy at Salamis, with the obverse image of Nike matching closely with the famous marble statue of the winged goddess found at Samothrace and now housed in the Louvre. The reverse image of Poseidon is rendered here a wonderful style, an undeniable masterpiece of anatomical relief sculpture in miniature.

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