Narrative Coins. A Coin of Antigonus Gonatas

KINGS OF MACEDON. Antigonos II Gonatas, 277/6-239 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 30 mm, 17.08 g, 10 h), Amphipolis, circa 274/1-260/55 BC. Horned head of Pan to left, within the center of a Macedonian shield. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIΓONOΥ Athena Alkidemos striding left; to left, Macedonian helmet with transverse crest; to right, monogram of EYPM.

Greek coins are often associated with a specific mint or city and the context of the coin is provided by the broad history of that city, which for early coins can often be sparsely documented outside of the main poleis. This association is due to the convention of placing motifs or deities rather than rulers on the coins, a convention which is decidedly broken by the time of the successors of Alexander, the Diadochi. Antigonus Gonatas had an august lineage as his paternal grandfather was Antigonus I Monophthalmos, who had controlled much of Asia and his mother was Phila, the daughter of Antipater, who had controlled Macedonia and the rest of Greece since 334 BC under Alexander. The origin of the name Gonatas has been lost in time.

Antigonus was born into tumultuous times and his father, Demetrius Poliorcetes, had taken the war to Lysimachus in Thrace and Asia, quelled internal rebellions at Thebes, and fought the remaining Diadochi, including Seleucus, Ptolemy and Pyrrhus. On his father’s death in 283 BC, Antigonus attempted to take control of Macedonia but was defeated by Ptolemy. In 279 BC a Gallic horde invaded Greece from the North and laid waste for two years, killing Ptolemy the process. The Gauls were initially pushed back by Aeolian Greeks and in 277 BC Antigonus defeated another army of Gauls at the battle of Lysimacheia and claimed the Macedonian throne. He ruled over Macedonia and Greece for another 38 years until his death in 239 BC at the age of 80. In this period, he found many wars, most notably against Pyrrhus, who had returned from his battles with the Romans in Southern Italy in 275 BC.

What marks Antigonus out is not just the length of time he remained in power, but that he did so while allowing a degree of autonomy to the Greek cities and where possible preferring politics and alliances to open battles and conquests. He associated with the famous philosophers of the age including Zeno, where Diogenes Laertius notes “"

This tetradrachm was minted in Amphipolis on the Attic-Euboean standard between 274 and 255 BC, so in the first half of his dominion of Macedonia and Greece. The legend BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIΓONOΥ is clearly visible on the reverse. The typical Alexander types had ceased production in Macedonia under Antigonus’ father Demetrius in 294 BC, with a brief return from 281 BC to a date early in the reign of Antigonus, when they were superseded with the horned head of Pan to left, within the center of a Macedonian shield. There is a small issue of Alexander types bearing the name of Antigonus dated to about 272 BC.

Ralph W Mathison dates the introduction of the Pan type as follows “The specific occasion for the introduction of the Pan head have been Gonatas' total defeat of his arch-rival Pyrrhus in 272. Certainly, at that time his prestige would have been at by far its highest point; he was now indisputably established in Macedonia, and he had just refurbished his reputation in Greece. This would indeed have been an auspicious occasion for the inception of a new coin type, which would complete the half measure he had taken the year before by own name on Alexander's types.”

He also suggests that “In the past, there has been little doubt that the figure of Pan on Antigonus' Pan head tetradrachms is a reference to the panic fear struck by the Arcadian god into the Gauls at Lysimacheia in 277.”

The reverse of the coin has Athena Alkidemos 'defender of the people' striding left; to left, a Macedonian helmet with transverse crest; to right, monogram of EYPM.