Hellenistic Portraits, McFadden 1951George H. McFadden

Handwritten: Introduction

We are fortunate enough to possess a good number of portraits in stone, marble, and bronze belonging to the early Hellenistic period. Among these, some are contemporaneous [handwritten: ✓] Greek originals, whereas others are copies made in Roman Imperial times of originals which have been lost. It has always been tempting to see in many of these portraits representations of this or that Hellenistic ruler. It will be the purpose of this paper to survey the evidence on which some of these identifications stand. For this purpose I have chosen a few pieces of sculpture all of which are generally accepted as being portraits of the Diodochs or the immediate successors of Alexander.

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. There followed almost immediately a world-shaking struggle between his ambitious generals. After the first phase of the struggle, a settlement was concluded in 320 B.C. at Triparadisos whereby Antipater in Macedonia became regent of the Empire as a whole. The other generals were to consider themselves satraps in those provinces of the Empire where they had established themselves: Ptolemy in Egypt; Seleukos in Babylonia; and Antigonas in the greater part of Asia Minor and in northern Syria; and Lysimachos in Thrace. With the death of Antipater, Antigonas was to become the most powerful among the successors. In 306 B.C. his son Demetrios defeated Ptolemy in a great naval engagement off Cyprus. It was soon after this brilliant and showy victory that he and his father, Antigonas, proclaimed themselves kings. Ptolemy, Seleukos and Lysimachos soon followed their example. Seleukos virtually had been king in his own