Hellenistic Portraits, McFadden 1951George H. McFadden

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satrapy since 212. Ptolemy now dated his reign from Alexander's death in 323. The growing power and ambition of Antigonos invited a coalition against him. At the great battle of Ipsus in 301, Seleukos and Lysimachos defeated him. Seleukos, Lysimachos and Ptolemy divided up Antigonas' kingdom between them. Antigonas' son Demetrios succeeded for a while in making himself master of Macedonia and Greece, and it was at one of the Macedonian mints that he struck coins in 292 bearing his own diademed portrait. He was the first king in Europe among the successors to do so. [handwritten: 1 Ptolemy I]

Ptolemy in Egypt is thought to have struck the first coins bearing his own diademed portrait somewhat earlier and probably not long after he assumed the diadem in 304. [handwritten: 2] He first placed his portrait only on his gold staters (Fig.1); but later, after the battle of Ipsus in 301, we find a splendid and well executed realistic portrait of him on the obverse of all gold and silver pieces. [handwritten: 3] It is a wonderful portrait and one receives the impression that the die-cutter faithfully reproduced the outstanding features of this great Macedonian. Details, however, has been subordinated to the significant. This portrait is, indeed, a fine example of the new realism which is now in vogue, a realism of which

Handwritten: marginal notes: something is missing here; probably with note 3 which is also missing in the text; perhaps it belongs to (Fig.1) 3 2