Lysimachus was born ca. 360 BCE and was a general of Alexander’s during the campaign. He received the territory of Thrace after Alexander’s death in 323 BCE. Thrace was a large territory north of Greece that is now southern Bulgaria and the European section of Turkey. It was a barbarous wildland known for its fierce red-headed warriors who sported tattoos and worshiped their own gods. Philip II subdued the Thracians in order to secure Macedonia’s borders, and the Thracian cavalry accompanied Alexander on his campaign. Lysimachus proclaimed himself King of Thrace ca. 306 BCE. A few years later he acquired for himself the northern half of Asia Minor after he and Seleucus had defeated Antigonus Monophthalmus at Ipsus in 301 BCE. In 287 Lysimachus and Pyrrhus of Epirus drove Antigonus’ son Demetrius Poliorcetes from Macedonia and split that kingdom between them, but in 284 Lysimachus wrested Pyrrhus’ half from him and annexed it as well. In 281, however, Seleucus defeated Lysimachus at Cyropedium and laid claim to all of Lysimachus’ kingdom.
At first Lysimachus issued Alexander’s coinage with his own name on the obverse, and after a time Lysimachus opted to follow Ptolemy’s precedent of depicting the divine Alexander on his coins, opting for a markedly different representation of the dead king. Lysimachus’ depiction of Alexander appears younger than Ptolemy’s, with a roundness of the face and largeness of the eyes, which are turned upwards as was the custom of the sculptors who depicted Alexander. The portrait is focused on the ram’s horns of the god Ammon whom Alexander had claimed as his divine father. The horns are much larger and not partially covered as they are by an elephant scalp on Ptolemy’s coins. This lack of headgear also allowed for the other defining feature of Lysimachus’ portrait of Alexander: the unusually long, wavy, flowing hair including an anastole or cowlick, complemented by the curling ends of the diadem. Ptolemy’s portrait of Alexander had regalia that recalled the great conqueror, but Alexander also had physical attributes that became widely emulated. As Plutarch noted:
“Alexander possessed a number of individual features which many of his successors and friends later tried to reproduce, for example the poise of the neck which was tilted slightly to the left, or a certain melting look in his eyes”
Most physical attributes are easily reproduced in large three dimensional sculpture, but the surface of a flat metallic coin poses a much greater challenge. Lysimachus’ image of Alexander produced its own iconographic standards for coinage, including for the hair which had been covered on Ptolemy’s coins. It was reproduced by later kings such as Mithradates VI of Pontus who presumably wished to associate himself with the legacy of Alexander. The reverse combines the seated Zeus of Alexander’s silver tetradrachms with the Athena and Nike of his gold staters. This produces a seated Athena with shield, spear, and helmet, with a Nike in her outstretched right hand. The image was later adopted as Britannia, the female personification of Great Britain.
